Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Danny Donuts Releases New Christmas Music Comedy CD!
Forty years ago the Beatles released “Abbey Road” and Danny Donuts was conceived. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of both of these rock and roll masterpieces, Danny Donuts is releasing his second Christmas Music Comedy CD, entitled “Crabby Road”, a parody-medley of the entire Beatles album.
“Abbey Road is famous for that side 2 medley which includes Mean Mr. Mustard, Polythene Pam, She Came in Through The Bathroom Window and ends up with the awesome drum solo and battling monster guitars on The End. So I thought what would it be like if the entire album was a medley… with a Christmas theme? I don’t know if anyone has ever done a parody of an entire album before.”
Donuts enlisted his pals from The Fest for Beatles Fans and had faith it would all “Come Together” (the first song on Abbey Road)
“We put this whole thing together in Gintas’s living room. He has this awesome computerized musical playland in his house. Big D e-mailed us music files from Southern Indiana. He laid down a bass line and played his 12-string guitar along to a click-track. We then brought in Bob Dobro from Liverpool Legends who did his magic on keys. Gintas added drums, some bass, electric guitar, sound effects and background vocals. We recorded all the vocals in an all-night marathon recording session, finishing up in the wee hours of December 23rd, 2008. Since there wasn’t enough time to give it a proper release for last Christmas, we’re releasing it right before Thanksgiving. It’s never too early for Christmas music when that music is your favorite Beatles’ songs!”
Donuts also honors the day after Thanksgiving and Hanukkah. Sun King becomes Retail King and Because (The Hanukkah Version) has a little Jewish boy asking an elder questions like why he doesn’t get to go to the mall to wait in line for a chance to sit on a fat man’s lap.
Donuts’ first Christmas Music Comedy album, “Wacky Winterland” has gotten national and local radio airplay on The Doctor Demento Show, Terri Hemmert’s Breakfast With The Beatles on WXRT, WLUP’s Jonathon Brandmeier Show, and WGN’s Steve Cochran Show.
Copies of Crabby Road will be available at the CD Release party on Saturday, November 21, at Donuts on Ice on December 2nd, The Danny Donuts Holidaze TrolleyDaze Lights Tour on December 12 and online at DonutsnJoe.com/Stuff2Buy
Friday, October 09, 2009
Tickets On Sale 10.10@10!
Tickets for The Danny Donuts Holidaze TrolleyDaze Lights Tour on 12/12 go on sale Saturday Morning October 10 at 10am. Only 30 tickets will be sold and tickets will only be sold online. The online box office has been moved to DonutsnJoe.com
Sorry for the inconvenience, but we can serve you better at DonutsnJoe.com
Use your credit card or PayPal Account to purchase tickets.
Good Luck and I hope to see you on the Jolly Trolley!
Thanx,
Danny
Sorry for the inconvenience, but we can serve you better at DonutsnJoe.com
Use your credit card or PayPal Account to purchase tickets.
Good Luck and I hope to see you on the Jolly Trolley!
Thanx,
Danny
Saturday, October 03, 2009
10-10 at 10 Buy Tickets Here
This is the place to buy Tickets for the 2009 Danny Donuts Holidaze TrolleyDaze Lights Tour!
Stop back on October 10th at 10am (10/10 at 10:00am)
Stop back on October 10th at 10am (10/10 at 10:00am)
The Holidays Lights Tour throughout downtown Chicago will take place Saturday December 12 from 7pm to 9pm (12/12). The 30 lucky ticket holders will be treated to a holiday party like no other… wacky songs and Christmas comedy by your host, Danny Donuts, the Jolly Trolley Trivia Game Show with your chance to win cool stuff, all the bright lights and Christmas cheer you can handle, and complimentary Christmas cookies, hot cider and hot chocolate will all be served on board. It’s open to all-ages and tickets are $15 per person. Some internet rumors have been circulating that a second tour might be added if the first one sells out. That alleged tour would be from 9 to 11pm but we have been unable to get confirmation on these rumors.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Danny Donuts In: The Case of The Stolen Donutmobile
It was a sunny morning in the city of Chicago. It’s not often a private eye like me sees the morning sun, but today was different. I was working on my new van. It wasn’t much of a looker, but I got a good deal on it… $450. Purchased it from a shady character in a shady part of town… 130th and Torrence. The guy had me meet him in the parking lot of a closed-up greasy spoon. He claims he didn’t know much about it… the van, not the diner. Fellow owed him some money so he gave him the van. I didn’t care. He had the title and everything looked legit. And besides, some guy is driving around town in the van that was stolen from me and he doesn’t have a title or keys. Come to think of it, he doesn’t have brakes either. I needed to get something and I needed something fast.
