Shut Up, He Hates Larry David podcast is locking down locked-down listeners

As we asked earlier this week: He hates who??  BURT KEARNS’ appearance on a “very special episode" of the popular podcast SHUT UP I LOVE IT is becoming an instant favorite among locked-down listeners.

Burt, known for his book Tabloid Baby until the recent publication of The Show Won’t Go On, his and Jeff Abraham's recent bestseller, tells hosts Sasha Feiler and Jay Hunter the very personal reasons behind the axe he continues to grind against... Curb Your Enthusiasm's Larry David.

There's a great lesson to be learned here. Somewhere.

LISTEN HERE or HERE or wherever great podcasts can be heard.

SHUT UP I LOVE IT! on FACEBOOK

No illusion: The Show Won’t Go On is featured in a special show at the world-famous Magic Castle

Photo by AMA Archivist Taylor Wong

The Show Won’t Go On show went on in one of the most historic, exclusive and mysterious venues in show business last night as authors Jeff Abraham and Burt Kearns brought their multimedia presentation to the hallowed Inner Circle of the world-famous Magic Castle in Hollywood.

David Regal regales the crowd  (Photo by AMA Archivist Taylor Wong)

Acclaimed magician and writer David Regal was a witty, knowledgable and entertaining moderator as he led Abraham and Kearns through stories from the fast-selling book -- along with a few others.

                                                                    (Photo by AMA Archivist Taylor Wong)

Photo by AMA Archivist Taylor Wong

The Magic Castle is the exclusive members-only meeting place for the elite magicians of the world, so many of their stories told Tuesday night focused on the untimely deaths of magicians, incuding Chung Ling Soo (whose biggest secret is revealed in the book), "Amazing" Joe Burrus (who in his own way managed to earn a place alongside the great Houdini), and the many who attempted the bullet catch -- unnscuccesfully.

Photo by AMA Archivist Taylor Wong

There were also stories of  performers who “died doing what they loved” in the fields of classical music, comedy -- and even lion-taming.

Getting down to business after the show (Photo by AMA Archivist Taylor Wong)

The Magic Castle appearance had special meaning for Jeff Abraham, who in his youth was a "Junior Magician” at the Castle, as the audience saw in a projected photo -- Jeff and other young prestidigitators surrounding the legendary magician Dai Vernon (aka “The Professor”) on the occasion of his eighty-eighth birthday in 1982.

Dai Vernon & the Junior Magicians (photo by Victoria Jackson)

Yes, The Magic Castle has a dress code. 

Special thanks to Paul Green, Ben Roman, Rick Manfredi, the technical team and the chef, among others, at the world-famous Magic Castle...

Montreal Times: 'The Show Won’t Go On' is one of Best Books of 2019

The Show Won’t Go On, the new book by Jeff Abraham and Burt Kearns, got a surprise boost mid-January when the Montreal Times announced its Best Books of 2019. And yes, the compendium of “The Most Shocking, Bizarre, and Historic Deaths of Performers Onstage” is among them.

Critic Stuart Nulman wrote:

The Show Won’t Go On by Jeff Abraham and Burt Kearns – Who knew that a collection of true stories about well-known or obscure entertainers who literally faced their final curtains onstage could be such a morbidly-fascinating, read-in-one-sitting book? This duo has managed to take a depressing subject on the surface and turn it into a bizarre, yet engrossing catalogue of more than 300 years of final curtain calls ranging from heart attacks to onstage mishaps, which befell upon a variety of unsuspecting performers, whether they were comedian Dick Shawn, British comedian/magician Tommy Cooper, or 1960s entertainment curiosity Tiny Tim.

The Times is only one publication that rated the book from Chicago Review Press as one of the best of 2019.

Sadly, the accolades came days before another performer passed away onstage. Americana singer-songwriter David Olney paused midsong at the 30A Songwriters Festival in S. Walton Florida. He said, “I’m sorry,” and closed his eyes. Forever.

Ugly Things magazine has a pretty, pretty, pretty good review of The Show Won’t Go On

Ugly Things? Pretty Cool! That’s the word from our pals Jeff Abraham and Burt Kearns, as the revered music magazine offers the latest praise for their book, The Show Won’t Go On: The Most Shocking, Bizarre, and Historic Deaths of Performers Onstage.

