Ray Columbus - Spring Ramblings

Suzanne Lynch has won the 2008 BENNY Award. Presented by the Variety Artist Club (VAC) not to be confused with the children’s International Charity The Variety Club, VAC has been in New Zealand for many years longer. It was formed by a group of Magicians, Ventriloquists and entertainers et al to keep the Art of Variety Entertainment alive and it’s been very successful in doing that. The BENNY was named after The Great Benyon an incredibly talented Circus cum Vaudevillian who, sadly, is no longer with us. But his spirit lives on in The Benny. Suzanne (typically modest) had no idea she was going to get the coveted award when she was contacted by the VAC Committee and asked to sing a song at the annual dinner and Awards show. Ever willing to help she said yes and went along. First she received a minor awrd for best Female Vocalist and then got the surprise of her life when presented with the BENNY. The award is presented to the recipient for ‘Services to Variety in New Zealand’ so it has never had a more deserving winner. Suzy (I used to manage her and have known he for over 40 years is the first person to put up a hand to help the entertainment Industry…she loves to sing..in fact it would be more appropriate to say she LIVES to sing and in my opinion she is still our POP Diva..there’s no better singer in the country, she also teaches singing and has perfect pitch. Well done Suzanne enjoy you year as The Benny Winner.

Well the election fever in the USA has reached amazing heights lately. Politics is so showbiz there. But it’s also a dirty branch of Showbiz... so it’s had its lows too. Obama appears to be well in front in the polls… but some observers warn of the ‘Bradley effect’….Tom Bradley was the Mayor of Los Angeles in the late sixties and when running for another term, found (when he lost) that he needed to be above 4-6% higher in the polls than the official rating! WHY? Because he was black!!!!

Apparently when polling via telephone most racists don’t like admitting they are persuaded that way. So Barack Obama is aware that he needs to be at least 7% ahead of John McCain…if he wants to be assured or getting into the White House. I noticed that on their first televised debate. Obama’s lighting made him look darker in skin tone than he normally does! I may be wrong but at the end of the debate... when he stepped over to shake hands with McCain...he was much lighter in John’s spotlight. Those sort of tricks are legion in the States (if it was so). Some of you may remember that when Richard Nixon and John F Kennedy were neck and neck in the late fifties. All of a sudden Nixon started sweating, got hot under the collar and the consensus was that JFK won the Debate and the election. Word has it that the Kennedy camp arranged for the heat to be turn UP in the Studio… J FK was dressed for it and came across looking very cool and Nixon looked very uncomfortable indeed.

On a sad note what a tragedy was the sudden death of ROB GUEST. He apparently had no idea that he was a heart or stroke risk? I’m amazed that his employers didn’t make him have regular checkups... this is a tough business and with Strokes particularly you often don’t get a second chance... I know... I’ve been one of the lucky ones.

RayC

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