REMEMBERING PAUL REUBENS (PART 2)

Published by Rick on Tagged Uncategorized

Last night, at my weekly pub quiz, I asked this question: “The American comedian/actor Paul Reubens, who passed away Sunday at the age of 70, was better known for what character that he portrayed on stage, television and film?” Only one team (out of 6) got the correct answer. Having been in UK for over […]



REMEMBERING PAUL REUBENS (PART 1)

Published by Rick on Tagged Uncategorized

My association with Paul Reubens, best known for his character Pee Wee Herman, actually began a year before Ruby and I first met him. In May of 1978, our clever manager Bob Lacey, seeing a window of opportunity to coattail with a certain star of the future, offered to Robin Williams that Rick and Ruby […]



ANOTHER HELLISH GIG, WHICH WE DIDN’T EVEN DO

Published by Rick on Tagged Uncategorized

This is not an anniversary of anything, just a remembrance of the stamina I used to have in my younger days while pursuing that dream. My partner and I spent the better part of the mid-1970s working in Lake Tahoe, where we met lots of people that thought they could do something for/with us. One […]



IT WAS HELL, OR WARM ENOUGH TO QUALIFY

Published by Rick on Tagged Uncategorized

As I sit here sweltering in the London summer with the temperature slightly over 20 Celsius after 9:00 PM, it’s still nothing like all those years I lived in Arizona. It was only some seven years after our family had left Tucson and I was now living in San Francisco, where summer usually held off […]



I STILL FEEL A BIT GUILTY, BUT A HACK IS A HACK

Published by Rick on Tagged Uncategorized

On the last episode of the Comedy Dish podcast I do on Wednesdays with Steven Alan Green in LA (and me in London, shameless plug), we initiated the first of what will be a running feature entitled You’ve Been Hacked. We discuss instances we’ve seen of either comic thievery or blatant hackery. I mentioned the […]



DOING STANDUP DURING A STANDOFF

Published by Rick on Tagged Uncategorized

This past week, the British ITV Network ran a three part series dramatising the case of a July 9, 2010 incident involving a psychotic by the name of Raoul Moat. Moat was incarcerated for domestic violence, but had served his time, and once released, stalked his ex-girlfriend, killed her lover, and shot her, though she […]



30 YEARS AGO, WORKING FOR A FUTURE POLITICIAN

Published by Rick on Tagged Uncategorized

1993 started rather miserably, with me getting audited for the only time in my life, but as it turned out, so did many of my show biz colleagues. I knew it was coming as soon as my then-wife and I were called to the auditor’s office. After nearly three hours of grilling from a total […]



OUR FIRST PSEUDO-CELEBRITY FANS

Published by Rick on Tagged Uncategorized

When I last blogged, I talked about our work fifty years ago with backing musicians, but not about what was going on with the duo act at the same time that was making us something resembling a living. We had linked up with a manager who saw potential in us, but he was limited mostly […]



WHAT I WAS DOING 50 YEARS AGO

Published by Rick on Tagged Uncategorized

In the mid-90s, when I was working freelance as a stage manager for various plays and one-man shows, I got in a conversation with one of the plays’ directors. I jokingly said, “I’ve worked with musicians, comedians, and actors, and I’m not sure who’s the most neurotic to work with.” He replied, “Well obviously you […]



Remembering Someone Special

Published by Rick on Tagged Uncategorized

For a change, this is not a celebrity remembrance, because no, I never met Gina Lollobrigida. One of my lifelong friends passed away last Thursday at the age of 76, the first to go from a group of merry pranksters that I formed a bond, and soon after a band, with. Peter Nichols became my […]