Noted writer, critic and editor Alan Bisbort reviewed the book from Chicago Review Press  in #52, the Winter 2019 issue of the  jam-packed rock ’n’ roll magazine that celebrates “wild sounds from past dimensions.” Bisbort wrote that the book is “touching... dramatic"... and that the authors "have combed the morgues of entertainment history to offer more than mere titillation.

“Though their book charts moments of human tragedy, the treatment does not feel cheap or exploitative. Rather, they use the death as a means by which to reexamine the careers of the fallen and set the stage, so to speak, for their swan songs... All of these performers may have fallen, but their beats will go on, thanks to Abraham and Kearns."

The issue also features an extended interview with coauthor Kearns.

From the Ugly Things interview with
The Show Won’t Go On coauthor Burt Kearns

Ugly Things was founded in 1983, is based in La Mesa, California, and edited by Mike Stax. It focuses on beat, garage rock, and psychedelic music from the 1960s. The magazine’s name? It’s a tribute to the rock and blues band, The Pretty Things.

Buy this issue 152-page issue and other Ugly Things merch by clicking this sentence!

Click here to follow Ugly Things on Facebook.

Visit The Show Won't Go On website for lots of extras.

And Abraham and Kearns’ appearance with Shut Up I Love It podcasters Steven Cohen and Sasha Feiler at Stories Books and Cafe in Los Angeles’s Echo Park is now a bonus episode of Shut Up I Love it.

The Show Won’t Go On goes on author's arm

The Show Won’t Go On tattoo, freshly inked on 21 December 2019

Burt Kearns, who, with Jeff Abraham,  wrote The Show Won’t Go On: The Most Shocking, Bizarre, and Historic Deaths of Performers Onstage, has commemorated the publication with a different kind of ink.

Crankee of the Inkpire Tattoo Studio in Northridge, California, was the artist.  Kearns also has a tattoo for his book, Tabloid Baby.

Buffalo News excerpt from 'The Show Won’t Go On' features native son Dick Shawn

The Buffalo News of Buffalo, New York published an excerpt from The Show Won’t Go On: The Most Shocking, Bizarre and Historic Deaths of Performers Onstage in its Sunday Gusto section on December 8.

The adapted passage centers on brilliant comedian Dick Shawn, who died onstage in 1987, and as a special introduction to the excerpt showed, never forgot his roots in upstate New York.

“FIVE OUT OF FIVE STARS!” New Zealand gossip legend loves ‘The Show Won’t Go On'

 

11th November 2019

I’M not one to gossip but…………........................I have just read an amazing book called “The Show Won’t Go On” by Jeff Abraham and Burt Kearns, and trust me there has never been a show business book quite like this one. To my knowledge this is the first comprehensive study of a bizarre phenomenon: performers who died onstage.

Throughout the 224 pages it covers almost every genre of entertainment, and is full of unearthed anecdotes, exclusive interviews, extremely colourful characters, and ironic twists thrown into the mix. Not to mention heart-stopping stories, thrown in for good measurement. What’s also nice about this well produced book,  is there is a photo section in the book of many of the people they talk about.  Jeff and Burt have done an amazing amount of researching for their book, including a story on a magic act that not even the person who runs the New Zealand’s magician’s archives knew about. You can see the cutting below. Their account of this little unknown fact is absolutely true.

Booklist said: “A wonderful read for those looking for a unique twist on true crime.” 

I happily award The Show Won’t Go On, five out of five stars. By the way this book was not sent to me by publisher for a review, I bought it online.

David Hartnell at Wikipedia

The Show Won’t Go On at Amazon.com

Only in Hollywood: Dearly departed performers from 'The Show Won’t Go On' take center stage at the iconic Dearly Departed Museum

The Dearly Departed Artifact Museum was the liveliest place in Hollywood yesterday afternoon as The Show Won't Go On roadshow made its latest stop on a stage that included remnants of the late Tiny Tim and the cremains of Ken Weatherwax, who portrayed Pugsley on television's The Addams Family.

