Yearly Archives 2017

Bill Kirchenbauer is a legend on the stand-up circuit. Starting in the 70’s, Bill has played to packed houses around the country. On television, he has performed his routines on the Tonight Show 18 times, on Late Night with David Letterman 9 times and has done countless HBO, Showtime and A&E specials. He has appeared on over 60 network sitcoms; Bill’s IMDB page reads like a Who’s Who of classic shows including, Fernwood Tonight (where he starred as his famous alter-ego, lounge singer Tony Rolletti), Mork and Mindy, Night Court, Growing Pains, and its spinoff, the Emmy award-winning Just The Ten of Us.

I was first introduced to Bill’s brand of stand-up comedy when I caught him on a Gallagher special...

While at Monsterama 2016, ran into Zach Galligan, star of the Gremlins moves and the cult Waxworks series. He was incredibly nice to his fans, and hosted a couple of the best panels, describing his first meeting with, and subsequent crushes, on Phoebe Cates. As you can see from the photo, even Zach Galligan has a Dirty Little Secret!

Had a great time at Monsterama 2016 meeting with the one and only Bond Girl/Scream Queen, Caroline Munroe. Ms. Munroe was so nice, and was humbled by the reception from her fans. Best part was when she said I was cute. My Munroe crush went into overdrive! Plus, she loved her copy of the soon-to-be-released Texas Chainsaw Musical soundtrack, so you know, she’s pretty goddamned cool.

If you’re an American, you might not have heard of The Arrogant Worms (unless you’re a cool American, like me), but this Canadian band has been making music fun for the last twenty-five years. Their music is catchy, their lyrics outrageously funny. Think of them as a cross between Weird Al (minus the parody songs) and They Might Be Giants; they’re in excellent company. The Worms consist of Trevor Strong, Mike McCormick, and Chris Patterson. The genres they poke fun at are all over the place, including pop, boy bands, power ballads, waltz’, country and most importantly, Celine Dion.

I discovered the Worms with the help of the Dr. Demento Show when he played their song Kill the Dog Next Door. Needing to hear more from this group, I found some of their crazy songs like Log In To You, The ...

Brian Routh is still often referred to as his alter ego, Harry Kipper. He and Martin von Haselberg formed the eclectic comedy duo known as the Kipper Kids, who garnered a large cult following performing from the early 70’s through to the 80’s. In addition to performing live, the Kippers were featured in HBO specials, movies, television and soundtracks. While they no longer perform as a duo, their following is still solid. Martin von Haselberg has kept a relatively low profile, but Brian Routh continues to create his own brand of art, music and film. He’s grown as an artist, while retaining the originality that made him so exciting to watch in the first place. Brian was cool enough to sit still long enough for me to badger him with some questions.

1. Let’s start at the beginning...

If you’re a Doctor Who fan like me (well, not like ME; you don’t want to be that obsessive), then you know that the 12th Doctor, Peter Capaldi will be leaving the show and will be regenerating into the 13th Doctor. Well, BBC announced it after Wimbledon on Sunday. For the first time in its 54 years, the Doctor will be a woman. Jodie Whittaker (Broadchurch, Black Mirrors) was introduced as the 13th Doctor!

Not all, but many male fans of the show are up in arms, some claiming they’re going to stop watching the show (good riddance). I hope this doesn’t sound sexist, but the rumor had been that the next Doctor would be a woman, and I really didn’t want it to be...

Christopher Minori’s horror-comedy anthology, Dirty Little Secrets, is now available in audio book format at audible.com and Amazon.com. Fifteen of the original stories are performed on the 8 1/2 hour recording by actor/producer John O’Hearn. The sixteenth story, Jurassic Lark, was not recorded for the book as it did not translate well to audio. The book is selling briskly, with great reviews. You can purchase the audio book here. There’s three ways to purchase it:

1. If you’re not a member of audible, it can be purchased using credit card, PayPal or with an Amazon gift card.

2. If you’re a member of Audible’s subscription service, you can either purchase it using your monthly credit, or can purchase it using a credit card, PayPal or with an Amazon gift card at a $5.00 discount.

3...

With the audiobook version of Christopher Minori’s Dirty Little Secrets near release, we thought it was a good time to get a little close and personal with its producer and actor, John O’Hern.

1. You’re a man of many talents; producer, actor, author. Which is your favorite hat to wear?

I have always been a story teller. It’s my most natural talent (if you saw my golf swing you’d see what an unnatural talent looks like!!) and it’s probably what I was born to do. So…to answer your question I would have to say acting and writing are my most favorite things. I get great pleasure from storytelling and I don’t really care how I do it…by acting or writing one down. Both take a lot of work to properly craft but it’s always worth it in the end.

2. What made you decide to produce Dirty Lit...

Christopher Minori’s anthology, Dirty Little Secrets has been picked up by producer John O’Hern for an Audible audiobook production. The audiobook will contain fifteen of the original sixteen stories.

“I wanted to include them all,” Minori says, “but we found that Jurassic Lark really didn’t translate to audio.”

The audiobook is expected to be released as an Audible.com exclusive and should arrive in June.

I’m a self publisher. My book, Dirty Little Secrets came out September 2016 and my new novel, Little Idiots, has just been released. One thing I’ve always striven to do is make certain my books are as professional as possible, and that I’m not skipping any steps that a storefront publishing company would use. I read a lot of other self published authors, because you can often find some real gems out there, but what I’ve found is that so many of them skip those steps. You only write one draft? You had your four year old create your cover design? You don’t need no steenking editor?

The truth is, if you are skipping these steps, if you’re rushing your books out to press, then your book is going to suffer for it, regardless of how good the story idea might be...