Local cable in Evanston, Illinois, had a sketch comedy show modeled after Saturday Night Live, called variously Fridays or The Friday Club. Stephan Alexander Parker had been a semi-professional magician from 8th grade until, after about 100 paid gigs under the stage name “Alexande”, he began the transition to stand-up–around his freshman year in college. At the end of his sophomore year, a woman in his dorm booked Parker’s stand-up act for her sister’s Sweet Sixteen party in Skokie, Illinois. That was Parker’s first paid comedy gig. One bit from Parker’s magic days survived into the 1980s and even made it onto the local cable TV, live, sketch comedy show The Friday Club:Herby the Amazing Disappearing Elephant.
Opening credits for the live, local cable variety/sketch comedy show in Evanston, Illinois, in the 1980s, The Friday Club, featured The Very Famous Friday Club Players. It was a Chicago thing to put a twist on the names of other, more famous acts. Thus, The Very Famous Friday Club Players was a play on The Not Ready For Prime Time Players. Or Naked Raygun was a play on the Sex Pistols.The Friday Club was filmed before a live studio audience.The Friday Club audiences could be very enthusiastic.Larry David introduced the David Grisman Quartet on The Friday Show. Yes, that Larry David. Yes, that David Grisman.The David Grisman Quartet performed live on local cable TV in Evanston, Illinois, on The Friday Club in 1981. It was about this time that Stephan Parker, light and sound man, set up lighting for their gig at the Norris University Center on Northwestern University’s campus in Evanston.David Grisman on mandolin.Stephan Alexander Parker’s first TV credit was on The Friday Club in Evanston, Illinois. He wasn’t using his middle name professionally at the time. Getting his credit over a shot of the show’s cast in costume as Star Trek‘s Sulu, Spock, and Captain Kirk was a bonus.Starting off Stephan Alexander Parker’s comedy set–they gave him 10 minutes–he told some jokes while making a balloon elephant.Stephan Alexander Parker introducing his comedy and magic partner, Herby the Amazing Disappearing Elephant. Herby had been in Parker’s act since seeing The Magic Show on Broadway. If Doug Henning could make an elephant disappear, why not Parker? All he needed was an elephant and an audience.Herby the Amazing Disappearing Elephant was performed on live cable TV only once, with cameras at all angles. The technique for Herby’s disappearance was upscaled from a sleight-of-hand technique first demonstrated by the brilliant (and very funny) George Jahad. Magicians in the 1980s used “vanish” as a verb. As in “I’m going to vanish this elephant.” Savages.Comedy Magician Stephan Alexander Parker with Herby, the Amazing Disappearing Elephant must have been a success, as host Bob-O called me over for a live interview at his desk on The Friday Club in Evanston, Illinois in the 1980s. He offered up Dino so Parker could re-enact a bit from his old stand-up act, when Chuckie the Fish would do an impression of Lake Michigan. Alewives, anyone? Anyone? Buhler? Buhler?Comedy Magician Stephan Parker on The Friday Club, a live, local cable TV show in Evanston, Illinois, in the 1980s. Host Bob-O can be seen on the left side of the photo. Parker took his stand-up act on the road in the 1980s, playing the Roxy in Chicago, Catch A Rising Star in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, before landing in Jackson Hole, where he and “Weird Ed” Bachtel hosted the open mic night at Spirits of the West Saloon.The crowd at The Friday Show went wild! Well, the crowd applauded Herby the Amazing Disappearing Elephant. Pretty sure that is Cyndi Moran and Eric Scholl in the studio audience. They’re the ones who got Stephan Alexander Parker booked on the show.Cyndi Moran & Eric Scholl and Stephan Alexander Parker were radio/tv/film majors – and dorm-mates – at Northwestern University. Moran & Scholl went on to produce and direct well-regarded documentaries and have distinguished themselves in teaching careers at Columbia College and at Northeastern Illinois University. Parker moved to Wyoming, where he drove buses, guided whitewater rafting trips, and co-founded the Roadkill On A Stick Frozen Foods Theatre Company with Ed Bachtel. Here’s a view of The Friday Show audience the night that Parker performed with Herby, The Amazing Disappearing Elephant, with the camera operators clearly visible.
Stephan Alexander Parker worked as alight and sound man with many acts over the years, A list of those he remembers are listed below (it was the 80s). More than half of them can be seen and heard in their videos online.
Good Times in the Country: Opryland USA on the Road in Branson, Missouri
Mangy Moose Saloon in Teton Village, Wyoming
The Holmes Brothers
John Hartford
Steve Forbert
Church Street Station in Orlando, Florida
Rosie O’Grady’s Good Times Jazz Band
Roy Orbison
The Diamonds
Tommy Overstreet
Fabian
Del Shannon
Dee Clark
Sons of the Pioneers
Gabriel
Johnny Thunder
Chicago-area music acts
reggae:
Gypsi Fari
New Era
soul/funk/blues:
Lefty Dizz
Eddie Clearwater
jazz/fusion:
Apple Juice
Faith Pillow
David Grisman Quartet
Ashby-Ostermann Alliance
rock/punk/new wave:
The Front Lines
The Paranoids
Void Where Prohibited
Fat Lewy
Peer Group
The Bombastics
Group Gomez
Riffmaster & The Rockme Foundation
Judy and the Punch
Amuzement Park
folk/country:
Art Thieme
Marty Peiffer
Kathy O’Hara & Diana Laffey
Kelly & Rossi
Fred Holstein
Linda Black
Jeff Jones
Jim Post*
Jump ‘N’ the Saddle Band*
comedy:
Eddie Murphy*
(* lighting only)
A view across the audience at The Friday Club in 1980s Evanston, Illinois. You can clearly see one camera operator (a second is behind that one), the floor manager, and the control room for this live, local sketch comedy/music/variety cable broadcast. Look at the size of that camera!