When my stolen property is recovered, I’ll be glad of my recent acquisition… seeing as though I bought a duplicate make, model and year. Yep, another 1993 Plymouth Grand Voyager. I could use some parts and my old van definitely had parts. My cell phone rang. It was Dave. He got some mail over at the old place and it looked official. Holding it up to the light he could see it was a Notice of Violation from the guys down at City Hall. I gave him permission to open it, even though I knew he already did that. A photo of my last van. Parked on some street neither Dave or I had ever heard of. You know the street is obscure when Dave the Limo Guy has never heard of it. They nailed me for $50 for a missing front license plate. It had the plate before it was stolen. This was the clue I was waiting for.
I rounded up some accomplices and went to steal it back. Hoped no one would be sleeping in it when we found it. We found Fuller Street, a sad little angled street only 3 blocks long, bordered by Archer, the river and the old quarry and underneath the tracks and the Stevenson. We came up empty. The picture was taken two weeks ago. Who knows where it is now. Just like a plumber has leaky pipes and a builder lives in an unfinished house, I can crack any case in this town except my own.
My new van ain’t so bad. I’m kind of getting attached to it. She’s got 170,000 miles on her, but she wears ‘em well. I put a couple of ironing boards on the roof rack so the hoodlums will think twice about stealing this one. You just don’t steal a van from a guy who puts ironing boards up on the roof. You don’t know what kinda nut you’re dealing with… and what he’s capable of doing if he catches ya. Here’s a picture of the new ride.
As far as Donutmobiles go, this is like the Super hero of Donutmobiles, so I’m calling this one The Super Donutmobile. They can’t keep me down. This time they got away, but it’s only a matter of time before the next ticket comes in the mail. I’ll keep ya posted on any new developments.
When my stolen property is recovered, I’ll be glad of my recent acquisition… seeing as though I bought a duplicate make, model and year. Yep, another 1993 Plymouth Grand Voyager. I could use some parts and my old van definitely had parts. My cell phone rang. It was Dave. He got some mail over at the old place and it looked official. Holding it up to the light he could see it was a Notice of Violation from the guys down at City Hall. I gave him permission to open it, even though I knew he already did that. A photo of my last van. Parked on some street neither Dave or I had ever heard of. You know the street is obscure when Dave the Limo Guy has never heard of it. They nailed me for $50 for a missing front license plate. It had the plate before it was stolen. This was the clue I was waiting for.
I rounded up some accomplices and went to steal it back. Hoped no one would be sleeping in it when we found it. We found Fuller Street, a sad little angled street only 3 blocks long, bordered by Archer, the river and the old quarry and underneath the tracks and the Stevenson. We came up empty. The picture was taken two weeks ago. Who knows where it is now. Just like a plumber has leaky pipes and a builder lives in an unfinished house, I can crack any case in this town except my own.
My new van ain’t so bad. I’m kind of getting attached to it. She’s got 170,000 miles on her, but she wears ‘em well. I put a couple of ironing boards on the roof rack so the hoodlums will think twice about stealing this one. You just don’t steal a van from a guy who puts ironing boards up on the roof. You don’t know what kinda nut you’re dealing with… and what he’s capable of doing if he catches ya. Here’s a picture of the new ride.
As far as Donutmobiles go, this is like the Super hero of Donutmobiles, so I’m calling this one The Super Donutmobile. They can’t keep me down. This time they got away, but it’s only a matter of time before the next ticket comes in the mail. I’ll keep ya posted on any new developments.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Viva Las Beatles!
