Tuesday, June 15, 1999
Dial 'N' for Naked Cowboy
BY JIM KNIPPENBERG
The Cincinnati Enquirer
And this from our file marked Really Important Questions We Guess We'll Never See Answered:
Where does he keep the phone?
Referring here to John Robert Burck, as in the Naked Cowboy, who left last weekend on his second national tour. Burck is the guitarist and songwriter who shows up a very public events to sing in his undies and boots.
Locally, he's been doing it Wednesdays at Party in the Park and has become so familiar that people actually ask, “Where's the naked guy?” He's also done Inside Edition, Jenny Jones, Hard Copy, Entertainment Tonight, E! cable network, Regis and Kathie Lee and CNN. In undies.
Wellsir, he's off again, headed to Nashville as we speak in a well-worn 1984 BMW. This tour's mostly radio gigs in Nashville, Birmingham, Houston, Vegas, Washington, D.C. and Portland, Maine.
“I'll be calling 13 radio shows every couple of days — Gary Burbank, Angie Summers out of Houston, Rick and Bubba in Birmingham.
“You call too? I'll have my cell phone at all times.”
Uh, where?
“We figure that stuff out as we go.”
Oh.
Burck is on the road 'til July 10.
SING OUT: Further proof that there's no such thing as an actor who didn't wait tables first.
Turns out the St. Ursula Academy Vocal Ensemble (SUAVE) was in New York last week, singing most everywhere.
Including NYC's urban chic John's Pizzeria, where they broke into an impromptu “Come Rain or Come Shine” and wound up talking to a bunch of waiters. Turns out 10 of them, 10 of them, had performed at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park.
That from Ellen Gilligan, parent coordinator for the 12-singer, five day tour. Some tour, that: SUAVE sang Beethoven's Mass in C Major, Op. 86 on a program that included three other ensembles doing other Masses.
They also turned up on the Today show, doing “Singing in the Rain” for Al Roker, who interviewed them about their visit.
SUAVE was there because Cincinnati's Earl Rivers, director of the Vocal Arts Ensemble, recommended them to MidAmerica Productions, a group that stages concerts in Carnegie. MidAmerica contacted SUAVE director Kathy Backherms and the tour was on.
Knip's Eye View appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Have an item to report? Call Jim Knippenberg at 768-8513; fax: 768-8330.
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KNIPPENBERG ARCHIVE
