PopCult Rudy Panucci on Pop Culture

Radio Free Charleston, episode 130, “The Who Shirt,” is online now. That’s it right up there…see?

This edition of the show features a song from The Charleston Light Opera Guild, a jazz tune from C2J2, animation from Frank Panucci, and a couple of surprises.

At the yard sale

Host segments were shot at The East End Yard Sale last Saturday. See, that way we could shoot the host segments and shop at the same time. We didn’t buy much, but we did facilitate the transfer of a vintage MAC SE computer from Mark Scarpelli to Mark Wolfe, and that alone was worth the trip.

"Toledo Surprise"

Our first musical number this week is “Toledo Surprise,” from the Charleston Light Opera Guild musical “The Drowsy Chaperone.” We were invited to bring our cameras in to a dress rehearsal of the show last week, and in addition to the promo clip you saw in The PopCulteer, we managed to snag this entire tune.

Bryan Archer, Alan Smith, Lynn Bell, Susanna Tucker, part of a great ensemble

An added plus for me is that this gives me the chance to correct an oversight in the review of the show I posted here last week. In running down the standout members of the cast, which is uniformly excellent, I neglected to mention Alan Smith, who does a fantastic job of playing a classic movie comedy archetype, the slightly-shady boss. As our clip begins, you’ll get to see Alan, as “Feldzieg,” the producer, outsmart the two gangster/pastry chefs. It was such a classic comedy moment that I took the presentation to old-school extremes.

You can still catch “The Drowsy Chaperone” on May 13, 14, 20 and 20 at 7:30 PM and on May 15 at 3:00 PM at The Charleston Civic Center Little Theater.

I’m going to go a little “inside baseball” here and explain how I was able to overlook such a major performer in the show. Last week’s PopCulteer was written in 45 minutes at 1 AM, after I’d been up for 45 hours straight (and in that period I saw two excellent pieces of live theater, plus the movie, “Hobo With A Shotgun). Stick around, because at the end of these production notes, I have a little announcement that ties into that.

Are we not men?

Our animation this time is “Changes,” the 47th piece of DEVO Energy Dome animation by Frank Panucci that we’ve featured on RFC. This means that we barely have twenty-three thousand of these to use yet.

Skeen, Hudson, Mickel and Cannon, C2J2

Rounding out the show this week is C2J2, a jazz quartet consisting of four veteran maestros, Chris Mickel, Jamie Skeen, Chris Hudson and Josh Cannon. These guys have been playing out a lot lately, mostly at The Empty Glass, which is where we caught up to them two weeks ago. These guys are unlike anyone else in town. They have a great sound and are just awesome soloists in addition to playing as a cohesive unit.

At their shows, you can purchase a CD by the group. Check out their Facebook page for updates on upcoming shows.

One of the fun things we like to do on Radio Free Charleston is bring you “Easter Eggs,” those fun litle surprises that pop up after the end credits. This episode includes our longest one yet! And no, I’m not going to tell you what it is. You’ll have to watch the whole show.

Speaking of which, Radio Free Charleston 131 will be all bright and shiny online in three weeks! With episode 130 we achieved the feat of dropping 13 shows in 14 weeks, including one with a location shoot in Washington DC. We did that by stretching ourselves very thin, and now it’s time we took a couple of weeks to recharge our batteries. Rest assured, we will return to our masochistic pace in time to wear ourselves out again during FestivAll.