Hollywood legend Scott Michaels of the Dearly Departed Tours and Museum
introduces the authors of The Show Won’t Go On 

Yes, it was that kind of afternoon in the coolest, most fascinating and most deeply Hollywood museum in the world, let alone that mythological section of Los Angeles.  While movie fans queued across Santa Monica Boulevard for a screening at the Hollywood Forever cemetery, Dearly Departed founder Scott Michaels, an acclaimed pop culture expert and author in his own right, introduced authors Jeff Abraham and Burt Kearns, kicking off a dramatic yet often hilarious discussion of performers who walked onto a stage... and had to be carried off.

Is Jeff breaking into song? No... well, maybe.

Burt makes a point, with Karl Wallenda looking on over his right shoulder.

The Show Won't Go On: The Most Shocking, Bizarre and Historic Deaths of Performers Onstage was published in September by Chicago Review Press.  The book has been praised by the publications as diverse as Vanity Fair, the UK Telegraph, the Daily Mail and Vanish magic magazine  (*****), while Abraham and Kearns have lit up many radio shows and podcasts (including one dedicated to their shared obsession with Jerry Lewis -- more on that later).  

The deadly duo have also led discussions and book signings at various venues in Southern California, including the landmark Book Soup on the Sunset Strip and the horror haven Dark Delicacies in Burbank.

A portion of Ken Weatherwax’s cremains are on respectful display at the Dearly Departed Artifact Museum

But no site was more fitting than the Artifact Museum, ground zero for the very popular Tragical History Tours of Hollywood and beyond, and the Charles Manson-themed Helter Skelter tour (given a great boost by  the popularity of Quentin Tarantino's Oscar-touted Once Upon A Time in... Hollywood, the film on which Michaels was a consultant).  

The museum includes displays that include rare, valuable, and significant memorabilia from Manson victim Sharon Tate, the cremains of Michu, the late "world's smallest man" (which is how he fit into the Alf costume on television) and the car in which fifties sex symbol Jayne Mansfield lost her wig (but not, as legend has it, her head) and her life in 1967.

The book event took place in the museum's front room, with a seating arrangement similar to that of wake, with Abraham and Kearns placed in the spot where a casket might be placed, flanked by a display of Tiny Tim (who died after an onstage tumble in 1996) and a framed photo and autograph of circus legend Karl Wallenda  (who famously said "To be on the wire is life," and found that to fall from the wire into a parking lot is death).

 

Wayne Federman, who will be starring in the final season of Silicon Velley on HBO.

Celebrities in the crowd included popular comedian, actor and podcaster Wayne Federman and the entrepreneur, writer and most significantly, bondswoman known and treasured by Hollywood's finest as "Raquel, Queen of Bail.” 

To the left of the photo of Scott Michaels with Burt & Jeff's pal Bruce Vilanch is a shot of Scott with Jack Russell, 
whose tragic gig with his Great White band at The Station nightclub in Rhode Island is featured in The Show Won't Go On.

The Show Won't  Go On  book tour rolls on this week with a special appearance at the Stories Books and Cafe in Echo Park.  This discussion promises morbid fun, as it will be hosted and moderated by comedy hotshots Sasha Feiler and Steve Cohen, cohosts of the popular Shut Up I Love It podcast (the  one that featured the instantly-historic episode on which Jeff and Burt defended Jerry Lewis and his maligned yet unseen film, The Day The Clown Cried).

Next stop... Tuesday

Authors Abraham & Kearns’ 'Show Won’t Go On' roadshow rolls into Hollywood & Echo Park October 19 & 22

The show is most definitely going on in Los Angeles later this week for the pair Vanity Fair has called  “show business and pop culture savants.”  Jeff Abraham and Burt Kearns, authors of The Show Won’t Go On, will be out and about in Los Angeles for more unpredictable, informative and often hilarious discussions and signings of the book about “The Most Shocking, Bizarre and Historic Deaths of Performers Onstage.”

