By Ron Fassler . . .
For someone who has put themselves front and center entertaining audiences for nearly fifty years, the question “Who is Richard Skipper?” still has an air of mystery about it. Primarily known for his impeccable shows paying tribute to the one-of-a-kind personality that was the late Carol Channing, his unique ability to impersonate and eerily channel her inimitable voice and body has long been considered something of a wonder. The dozens of stories he has at his fingertips about the friendship he shared with her make him an invaluable resource for insights into types like Channing—larger-than-life Broadway stars who don’t really exist much anymore. The kinds of shows Skipper creates are a blend of memoir, music, and audience connection that, as he puts it, “invite people into honest and unscripted experiences.”
His latest, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Richard Skipper* (But Were Afraid to Ask), will be performed one-night only, May 30th at 7:00 pm, at the newly renovated Laurie Beechman Theatre at the West Bank Café on W 42nd Street in the heart of Hell’s Kitchen. I had the chance to chat with Skipper for Theater Pizzazz (edited for length and clarity) to talk about what he sincerely hopes audiences are going to feel is a special event:
Ron Fassler: So, Richard . . . why this show? Why now?
Richard Skipper: Well, over the years many people have said to me, “You’ve got so many stories about people you’ve worked with, and lessons learned in this business—forty-six years of it—you should do a show and tell these stories.” So, I had the idea that rather than go out and offer a narrative that I’m going to choose to tell, why not let the audience choose the narrative that they want to hear about? There are a lot of things that people don’t know about me, and a lot that they think they know about me, and a lot that they should know about me.
RF: Everything you always wanted to know about Richard Skipper, but were afraid to ask.
RS: Exactly. So, when I was first putting this show together with Dan Pardo, my longtime musical director, I told him that rather than reinventing the wheel, let me just pull songs I’ve done throughout my life and put them in an order that hopefully will allow for the narrative of the questions asked of me to bring it all together (I have a knack of finding my way back for where I need to be). We did it like a short while ago to great success and now that we have the Laurie Beechman lined up, I’m very happy that James Beaman, my director, is now available and has helped me give it a stronger narrative and shape, if you will. And our rehearsal process is that he throws out questions to me—I never know what he’s going to ask—and miraculously we have found that it’s working.
RF: What would you like for people to get from this show besides just seeing a side of you they’ve never seen?
RS: The big thing I want people to come away with is that it’s not just about me getting on stage and saying “Look at me! These are the songs I’m going to sing and the stories I want to tell,” but that it’s a real give and take between me and the audience. I love to entertain, and what I mean by entertain is dinner parties at my home and bringing people from different parts of my life together, that sort of thing. And I’m always reminded of something Carol Channing once explained to me; that for a show to succeed you need people from all walks of life. You need bricklayers, housewives, lawyers… that when you’ve got a group of people who are all the same ilk, it will not work. It came from this time I performed at a country club once and I had the worst experience. I called Carol and said, “I had the most miserable experience last night and told her about it.” She said, “Richard, they weren’t there to see you. They were there to see each other.” And that’s the difference.
So, what I want is for whoever comes to see this show to somehow come together and explore those dynamics and, with luck, make it feel like a party. I want it to be about the people in the audience because they are the reason I’m here now. It’s not just about me getting up there and saying look at me and what I can do.
RF: Anything you’re doing specially to insure this all plays out?
RS: I’m going to have question cards that will be passed out before the show starts, which I’ve done before. Only this time the cards will have a QR code that will take you to my website where anyone can read about me and see what’s in my biography. Hopefully that will prompt some interesting questions, even if I have no idea where it’s going to take me, depending on the types of things people are interested in. And that’s exciting for me and that’s the way I like to work.
RF: Is this just a one-time event or do you intend to take it on the road?
RS: I do have a booking for the show this summer in Provincetown. I’ll be returning to the Art House, where I performed last year, on August 4th. Then on the next night, August 5th, I’ll be doing Richard Skipper Celebrates “Hello, Dolly!”
RF: A excellent double-header for those in Provincetown this summer.
RS: And for those in New York City on May 30th—
RF: Go to the Laurie Beechman at the West Bank Café for Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Richard Skipper* (But Were Afraid to Ask).
For ticket information on “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Richard Skipper* (But Were Afraid to Ask)”, please visit: https://www.thebeechman.com/events/lbt25-rskipper-250530
Photos courtesy of Richard Skipper.