Each year there are two weekends that I partake in that recharge my batteries, remind me who I really am and light me up like The Las Vegas Strip. Every August since 1997 I’ve attended Chicago’s Beatlefest (now known as the Fest for Beatles Fans). I haven’t missed one yet and I’ve performed on the big stage each year. And since 1999, I’ve gone to at least one therapeutic humor conference each year, although I missed out on the laughs last year. The therapeutic humor conferences have always been in February, March or April so the early spring laughter has been able to sustain me into the late summer music fest.
What would happen if I somehow combined these experiences? Although the New York/New Jersey Metro Fest for Beatles Fans happens in March and there is a Fest in Las Vegas in July, I made my first trip to Las Vegas this past April Fools Day and my weekend was filled with both Therapeutic Humor and the Beatles! I was invited to take part in the annual Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor (AATH) Conference as both the MC for our Friday night member showcase and as a co-leader for Saturday afternoon’s therapeutic clown field trip to an assisted living center. AATH gave us Saturday night off to go play in Vegas and I learned a long time ago to never go home the day the conference ends, so we had Sunday night open as well.
I’ve wanted to see LOVE, the Beatles’ Cirque du Soleil show since it opened in 2006. All of my Beatles’ pals loved it and I knew I would too, but could I get tickets? Could I afford to go? I looked into several options for discounted tickets and it came down to the stressful “let’s see if we can get half-priced tickets at the day of show discount booth.” All the usual worrisome thoughts filled my head… “What if they’re sold out? What if only the most expensive seats were discounted? What if I come all the way out to Vegas and I don’t get to see LOVE?” While I attended the morning keynote presentations at the conference, Barb went out to score the tickets. She has an amazing talent at producing the proverbial golden ticket at times like this, so I knew I was in good hands, but just how it would unfold remained a mystery. The Tahiti Village time-share condo sales team was out in full force and they had the cheapest tickets if we would sit through two hours of their repulsive sales pitch, but then Barb found a decent deal and bought tickets for the Sunday night early show. We were going to see LOVE!
I forgot about the Beatles-themed Revolution Night Club in the Mirage until we got there. I remember hearing that people weren’t too impressed with the club and I’d agree with them but I took some cool pictures of the Beatles Song Title Double Wall. A metal wall with Beatles song titles cut out of the metal reveals a hot pink wall with all the other song titles written in various styles, sizes and fonts. Very cool.
I’m not going to review LOVE. All I can say is, if you haven’t seen it, go see it. It’s a sensory overload experience that can give you a psychedelic trip without partaking in mind-altering substances. It was real interesting for me to watch the dynamics in the lobby before and after the show. While people are waiting in line for their $11 glasses of wine and $6 buckets of popcorn, they are listening to these great Beatles songs being played on the speakers, but few people react. I’m all jazzed up from the humor conference and I’m finding it odd that everyone in the lobby is all caught up in the “we’re on our best behavior because we’re going out to the theatre this evening” mentality. This is the perfect opportunity for a big Beatles sing-along, but for the most part we stand in single file lines like zombies. After the show is a different energy. People have allowed themselves to turn off their minds, relax and float downstream. Older ladies who might have been the cool moms in 1964 are now twisting and singing along. Smiles, wide eyes and loud voices fill the same lobby 90-minutes after it was inhabited by zombies. What if we lived our lives like that… ready to party at every opportunity instead of waiting for permission or appropriate times before we let loose?
The humor conference took place at the Riviera but we stayed down the street at the Sahara. Our local guide, Bob Brye, once upon a time from Ludington, Michigan told us they have better rooms and better deals. Two of the nights we stayed for $32! On our first trip up to the room I noticed the Beatles pictures and found out we were staying in the same tower the Beatles stayed in almost 45 years ago on the night of their one and only performance in Las Vegas.
Well, I had to go on the pilgrimage to see their room and documented it with these photos.
