Skip E. Lowe was a one-time child star who spent many of his adult years running talent shows around Los Angeles and hosting a talk show on cable access. I wrote about him here when he left us but if you don't feel like clicking, you need to know this about him: He did hundreds of these talk shows, interviewing some pretty impressive folks in Show Biz and also a lot of people whose claim to fame was that they were, like, Buddy Ebsen's dry cleaner.
It is said that Martin Short modeled much of his Jiminy Glick character on Skip E. and the man's relentless fawning over anyone who'd ever done anything in or about The Industry. Every one of them was a legend and wonderful and fabulous and amazing. As you'll see here, he often didn't know much about his guests but if they were even peripherally in the entertainment field, that was good enough for Skip E.
This is a half-hour of his show taped in 1985 at the Theodore's Cafe in West Hollywood. Theodore's, which ain't there no more, was a major hangout for performers. Outta-work actors would gather there morning, noon and night to swap tips, to tell tales of when they worked, and to not sit home despondent because the phone wasn't ringing. Working ones would drop by and you could tell which ones they were because they ate and left.
The first half of this show is Skip E. interviewing the comedian Jackie Gayle. Mr. Gayle, who passed away in 2002, was one of those comedians whose career I never understood. He worked so much he must have made someone laugh but that did not occur during any of them dozen-or-so times I saw him performing. Pat McCormick, who's interviewed in the second half of this video along with Chuck McCann, once said of Gayle, "He must be funny if he's named Jackie."
McCormick was funny (he died in 2005) and McCann still is. Their chat with Mr. Lowe is why I'm posting this…so zip through Gayle and get to 10:40, which is when they start. That Lowe isn't that familiar with his guests is evident because he thinks Pat dealt in clean comedy and since Chuck practically has to itemize his whole career to his interviewer.
One other thing I might as well point out: At the beginning of the video, there's a shot of a wall of photos at Cafe Theodore's and they push in on an autographed pic of Chuck McCann. To the right of his photo is a picture of a lovely actress. That's Michele Hart, who was married for many happy years to a great comic book writer and artist named Don Rico. I should probably tell some stories here about Don, who passed away in 1985. Don was a good friend to me and Michele still is…