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This isn't going to be a post about mimes, surprisingly, I've already done one of those. I could get into how much I loved the movie Shakes the Clown and how the clowns would just beat the hell out of mimes. That was funny, and easy to enjoy because, well, who really like mimes?

But there is one mime I really like, though this post will only mention his mime works. Steven Banks, aka "Billy the Mime" is a funny and unbelievably talented guy. He had a short lived sitcom on PBS (yes, a sitcom on PBS) called, logically enough, The Steven Banks Show. It was based on a Showtime special called Steven Banks' Home Entertainment Center.

I just watched Home Entertainment Center again on You Tube. It is so amazing, the man is so talented, both as a performer and songwriter that I simply can't believe he's not incredibly famous. Segment 3 (my favorite of the You Tube clips) is embeded in this post (it's an HTML term). Watch it. Now. I'll still be here when you get back.

In a weird way, working master control at a PBS station is one of the best things that ever happened to me musically. First I worked overnights and was alone in the building with just my harmonica for at least six hours a night. I wrote my first songs sitting in master control at 4am. Some of them were pretty good, so I kept at it.

Second, I was exposed to some great music on shows like Austin City Limits. The show that had the biggest effect on me was a stupid sitcom that ran one summer. The Steven Banks Show featured riotously funny songs by Steven every week. That showed me how much fun lyrics can be. Lyrics can be about anything, music doesn't have to be serious and I learned that that type of music can be extremely entertaining.

In segment 3 that you just watched (you did watch it, right?) Steven does a song called Bar-B-Que Blues. I learned the harp part while working at PBS, came up
gured out guitar chords and have performed it on guitar and harmonica since. So I learn songs from sitcoms. I'm a little weird that way.

Steven did a little puppet/mime work on his show, so I wasn't too surpised when, while trying to find out what Steven had been up to, I found a lot of references to Billy the Mime.

Later I saw the movie The Aristocrats, in which Billy the Mime did a mime of the dirtiest joke ever told. Not your typical mime fodder, but Billy the Mime is no ordinary mime.

And Steven Banks isn't your ordinary songwriter/performer.

BOJ

Labels: Positive Tuesday