As a performer, there’s something about being able to say, “I played Vegas.” Of course when you get out there the game seems to be “whoever has the biggest advertising budget wins!” And not all venues are created equal. They say the LOVE Theater in the Mirage cost over $100 million to build… and then there’s the stage in the Sahara casino where a band called
Sixties Mania played for 4 hours each night, 5 nights a week. They pretty much supplied background music for the gamblers in the casino, although they had some tables and chairs and a small dance floor in front of their very simple stage. They always had people in the seats and a few would even venture out onto the dance floor. For some, this was their wedding reception. The bride had a T-shirt with “BRIDE” written on it and wore a white skirt. The groom had a tuxedo T-shirt. We were pretty exhausted from laughing all day, but we couldn’t go up to the room without sitting down to listen to a song or two each night. No, we didn’t hear them do any Beatles songs, but I noticed the bass player played left-handed. And then I noticed he had a Hofner bass sitting on stage behind him. But then the strangest thing was when he had on his glasses, he looked and acted exactly like John Lennon, more so than most of the Beatles’ look-alike bands I’ve seen. He is a big Beatles’ fan and hails from Australia, where the Sixties Mania band originated… “Imagine all the Aussies… Living life with sheep… yoo-hoo…”
With all of the Beatles parodies I’ve done at the Fest for Beatles Fans, maybe the icing on the cake would be performing a Beatles parody in Vegas. As the MC for the AATH Friday night member showcase, I had that opportunity, but chose to open the show with an Elvis parody instead. You can watch my “Viva Las Vegas” parody slide show presentation below. My version is called “Laughing in Vegas”… which is how I spent my Las Vegas vacation.
What would happen if I somehow combined these experiences? Although the New York/New Jersey Metro Fest for Beatles Fans happens in March and there is a Fest in Las Vegas in July, I made my first trip to Las Vegas this past April Fools Day and my weekend was filled with both Therapeutic Humor and the Beatles! I was invited to take part in the annual Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor (AATH) Conference as both the MC for our Friday night member showcase and as a co-leader for Saturday afternoon’s therapeutic clown field trip to an assisted living center. AATH gave us Saturday night off to go play in Vegas and I learned a long time ago to never go home the day the conference ends, so we had Sunday night open as well.
I’ve wanted to see LOVE, the Beatles’ Cirque du Soleil show since it opened in 2006. All of my Beatles’ pals loved it and I knew I would too, but could I get tickets? Could I afford to go? I looked into several options for discounted tickets and it came down to the stressful “let’s see if we can get half-priced tickets at the day of show discount booth.” All the usual worrisome thoughts filled my head… “What if they’re sold out? What if only the most expensive seats were discounted? What if I come all the way out to Vegas and I don’t get to see LOVE?” While I attended the morning keynote presentations at the conference, Barb went out to score the tickets. She has an amazing talent at producing the proverbial golden ticket at times like this, so I knew I was in good hands, but just how it would unfold remained a mystery. The Tahiti Village time-share condo sales team was out in full force and they had the cheapest tickets if we would sit through two hours of their repulsive sales pitch, but then Barb found a decent deal and bought tickets for the Sunday night early show. We were going to see LOVE!
I’m not going to review LOVE. All I can say is, if you haven’t seen it, go see it. It’s a sensory overload experience that can give you a psychedelic trip without partaking in mind-altering substances. It was real interesting for me to watch the dynamics in the lobby before and after the show. While people are waiting in line for their $11 glasses of wine and $6 buckets of popcorn, they are listening to these great Beatles songs being played on the speakers, but few people react. I’m all jazzed up from the humor conference and I’m finding it odd that everyone in the lobby is all caught up in the “we’re on our best behavior because we’re going out to the theatre this evening” mentality. This is the perfect opportunity for a big Beatles sing-along, but for the most part we stand in single file lines like zombies. After the show is a different energy. People have allowed themselves to turn off their minds, relax and float downstream. Older ladies who might have been the cool moms in 1964 are now twisting and singing along. Smiles, wide eyes and loud voices fill the same lobby 90-minutes after it was inhabited by zombies. What if we lived our lives like that… ready to party at every opportunity instead of waiting for permission or appropriate times before we let loose?The humor conference took place at the Riviera but we stayed down the street at the Sahara. Our local guide, Bob Brye, once upon a time from Ludington, Michigan told us they have better rooms and better deals. Two of the nights we stayed for $32! On our first trip up to the room I noticed the Beatles pictures and found out we were staying in the same tower the Beatles stayed in almost 45 years ago on the night of their one and only performance in Las Vegas.
