Comedy "Benny fit"  Benefits All Concerned

by Rob Peck

 

In my ongoing efforts to "make my deeds match my creeds" (as Sid Simon says), I asked a bunch of fellow fools to donate their talents for "United We Laugh," a benefit show to raise funds for Benny Reehl's rehabilitation expenses following his stroke last summer.

 

I was pleasantly overwhelmed when a host of New England's finest new vaudevillians - ranging from wacky magicians to wily club-passers to wordless physical comedians and wonderful musicians - all graciously said they'd be pleased to participate.

 

Notables among the cast of 18 included jugglers Roger the Jester (Roger Reed), Alexander Feldman (aka. King of Fools... Public Nuisance), Henry Lappen, Paul

Richmond, two charter members of the Looney Ladies League - Linda Peck and Robin Zegge, and new IJA board member Sam Kilbourn (all the way from Portland, Maine!).

 

The latter's appearance typified the cast's dedication, and resulted in a special reunion of the Wright Brothers, an award-winning new vaudeville quintet which hadn't performed publicly as a full ensemble since 1992. The group is particularly beloved in this area in part because its other four members (Jody Scalise, Gary Krinsky, Jack Golden and Lenny Zarcone) all live here in western Massachusetts.

 

While getting the "fab five" back together for the first time in more than four years doesn't equal the rumored reunion of the Beatles (with Julian Lennon filling in for

John), the ensuing excitement among other area performers was just about the next best thing to the second coming of AirJazz!

 

It was clear that the two main talents performers had in common were playing musical instruments and balancing bizarre objects on their faces. This led to an extended pre-show in which performers crossed the stage doing increasingly elaborate balance tricks. After bowing, each balancer joined the and "heralded" his or her arrival with an instrumental solo.

 

The music built as the balances went from Kilbourn's hand-stand on a beach chair to Roger Reed's pillow spinning on a long stick to Linda Peck's big clear ball on a giant parasol to Jack Golden's rolling globe to crazy Alexander's pogo-stick to Gary Krinsky's heart-thumping five­high step ladder chin-balance. The size of the band also grew as, amoeba-like, it absorbed each cast member. By the time Jody Scalise started to sing his self-penned opening lyrics, everybody had joined the band, kicking off the show in a truly united way. ("This one's for you, Benny!")

 

But, as usual, I'm getting ahead of myself. Suffice it to say, I knew I had a great crew. My next task was getting the general public to attend. Why would anyone in western Massachusetts would want to support a fund raiser for a juggler in Maine most people had never heard of? I realized it was unlikely that the masses would rally behind someone so removed from their own communities.

 

Thankfully, our local United Way was launching its fall fund drive at the same time. The idea of a bunch of us pulling together to help a friend in need was an endeavor clearly parallel to the work of that organization. When I broached the idea of joining forces to produce a United Way fundraiser entitled "United We Laugh," the local director was so amenable she even agreed to split the proceeds evenly, so that half would go to area agencies and half directly to the Benny Reehl Fund.

 

Many other pieces of the puzzle then began to fall into place. Someone on the agency's board arranged for the Stoneleigh Burnham School in Greenfield, Mass., to let us use its auditorium and sound and light equipment.

 

Perhaps best of all, they arranged for us to have almost unlimited access to the space so we were able to arrange a much-needed band rehearsal the night before and seven hours rehearsal on the day of the mid-November "Bennyfit."

 

Through the United Way we also got the services of publicist Doris Kaldry, who made sure everyone in a 25-mile radius received a flashy flier fully describing the event. In addition to a phenomenal postering campaign ("Phoolish Filanthropists Unite!") Doris coordinated a killer radio and print media blitz. I was interviewed by a local newspaper reporter and collaborated with Wright Brother Jady Scalise on a live radio talk show and a 30­second public service announcement that aired on seven separate stations... Boy, were my neighbors impressed!

 

Of course, as the old saying goes, "No good deed goes unpunished!" First of all, while my attempt to choreograph a 12-person juggling finale came off surprisingly well in practice, in performance it was another story. Between props colliding, participants confusing their entrances and my wife packing away the silicones I needed to force-bounce to the musical beat, the result was more like the chaos of the Keystone Cops than the precision of the Jon Held dancers!

 

My troubles actually began long before the finale. After writing and rehearsing an opening monologue that at one point had me down on all fours doing my best impersonation of "Doggie Hauser, MD........ scratch, scratch," we had microphone mixups. The good news is that the place was packed and no one was about to leave. The bad news was that I don't have nearly the vocal training to project to that size crowd.

 

Mercifully, Gary Krinsky rescued me by coming on stage and suggesting that I "just talk into his bowtie" where his lavalier mic was cleverly concealed. Although it's a bit tough to make eye-contact when you're talking into a guy's larynx, the sheer novelty seemed to make up for my cramped delivery. Happily, if it's true that laughter is the shortest distance between two people, the scene was a good reminder to the crowd that "United We Laugh."