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Gaudy Gaudete
The experience of impersonating Santa Claus a year ago was so much fun that I was glad Fr. Ragan Schriver asked me to do it again this year. My wife helped me apply the “snow white” theatrical makeup early Sunday morning, before we attended 8:15 a.m. Mass at All Saints. I changed into the red suit and we did a little touch-up to my beard at home before driving to Holy Family Catholic Church in Seymour.
A parishioner named Maggie Heaton played Mrs. Claus. She and I made our entrance to a Knights of Columbus pancake breakfast as Fr. Ragan led the crowd in “Jingle Bells.” I took my place in an armchair and posed for pictures with kids and families who made a small donation to Catholic Charities. A couple of the moms stood next to me and I had to ask them to sit down. I guess I could have just said, “Hello, my eyes are down here!”
Stay Classy
The shiny desk at East Tennessee PBS had a familiar look to it. The desk used to be part of the Good Morning Tennessee set at WATE. When WATE made the switch to high-definition, they gave pieces of their news sets to Fulton High School and to East Tennessee PBS.
My assignment on Sunday night was to sit at the desk and ask for pledges. I also plugged the premium items available during three programs: “Ava Barber’s Smoky Mountain Christmas,” “Great Performances: Andrea Bocelli Live in Central Park” and “Barbra Streisand – One Night Only at the Village Vanguard.”
Ava Barber and Cylk Cozart were the celebrity guests during Sunday night’s pledge drive. I first met Ava in August in the same studio. Cylk was surprised to hear that we first met 19½ years ago in California. Shortly after the L.A. riots, Power 106 aired a Stop the Violence radiothon, hosted by Arsenio Hall. I was the producer for that show as well as a subsequent live broadcast from the Galaxy Theatre complex in Hollywood. Cylk Cozart, fresh off the success of “White Men Can’t Jump,” was one of the very first celebrities to agree to participate in the radiothon.
East Tennessee PBS arranges for a local restaurant to donate food for the volunteers each night of the pledge drive. Sunday night’s food came from Five Guys Burgers and Fries. The staff of the TV station put the fries in crock pots to keep them warm, with successful results. Two of the managers from Five Guys added red bow-ties to their uniforms as they answered phone calls from donors.
The phone bank was also manned by volunteers from the Morristown Theatre Guild, who asked me if Einstein Simplified would be interested in doing a fundraiser for the Guild. One of their board members is a lovely woman named Kay Flockhart, whose daughter Calista is a well-known actress. Mrs. Flockhart told me that she and her husband retired to Tennessee after moving all over the country for his job with Kraft Foods.
Ginger Sale
The gingerbread houses were once again more interesting to me than the trees at Fantasy of Trees.The annual event benefits East Tennessee Children’s Hospital. Several of the best entries were made by the Greenback School FCCLA students. I also liked a display that used jumbo marshmallows to make snowmen.
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Instrumental Health
Maestro Frank Graffeo was contacted by a television producer who told him that they wanted to bring a camera to the Joy of Music School for a documentary. When a large number of crew members showed up with high-end equipment, Graffeo suspected that it was a bigger deal than he was originally led to believe. It wasn’t until the big reveal that the Maestro realized he and his staff were going to be on a show called “Secret Millionaire.”
Maestro Graffeo told the entertaining story in detail on Sunday morning’s East Tennessee Report. The public-affairs broadcast also served to promote the upcoming Holiday Sparkles & Spirits fundraiser on December 9 at Cherokee Mills.
Media File: FrankMurphyInterviewsFrankGraffeo-JoyOfMusicSchool-11-20-11.mp3
Baconian Method
Bacon was featured on three of my favorite dishes at the March of Dimes Signature Chefs Auction on Sunday night. Dr. Donetta Poisson and her team from the UT Culinary Institute prepared a bacon-wrapped shrimp on a bed of polenta with a smear of Korean barbeque sauce. Chef Chris Moore of the Knoxville Convention Center served chicken and waffles topped with bacon crumbles as big as postage stamps. Kathleen Robinson of Scrumps Cupcakes had a variety of mini-cupcakes, the best of which had a maple icing and bacon garnish.
When my wife and I are given tickets to a fundraiser, we usually make a bid on a silent auction item or buy a raffle ticket at the event. Sometimes we win and sometimes we don’t. This time, my wife had the top bid on gift bag of Clinique skin care products. She also bought a small teddy bear in a chef’s outfit. One item struck me as particularly odd until I realized that one of the many doctors in attendance would be the likely high-bidder for the disposal of 24 boxes of medical waste.
January Jones
Smoky Mountain Magazine will now premiere on East Tennessee PBS on Saturday, January 7. Moving our debut to January puts us on the air after Scholars’ Bowl wraps production and after the station’s December pledge drive. Taz Cable and I have been invited to appear on the December drive, just like we did in August.
Over the weekend, we did some streaming video reports from the Foothills Fall Festival and a Scarecrow Foundation charity event. After that we chatted about the PBS launch.
Watch live video from SMOMOtv on Justin.tv
Free Your Mind and the Rest Will Follow
Improv has been a hot topic for me this week. I made plans to attend the Gatlinburg Improv Fest in February; I scheduled the FBI Knoxville Citizens Academy Alumni Association holiday party to coincide with an Einstein Simplified show; and I enjoyed Tonya Cinnamon’s photos of recent improv shows. I also learned that Einstein Simplified has been booked to perform at First Night Knoxville for the fourth straight year.
I bought the book for three reasons. 1) I love improv 2) The Kindle version only cost 99¢ and 3) Vanessa is donating her proceeds during October to the Atlanta Community Food Bank.
Chapter Two explains the Ten Commandments of Improv as taught by Brent Brooks of Blank Stage Productions. Brent also described the Commandments in a podcast interview on Atlanta Business Radio along with Vanessa and three of the other co-authors.
- Trust
- Agree on Stage; Don’t Argue
- Listen
- Don’t Be Funny
- Avoid Questions
- Be Average: Keep It Simple
- Stay in the Moment
- Mistakes Are Good
- Make the Other Person Look Good
- Have Fun
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