Well, I had to go on the pilgrimage to see their room and documented it with these photos.
As a performer, there’s something about being able to say, “I played Vegas.” Of course when you get out there the game seems to be “whoever has the biggest advertising budget wins!” And not all venues are created equal. They say the LOVE Theater in the Mirage cost over $100 million to build… and then there’s the stage in the Sahara casino where a band called
Sixties Mania played for 4 hours each night, 5 nights a week. They pretty much supplied background music for the gamblers in the casino, although they had some tables and chairs and a small dance floor in front of their very simple stage. They always had people in the seats and a few would even venture out onto the dance floor. For some, this was their wedding reception. The bride had a T-shirt with “BRIDE” written on it and wore a white skirt. The groom had a tuxedo T-shirt. We were pretty exhausted from laughing all day, but we couldn’t go up to the room without sitting down to listen to a song or two each night. No, we didn’t hear them do any Beatles songs, but I noticed the bass player played left-handed. And then I noticed he had a Hofner bass sitting on stage behind him. But then the strangest thing was when he had on his glasses, he looked and acted exactly like John Lennon, more so than most of the Beatles’ look-alike bands I’ve seen. He is a big Beatles’ fan and hails from Australia, where the Sixties Mania band originated… “Imagine all the Aussies… Living life with sheep… yoo-hoo…”
With all of the Beatles parodies I’ve done at the Fest for Beatles Fans, maybe the icing on the cake would be performing a Beatles parody in Vegas. As the MC for the AATH Friday night member showcase, I had that opportunity, but chose to open the show with an Elvis parody instead. You can watch my “Viva Las Vegas” parody slide show presentation below. My version is called “Laughing in Vegas”… which is how I spent my Las Vegas vacation.
Friday, January 02, 2009
Blossom Tribute
In Loving Memory of Blossom the Wonderdog
April 17, 1997- December 30, 2008
Here is my slide show tribute.
Speakers On, Kleenex Handy, Roll the Film...
April 17, 1997- December 30, 2008
Here is my slide show tribute.
Speakers On, Kleenex Handy, Roll the Film...
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
More Hearse Pictures
I'm selling my hearse. Read the entry below this one for more details and more pictures
Hearse For Sale
I'm selling my Hearse. This was the Danny Donuts Tour Bus that I traveled cross-country in back in 1999! I have a 1-man show about that experience.
1989 Buick LeSabre Hearse $1500 or will trade for a London Taxi
142,000 miles
307 V-8 engine
Trailer Hitch (because you CAN take it all with you!)
Rear Air Shocks (for that extra load or a cool lift)
Rear inside door handle (I used the hearse as my camper and see, hearses don't come with inside door handles. Ya know not too many people get the opportunity to crawl out of the back of a hearse and start a brand new day!)
I have the creepy curtains and a homemade set of fun-print curtains
New exhaust and catalytic converter
New brakes and brake lines
Pictures are from last year. The pink letters and purple paint is almost all gone and it's back to the original black vinyl top. Runs great! Super smooth ride. e-mail: dannydonuts@hotmail.com
1989 Buick LeSabre Hearse $1500 or will trade for a London Taxi
142,000 miles
307 V-8 engine
Trailer Hitch (because you CAN take it all with you!)
Rear Air Shocks (for that extra load or a cool lift)
Rear inside door handle (I used the hearse as my camper and see, hearses don't come with inside door handles. Ya know not too many people get the opportunity to crawl out of the back of a hearse and start a brand new day!)
I have the creepy curtains and a homemade set of fun-print curtains
New exhaust and catalytic converter
New brakes and brake lines
Pictures are from last year. The pink letters and purple paint is almost all gone and it's back to the original black vinyl top. Runs great! Super smooth ride. e-mail: dannydonuts@hotmail.com
