Growing up outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, had its advantages. Philadelphia, of course, is the birthplace of our nation and is steeped in history. Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and John Adams all walked the streets of Philadelphia and made history at Independence Hall. The Liberty Bell was there, underneath the steps leading to the upper floors before they built the bomb-proof chamber for it. The room where the Declaration of Independence was signed was just steps away. I remember climbing atop the Liberty Bell to see if I could make it ring despite the crack. Philadelphia was the beginning of my fascination with famous people.
When I was a young boy, my mother was our Boy Scout Troop Leader. She encouraged us to perform in school plays, and my brothers and I even set up a little theater in our basement, using sheets as curtains, and we put on shows from scripts published in a boy’s magazine, charging five cents admission to our friends. We pooled the money so we could go to the movie theater. I never acted again in High School or College, nor in Law School. However, something changed my mind after I retired from the Air Force.
Several of my partners at my law firm belonged to a social club in San Francisco that was known for its theatrical and musical performances. In my first year, I was required to appear in several shows, including playing President William McKinley’s bodyguard at his assassination. I also had a lead role in a show where I had the opportunity to sing a solo. I was hooked. Since that day in 2002, when I first appeared on stage, I have been in over 70 shows, playing a senior law partner singing to tunes from Phantom of the Opera to a Russian Entrepreneur selling Russian talent to unsuspecting Americans. I even played a Southern airline pilot who liked to scare the passengers and a flight attendant who stored crying babies in the overhead luggage compartment.
I have a very good friend who, for many years, was portraying one-man performances, bringing to life famous people from California. I asked him one day if he would mind if I took a shot at portraying a character, and he immediately said, “You want to do Winston Churchill.” I still do not know how he knew that but he was right. That started me on my journey to portray famous persons who have an association with California. So far, I have done Churchill, Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, Ernest Hemingway, Theodore Roosevelt, and soon W.C. Fields.
I can use Churchill to illustrate how I prepare for these performances. I had performed as Churchill eight separate times, once before a group of Air Force Judge Advocate General Officers, including the then Judge Advocate General of the Air Force, who was a Churchill admirer. It took me two years to prepare to perform Churchill. I started out collecting several biographies of Churchill, including Martin Gilbert, Roy Jenkins, and Boris Johnson. This led me to the actual writings of Churchill, who is still the most prolific publisher in the English language by far. Luckily, there are many recordings of Churchill's speeches, many lasting several hours and covering Churchill’s early days in Parliament, his time in the Wilderness, when he was on the outs with his party, and his time as Prime Minister, starting in 1940. I listened intently to these recordings and read for over two years before performing. Understanding Churchill’s unique way of speaking was important because I was facing an audience of sophisticated gentlemen who were very familiar with Churchill, his speeches, his mannerisms, his habits, and his intensity, many of whom were World War II veterans.
