Aside from the obvious weirdness from being sheltered in place the last six…er, eight weeks (but who’s counting, right?), there have been some little slivers of a silver lining. I’ve been having a lot of fun doing a weekly livestream on Facebook – Saturdays at 4:00pm PT . Besides getting the opportunity to play for new people AND raise a little money for The Teen Kitchen Project – it’s given me a nice chance to dust off some old songs I haven’t played in ages. Case in point: “Tuesday Nights at Eight,” my tribute to the comedy legend Red Skelton.

Last week, we lost two other comedy legends: Jerry Stiller and Fred Willard. I decided to kick off last weekend’s show by talking about them, and then segueing into this tune that saluted some comedy stars from a few decades back. The CD track (below) appears on my last full CD, “Hey Karma”. It’s a sparse tune, just me, my ukulele, and some old TV sound effects for atmosphere to kick off the song.

The inspiration for this tune is a nice tale: Years ago, when my wife and I were dating, we were in a Lake Tahoe casino jewelry store. I suddenly heard a voice that took me back three decades. It sounded like my childhood hero Red Skelton telling jokes. Couldn’t be, right? We looked over, and there he was, entertaining a small crowd. The salesperson saw us and asked, “Would you like to meet Mr. Skelton”? (Seriously.)

She walked us over, and we introduced ourselves. I’ve heard you shouldn’t meet your heroes, especially if they’re celebrities. They might be rude or not measure up. Mr. Skelton was EXACTLY like you’d picture him: Warm, friendly, and – I was doing standup at time – eloquent in his advice to “Always work clean. Some of these new comics think they need to be blue. But just be funny, son”. He even signed my business card.

Mr. Skelton asked my now-wife if she wanted an autograph. She said, “I just want a hug!” He obliged and then drew a custom “Red Skelton” clown on a bag he was holding, tore it off, and gave it to us. A wonderful moment, and I got a song out of it.