mtdemocrat.com Mountain Democrat Friday, December 10, 2021
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Guest column Caldor comedy fundraiser will be evening of laughter, appreciation
Purchase tickets for the Caldor Comedy Fundraiser online at ticketmaster.com.
Howie Nave Special to the Tahoe Daily Tribune
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knew there were was going to be an outpouring of generosity in this town once we were allowed back into our homes after the Caldor Fire, but I wanted to give something back to all those first responders in a way not just to say, ‘Thank you’ for keeping my place from burning down, but to also show all of them how much this community appreciated them. The best and only thing I felt I could do was through the one thing that I know how to do best: making people laugh. During the Caldor Fire evacuation a lot of folks reached out to me asking if they could help in any way and among those offering their assistance were a lot of my comedian friends. The ones who offered me a place to stay lived at least 400 miles away so I think that’s why they asked if Connie and I needed a place to hang. Chicago comedian Rocky LaPorte offered not just a place to stay but asked if he should send any water out my way too. In all seriousness, when I came up with this idea of doing a twohour comedy show dedicated to all first responders “Rock” said, “yes” immediately when I asked if he wanted to be part of this show. The other comedians who offered to come out were Allan Havey, Eddie Ifft and Nick Griffin. I didn’t want anyone who was already booked with an engagement to cancel because with entertainers recently being able to work again because of COVID it didn’t feel right having anyone lose out on a paying gig. Brian Chandler, entertainment manager for Harrah’s and Harveys gave me a number of dates to choose from which really helped. I knew this was going to be a pretty big event to pull off so I invited Karie Hall, the new senior vice president and GM for Harrah’s and Harveys on my morning radio show for my “Professional Women” segment and asked if she would green light this event. She didn’t even bat an eye which saved me a lot of time in the long run having to go through the various departments to get approval for something of this magnitude. Karie was really enthusiastic which doesn’t surprise me since she was a local. I just had to wait until she found her way back up here after going through I imagine myriad of properties one goes through in the corporate world before coming back home.
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The Caldor Comedy Fundraiser will be held Friday, Dec. 10, at Harrah’s Lake Tahoe. Like comedy it’s all about timing, right? In retrospect, getting the comedians was the easy part. The tough part was getting in touch with the firefighting districts, the various law enforcement agencies, forest service, Cal Fire and all the other first responders to make sure all those who were involved with fighting Caldor would be comped to the show along with their significant others. What an undertaking. I definitely learned the value of delegating that’s for sure. In addition to offering a free kick ass comedy show to all of the first responders, I wanted to find an outlet that would handle the funds for those who bought tickets. After seeing how successful Lake Tahoe AleWorx’s Caldor Community Festival was back in September, I asked owner Luca Genasci where he was going to direct the money they raised to help those in need? Enter Chris Kiser, GM of the Barton Foundation, who’s organization had already done a stellar job setting up help for those affected by COVID last year and through their Barton Emergency Response Fund has helped those affected by the Caldor Fire as well. Again, delegating something of this magnitude with an organization that has a solid track record really helped (plus I got a nice lunch out of it too with Chris). As mentioned earlier, my headlining comedians for this show include Rocky LaPorte, Allan Havey, Eddie Ifft and Nick Griffin. Havey is
currently in the Showtime series, “Billions,” and was on AMC’s “Mad Men” not to mention HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and was in the Coen Brothers’ movie “Hail, Caesar!” I lucked out because “Billions’ Just finished wrapping up their sixth season which freed Allan to fly out from New York to attend this gig. You might remember him when he was on our Monday morning segment on my radio show, “Howiewood & Haveywood,” where Allan and I would talk about all things movie and entertainment related. COVID put the kibosh on that segment but now that Havey has some free time maybe we can fire it up again. Griffin is also a favorite and I think I’ve known him as long as I’ve known both Havey and Rocky. Nick has appeared on “The Late Show with David Letterman” a dozen times, “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” starred in his own half-hour Comedy Central special and constantly works the road. Nick and I both share a love of horror movies and when I was managing The Improv tried to get him up here during Halloween just so we could attend any Halloween parties that were going on. He also has a podcast with comedian Lori Palminteri called the “Scary Monsters Podcast.” To this day I still get text messages from Griffin all hours of the day and night asking me for my take on certain horror flicks and how would I rate it? Ifft is my mom’s favorite comedian.
