Hey, you'll want to tune in for this, especially if you have the kind of mania some of us have for The Three Stooges. Tomorrow afternoon on Stu's Show, my pal Stuart Shostak is going to be welcoming a terrific guest — Joan Howard Maurer, daughter of Moe and therefore niece of Curly and Shemp. Joan is a lovely lady who has helped preserve and advance the family legacy, and she has some great stories about what it was like to grow up in that clan.
(Note to Stu: Joan has more than enough great anecdotes about the Stooges to fill your two hours but make sure you get her to talk about her own work for charity, which has been most impressive. Also, get her to talk a little about her late hubby, Norman Maurer. Norman was a superb comic book artist (the one-time partner of Joe Kubert) and a fine writer-producer of motion pictures and animated cartoons. I was honored to work with him a few times as he was a nice, talented man.)
Joining Stu and Joan for two hours will be a couple of other folks who figure large into the Stooge world: Broadcasting legend Gary Owens, who was responsible for securing a star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame for the nitwits, and Lon Davis, co-editor of a new book about them. Matter of fact, I should plug Lon's book and not just because I have an essay in it…
It's called Stooges Among Us and it contains articles by folks who knew and/or worked with Moe, Larry, Curly, Shemp, Joe and/or Curly Joe. Books about funny people are often not very funny but some of this book is quite funny…and some is touching or at least passionate. You can order a copy here and if you have any interest at all in the Stooges, you'll enjoy it.
You'll also enjoy Stu's Show tomorrow. The show is done live at 4 PM Pacific (6 PM Eastern) and it airs for two fast-moving hours. To listen in — and you can even call in and participate — go to the website of Shokus Internet Radio at the correct time and do what the website tells you to do. You'll hear the show streaming live to you over your computer and you'll have a fine time. And if you really want to get into the spirit of things, you can poke yourself in the eyes and rip a few handfuls of hair out of your head.