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Wednesday, October 19, 2016

RAY SHASHO INTERVIEWS THE LEGENDARY RICH LITTLE ON BBS RADIO

THE RAY SHASHO RADIO SHOW WELCOMES MASTER IMPRESSIONIST & COMEDIAN

'R I C H L I T T L E'

A master mimic of more than 200 voices, Rich Little continues to impress with a touring schedule throughout the United States and Canada.

U.S. Presidents: John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, both George Bushes and Barack Obama…Rich Little has a voice for every administration.

Infamous for his skewering of political figures, Little has charmed, amused, intrigued and gotten the best of politicians from here to his native Canada. He entertained at both of Reagan’s presidential inaugurations and got to know the Reagans very well during that time. President Reagan used to tell Little, “You do me better than I do.”

A professed classic movie buff, he’s particularly fond of doing Jimmy Stewart, Jack Lemmon, John Wayne and Humphrey Bogart, but Little has also latched on to baby boomer-friendly characters, such as Paul Lynde, Kermit the Frog, Andy Rooney and Dr. Phil, to name a few.

Some of his favorite current impressions are of stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Jack Nicholson, and Clint Eastwood. “They’re easy to do,” he says. “They are larger than life.”

Little says, “An impression is what you think a person sounds like. It could be an exaggeration or a cartoon. It’s your impression. I think of an impersonation as more of an exact copy. Knowing the person personally is not important; it’s knowing the speech patterns and mannerisms [in order] to imitate the person the way the public sees him.”

The son of a doctor in Ottawa, Little started his “career” at the age of 12 when he answered back to his teachers in their own voices. Observing the teachers in action was infinitely more fun than paying attention to class work. To get dates, he’d find out a girl’s favorite actor, then call her up imitating that actor’s voice. Then when Little showed up, he’d say, “Sorry, Cary [Grant] can’t make it.” This stopped when a girl told him her favorite was Lassie.

Impressions came in handy to Little while working as a disc jockey and talk show host. During one April Fool’s Day marathon, he had “Jimmy Durante” emcee the morning show, “Julia Child” do a cooking show and “Elvis Presley” host a teenage show. Like the infamous 1939 broadcast of War of the Worlds, 500 autograph-hungry Elvis-believing fans besieged the station, thinking the King was really there. When they found out it was Little, the fans started throwing things at him.

Still in his early 20s, Little was discovered while working in the United States. His friend, singer Mel Torme, then on the musical team of CBS network’s The Judy Garland Show, asked him to make a tape. Instead of the usual impressions, Little did voices nobody did, including Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles and Dennis Weaver. Garland thought it was great, particularly his James Mason, and Little was signed to the show.

Appearances on TV variety shows starring Ed Sullivan, Jackie Gleason, Glen Campbell and Dean Martin followed, as well as on series such as Laugh-In, The John Davidson Summer Show and as a regular on The Julie Andrews Show. Little also had his own variety show in the 70s and was the star of the TV show KopyKats. Little was a guest host early on for The Tonight Show, hosting 12 times. He quickly became a household name sitting in one of the Hollywood Squares and went on to do The Muppet Show.

Named “Comedy Star of the Year” by the American Guild of Variety Artists, Little was the perpetrator of nine comedy albums and three HBO comedy specials, as well as the Emmy-award winning specials Rich Little’s Christmas Carol with “W.C. Fields” as Scrooge, “Humphrey Bogart” as one of the ghosts and “Paul Lynde” as Bob Cratchit.

One of his appearances on HBO was as Johnny Carson in the movie The Late Shift, which dealt with the race to succeed Carson on The Tonight Show. Little has appeared on the daytime soaps The Young and the Restless and Santa Barbara. He has made dramatic guest shots on Fantasy Island, Chips, and Murder She Wrote… to name just a few.

Rick’s greatest fear? A sore throat. “Other people get a cold and they just get a cold. I get a cold and John Wayne gets a cold, Orson Welles gets a cold, Nixon gets a cold and Truman Capote gets the sniffles. I get a cold and it’s all over.”

In June 1998, Little’s star was added to the Canadian Walk of Fame to go along with his current stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Palms Springs Walk of Fame and Las Vegas Walk of Fame; one of the few, if not the only celebrity to achieve all four.

In 2003, Little wrote a one-man play entitled, Jimmy Stewart and Friends in honor of this beloved actor and dear friend. The story of Stewart’s amazing big screen career, his military record and his family life, including many celebrity impersonations, was met with rave reviews during a decade of touring at performing arts centers.. He’s hoping to have it made into a television special in the near future.

A little known fact about Little is his other talent as an artist. He started sketching when he was young, drawing his family and friends. To date, he has drawn around 100 pictures of all the celebrities and politicians he imitates, and portrays several of these life-like charcoal sketches in his shows.

In January 2010, Little became a United States citizen and was sworn in, with a suggestion from the judge to do it as John Wayne! Little is still currently working on his latest project, “Little by Little” a self-written, humorous show about his life, featuring over 30 characters.

Rich Little has an exciting new book out entitled Little by Little- People I’ve Known and Been- released in August this year and available to purchase on amazon.com or visit www.littlebookbylittle.com