Second City

In 1980 I joined Second City as Music Director and it was the perfect job for me. I was writing comedy songs and improvising music for live theatre. SCTV was in Edmonton and my first director was Catherine O’Hara and we cowrote a song for that show. Shows helmed by Robin Duke and Jeff Ellis followed and the SCTV cast gave us workshops on improv. Avery Schreiber was there too, in town for a show, and telling us stories about joining the first Chicago cast in 1959. I partied with the SCTV cast and appeared as an extra on SCTV. These were magic years. After moving to Toronto I jammed on the piano with Del Close at the 10 year reunion.

For SCTV I was recruited to do a Randy Newman imitation for the tv show but at the last minute was recast as a border guard with Eugene Levy for an Abott and Costello skit.

SCTV

The show moved back to Toronto in 1981, and I so I moved with it to join new cast members including Ron James and Mike Myers. The work eventually led to LA to join a cast with Richard Kind and Ryan Stiles. Fred Kaz gave me a music workshop- he was the original piano player from Second City Chicago. I still have his notes- and he gifted me a brass plaque as his way of showing me I was worthy- it said “MUSICIEN”

My comedy work came to include the Banff Television Festival where I performed with Bob Newhart, John Cleese, Dame Edna, Martin Short, Steve Allen, and Kelsey Grammer. After this I wrote and performed over 50 original comedy songs on live radio for seven seasons of CBC’s The Irrelevant Show.

I now live in Victoria B.C. where I continue to record and perform my songs.

UPCOMING SHOWS