Interviews

Back in the 1970's, your editor (me!) was doing stand-up comedy at colleges around the country. In the fall of 1976 I was invited to perform at Ithaca College. Since I was a Cornell alumnus (1969) I really looked forward to the visit. At the time I had a pet Coatimundi—a racoon like animal that ranges from Oklahoma, through Arizona, Mexico and points south. Look it up and you'll see a "stretch racoon" with a cartoon-like face. His name was Jeepy—named by a friend for Popeye's imaginary friend The Jeep, which he sort of resembled.

Anyway, I couldn't leave Jeepy home so I took him with me to Ithaca. I made plans to stay at a cousin's apartment in Ithaca as she was a student at Ithaca College. I warned her that Jeepy didn't much care for dogs and to be sure none were present when I arrived.

I knocked on her door and when she opened it I was greeted by the chairman of the Ithaca College social committee, along with two other committee members and A GERMAN FRIGGIN' SHEPHERD that took one look at the alien animal on my shoulders and charged us. The coati jumped off my shoulders and the two went at it. I pulled the Coati's long tail and managed to get him off the dog and back on my shoulder.

Then I felt the warmth from my leg and saw the tear in my jeans and the blood spurting from it. Down came the jeans and I wasn't wearing underwear.

So, within two minutes of my arrival there I was dropped trow, exposed, with a huge gash in my leg and blood spurting from it!

"What an act!" I could see on the faces of the folks who had hired me, "What does he do for an encore!"

I needed the hospital badly so we threw Jeepy in a closet and I drove myself to Tompkins County General for 17 stitches.

They loaded me with painkiller and gave me some crutches. When I left the emergency room, my hosts said "You don't have to go on tonight." I said "Hell no! I'm going on! The show must go on!"

I did the show in, shall I say, a "relaxed" state, and everyone had a great time, judging by the crowd reaction and the nice letter I got afterwards.

The next day I was interviewed on Cornell's WVBR-FM by a guy named Michael Beecher for a fun half-hour.

I forgot about that interview until a few days ago. Beecher was going through a drawer and found the tape. He found me on line and asked if I wanted a copy. Of course I did!

So after listening, I thought it was interesting enough to share. It's an MP3 running a half hour. You can hear it here:

I hope you find it at least somewhat interesting. It's almost 30 years old....let me know what you think!