I think I rank fourth behind Nick and Rocky. Sometimes I rank higher depending on how often I call her. Eddie spends quite a bit of time performing in the southern hemisphere and in fact is pretty popular in Australia where he has appeared on numerous television shows. His critically acclaimed DVD Live From Australia was filmed in front of a sold out audience at the Sydney Opera House in Sydney, Australia. Eddie’s been on numerous TV appearances such as Showtime’s “The Green Room with Paul Provenza,” NBC’s “Last Comic Standing,” Comedy Central’s “Premium Blend,” BET’s “Comic View,” NBC’s “Late Friday Night,” VH1’s “Comics Unleashed” and has appeared on “The Joe Rogan Experience” several times. LaPorte is not only a great comedian but get this: he was best man at my last wedding and since that didn’t work out said he’d be best man at my next wedding. Like all the other acts on the bill he loves Lake Tahoe and is pretty stoked he gets to perform for firefighters as he’s done numerous fundraising events for both the police and fire departments in his hometown of Chicago. Rocky’s been on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” and received a standing ovation when he finished. He’s been featured on his own “Comedy Central Presents” special, opened for fellow comedians Louie Anderson, Garry Shandling, Drew Carey, Tim Allen and musical acts Hootie and the Blowfish and the Righteous Brothers just to name a few. Like many of us he was also deployed out to the Middle East entertaining our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Of course I wanted to highlight some of our firefighters up here so, in-between the headlining comedians I have Tahoe Douglas Fire Marshal Eric Guevin, Lake Valley Fire Chief Brad Zlendick and South Lake Tahoe Fire Capt. Kim George who will all take part in the evening’s program. I’ll of course be your host/emcee and can’t wait. It’s been awhile since we had any comedy up here so I can’t think of a better evening of extremely good karma to launch an evening of laughter and who knows, maybe will launch comedy back up here in South Lake Tahoe on a regular basis. Howie Nave is host of “Howie’s Morning Rush” radio show on KRLT 93-9 The Lake at 6-10 a.m. Monday through Friday. You can also hear him on Howie’s High Sierra Comedy Vault podcast by going to Howienave. com and follow him on Twitter @ howienavecomedian.
Tahoe-themed show brings the laughs Tim Parsons Tahoe On Stage
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f it’s December and you haven’t been annoyed yet by an out-of-town motorist, forgotten where you left your gloves or are a bit giddy about not already having to replace a shear pin on the snowblower, you might be a Tahoe resident ... and you might even feel a bit guilty about winter’s late arrival. Valhalla Tahoe has an icebreaker for that. “Guilty Christmas” debuts with a weeklong performance, Dec. 13-17 in the Grand Hall (closing night is already sold out). There will also be a special preview on Friday, Dec 10, with all proceeds going to the Boathouse Theatre Lighting fund. The musical comedy written by David Hamilton and Mark D. Williams is a wintertime version of “Guilty Pleasures,” an inside-Tahoe-themed production that had a 10-year run from 2002-12. “We always joked that we should write a Christmas version of ‘Guilty Pleasures,’” Hamilton said. “Somehow the idea kept drifting around in the
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back of our minds. A couple years ago I decided to develop a framework for the show and thought of a few song ideas. Then, as the pandemic hit, there was more time to actually put something together. So I began writing and Mark began composing and the result is ‘Guilty Christmas.’” All but one of the cast members appeared in a version of the first play that was updated six times with contemporary Tahoe content. “It was a fun, cheesy show and it gave us our mantra for doing it: Cheese sells,” Hamilton said. “When a show gets popular, one of the other cheesy things producers do is create a holiday or Christmas version to cash in on the holidays.” Don’t let the self-deprecation fool you. The shows will sellout in advance so purchase tickets early. And don’t hit the brakes when driving on ice. “It was tough (to write) because we were working with the same characters and relationships from ‘Guilty Pleasures,’ yet it’s been 10 years since anyone has seen them and of course there will be even more n
See Guilty, page B8
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“Guilty Christmas” brings Tahoe-themed laughs to the stage next week.
Wo r s h i p D i r e c t o r y LIGHT OF THE HILLS LUTHERAN CHURCH, LCMS
THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS Visitors Always Welcome! Sunday Meetings by Location:
3100 Rodeo Rd., Cameron Park Pastor Alan Sommer, Senior Pastor Pastor Kyle Weeks, Associate Pastor Sunday Worship 8:00 am and 10:45am Sunday School and Bible Study 9:30am 8am Service is live streamed. www.loth.org 530-677-9536
Call Elizabeth Hansen at 530-344-5028 regarding advertising information and to place your ad.
3431 Hacienda Road, Cameron Park 8:30 10:00 11:30 1:00 3275 Cedar Ravine Road, Placerville 10:00. 1:00 4621 Pony Express Trail, Camino 9:00. 11:30 7280 Prospect Hill DR, Georgetown 10:00 http://mywebcast.churchofjesuschrist.org/.../ eldoradocali?fbclid=IwAR0RLhhlCOVmBpo7rOT2n7fIKwrk_l8iXo6BTY4Pje2kynztM_teVwk6Fno The Missionaries are available for prayer and scripture study in person or online. Find them on Facebook at Come Unto Christ in the Gold Country
THE EL DORADO COMMUNITY CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH 4701 Church St. El Dorado 530-622-8868 message phone Pastor George Turnboo Sunday Service 11:00 AM
SOLID ROCK FAITH CENTER DIAMOND SPRINGS Pastor Don B. Pritchard 6205 Enterprise Dr., Diamond Springs Church 642-2038 Sunday Services 10:00 a.m. “Ministering to every need and every life the power of Christ’’
The Worship Directory runs each Friday in the Mountain Democrat. Call Elizabeth Hansen at 530-344-5028 regarding advertising information and to place your ad.
