{"id":1533,"date":"2018-05-12T14:18:47","date_gmt":"2018-05-12T14:18:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aroadkillopera.com\/test\/?p=1533"},"modified":"2018-05-13T16:38:09","modified_gmt":"2018-05-13T16:38:09","slug":"the-friday-club-in-evanston-illinois-larry-david-david-grisman-quartet-comedy-magician-stephan-parker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aroadkillopera.com\/test\/2018\/05\/12\/the-friday-club-in-evanston-illinois-larry-david-david-grisman-quartet-comedy-magician-stephan-parker\/","title":{"rendered":"The Friday Club in Evanston, Illinois – Larry David, David Grisman Quartet, Comedy Magician Stephan Parker"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was the 80s.<\/p>\n

Local cable in Evanston, Illinois, had a sketch comedy show modeled after Saturday Night Live<\/strong>, called variously Fridays <\/strong>or\u00a0The Friday Club<\/strong>. Stephan Alexander Parker\u00a0had been a semi-professional magician from 8th grade until, after about 100 paid gigs under the stage name “Alexande”, he\u00a0began the transition to stand-up–around his\u00a0freshman year in college. At the end of his\u00a0sophomore year, a\u00a0woman\u00a0in his\u00a0dorm booked Parker’s stand-up\u00a0act for her sister’s Sweet Sixteen party in Skokie, Illinois. That was Parker’s\u00a0first paid comedy gig. One bit\u00a0from Parker’s magic days\u00a0survived into the 1980s and even made it onto the local cable TV, live, sketch comedy show\u00a0The Friday Club<\/strong>:\u00a0<\/strong>Herby the Amazing Disappearing Elephant.<\/p>\n

\"Screenshot
Opening credits for the live, local cable variety\/sketch comedy show in Evanston, Illinois, in the 1980s,\u00a0The Friday Club<\/strong>, 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\u00a0The Not Ready For Prime Time Players. Or Naked Raygun was a play on\u00a0the Sex Pistols.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Photo
The Friday Club<\/strong> was filmed before a live studio audience.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Photo
The Friday Club<\/strong> audiences could be very enthusiastic.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Photo
Larry David introduced the David Grisman Quartet on The Friday Show<\/strong>. Yes, that Larry David. Yes, that David Grisman.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Photo
The David Grisman Quartet performed live on local cable TV in Evanston, Illinois, on The Friday Club<\/strong> in 1981. It was about this time that Stephan Parker, light and sound man<\/a>, set up lighting for their gig at the Norris University Center on Northwestern University’s campus in Evanston.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Photo
David Grisman on mandolin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Screen
Stephan Alexander Parker’s first TV credit was on The Friday Club<\/strong> in Evanston, Illinois. He wasn’t using his middle name professionally at the time. Getting his\u00a0credit over a shot of the show’s cast in costume as Star Trek<\/strong>‘s Sulu, Spock, and Captain Kirk was a bonus.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Photo
Starting off Stephan Alexander Parker’s\u00a0comedy set–they gave him\u00a010 minutes–he told some jokes while making a balloon elephant.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Photo
Stephan Alexander Parker introducing his comedy and magic partner, Herby the Amazing Disappearing Elephant. Herby had been in Parker’s\u00a0act since seeing\u00a0The Magic Show<\/strong> on Broadway. If Doug Henning could make an elephant disappear, why not Parker? All he\u00a0needed was an elephant and an audience.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Photo
Herby the Amazing Disappearing Elephant was performed on live cable TV only once, with cameras at all angles. The technique for Herby’s\u00a0disappearance 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.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Photo
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<\/strong> in Evanston, Illinois in the 1980s. He offered up Dino so Parker\u00a0could re-enact a bit from his\u00a0old stand-up act, when Chuckie the Fish would do an\u00a0impression of Lake Michigan. Alewives, anyone? \u00a0Anyone? Buhler? Buhler?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Photo
Comedy Magician Stephan Parker on The Friday Club<\/strong>, 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<\/strong> in Chicago, Catch A Rising Star<\/strong> in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the Bluebird Cafe<\/strong> in Nashville, before landing in Jackson Hole, where he and “Weird Ed” Bachtel hosted the open mic night at Spirits of the West Saloon<\/strong>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Photo
The crowd at The Friday Show<\/strong> 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\u00a0on the show.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Photo
Cyndi Moran & Eric Scholl and Stephan Alexander Parker were\u00a0radio\/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<\/strong> audience the night that Parker performed with Herby, The Amazing Disappearing Elephant, with the camera operators clearly visible.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Stephan Alexander Parker\u00a0worked 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\u00a0videos online<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Good Times in the Country: Opryland USA on the Road in Branson, Missouri<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Mangy Moose Saloon in Teton Village, Wyoming<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The Holmes Brothers
\nJohn Hartford
\nSteve Forbert<\/p>\n

Church Street Station in Orlando, Florida<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Rosie O’Grady’s Good Times Jazz Band<\/p>\n

Roy Orbison
\nThe Diamonds
\nTommy Overstreet
\nFabian
\nDel Shannon
\nDee Clark
\nSons of the Pioneers
\nGabriel
\nJohnny Thunder<\/p>\n

Chicago-area music acts<\/strong><\/h4>\n

reggae:<\/strong>
\nGypsi Fari
\nNew Era<\/p>\n

soul\/funk\/blues:<\/strong>
\nLefty Dizz
\nEddie Clearwater<\/p>\n

jazz\/fusion:<\/strong>
\nApple Juice
\nFaith Pillow
\nDavid Grisman Quartet
\nAshby-Ostermann Alliance<\/p>\n

rock\/punk\/new wave:<\/strong>
\nThe Front Lines
\nThe Paranoids
\nVoid Where Prohibited
\nFat Lewy
\nPeer Group
\nThe Bombastics
\nGroup Gomez
\nRiffmaster & The Rockme Foundation
\nJudy and the Punch
\nAmuzement Park<\/p>\n

folk\/country:<\/strong>
\nArt Thieme
\nMarty Peiffer
\nKathy O’Hara & Diana Laffey
\nKelly & Rossi
\nFred Holstein
\nLinda Black
\nJeff Jones
\nJim Post*
\nJump ‘N’ the Saddle Band*<\/p>\n

comedy:<\/strong>
\nEddie Murphy*
\n(* lighting only)<\/p>\n

\"A
A view across the audience at The Friday Club<\/strong> 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!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was the 80s. Local cable in Evanston, Illinois, had a sketch comedy show modeled after Saturday Night Live, called variously Fridays or\u00a0The Friday Club. Stephan Alexander Parker\u00a0had been a semi-professional magician from 8th grade until, after about 100 paid gigs under the stage name “Alexande”, he\u00a0began the transition to stand-up–around his\u00a0freshman year in college. … Continue reading The Friday Club in Evanston, Illinois – Larry David, David Grisman Quartet, Comedy Magician Stephan Parker<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aroadkillopera.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aroadkillopera.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aroadkillopera.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aroadkillopera.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aroadkillopera.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1533"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/aroadkillopera.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1533\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1543,"href":"https:\/\/aroadkillopera.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1533\/revisions\/1543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aroadkillopera.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aroadkillopera.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aroadkillopera.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}