The pair takes their show to the Dearly Departed Artifact Museum in Hollywood on Saturday afternoon, October 19 at five p.m.  Museum founder Scott Michaels, an author and celebrity in his own right, will host the event amid a unique collection of celebrity death memorabilia, from “The Jayne Mansfield Death Car” to the cremated remains of Michu, the little star of Big Top Pee Wee and Alf.  Michaels is best known as for his Dearly Departed Tours, which offer essential tragical history tours of Hollywod from star's homes to death sites.  

On Tuesday, October 22 at 8 p.m., Abraham and Kearns will meet the crowd at Stories Books and Cafe in Echo Park. The event at the book lovers’ oasis and literary hotspot will be hosted and moderated by the podcast stars of Eagle Rock.  Improv performer and comedy writer Sasha Feiler and comedian Steven Cohen host the popular Shut Up I Love It podcast.  Abraham and Kearns were guests on the show in September, defending their hero, Jerry Lewis, and his unseen yet often-maligned film, The Day The Clown Cried.

Cohen & Feiler of Shut Up I Love It

The Show Won't Go On, published by Chicago Review Press, has received great acclaim from the likes of Vanity Fair, the UK Telegraph and Daily Mail, National Public Radio — and Gilbert Gottfried.  The book, audiobook and ebook are all available at bookstores, Amazon and other online bookstores -- and through the website, TheShowWontGoOn.com.

Watch this space for the latest on events by The Show Won’t Go On team.

JEFF ABRAHAM AND BURT KEARNS, authors of The Show Won't Go On: The Most Shocking, Bizarre, and Historic Deaths of Performers Onstage:

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19 at 5 pm:  DEARLY DEPARTED ARTIFACT MUSEUM, 5901 Santa Monica Blvd, HOLLYWOOD

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22 at 8 pm: STORIES BOOKS & CAFE, 1716 Sunset Blvd,  ECHO PARK 

The New York Post recommends ‘The Show Won’t Go On’!

Subway riders, other commuters, and executives getting ready for the day got a special recommendation to go with their bagels, coffees and Trump news this morning from New York City’s venerable tabloid,  the New York Post: The Show Won’t Go On!

The book about The Most Shocking, Bizarre, and Historic Deaths of Performers Onstage has been doing gangbusters wherever books are sold, as authors Jeff Abraham and Burt Kearns sweep the nation via exclusive radio interviews, sweep the worldwide web as top podcast guests, and are sweeping rave reviews in an ever-increasing number of rave reviews and laudable articles.

The Show Won’t Go On: A dark, delicate subject gets a lively response at Burbank’s legendary Dark Delicacies bookstore

The Dark Delicacies “home of horror" book store and gift shop in Burbank was the second stop for  the "died-onstage" roadshow by Jeff Abraham and Burt Kearns, authors of The Show Won’t Go On: The Most Shocking, Bizarre, and Historic Deaths of Performers Onstage.

Just as the book highlight the careers and final scenes of performers from many genres of the performing arts, so was the crowd that jammed the aisles at Dark Delicacies Saturday afternoon populated by major players in from all walks of show business, including television, film, literature, memorabilia broadcast journalism -- even professional wrestling.

Dark Delicacies owners Del and Sue Howison were gracious hosts for the event, and the ever-witty and cheerful Del launched the discussion by introducing guest moderator Mark Evanier. The renowned writer, producer, show business historian and comic book and cartoon legend brought real insight and knowledge to the questions fielded by Abraham and Kearns in a lively -- and laugh-filled affair.

Mark Evanier had the questions.

Asked by Evanier if they're planning a sequel, the authors responded with exciting news, saying they have many more stories of deaths onstage -- and are already working on a book that focuses on deaths of movie and television stars and stunt people -- on camera.

Jeff Abraham makes a point

Hours earlier, Abraham and Kearns had been featured on National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition Saturday program, in an interview with host Scott Simon. Simon revealed that he had personally experienced a “death onstage” thirty years ago, when haiku poet Nick Virgilio suffered a fatal heart attack in the NPR studio while Simon was interviewing him.

Burt Kearns lists the six -- or seven -- performers who died onstage in recent weeks

THUMBS UP from television news correspondent and producer Doug Bruckner 

Dark Delicacies is known for its gleeful embrace of death, and the Howisons managed to give Burt  a chill when they mentioned that actor Dick Miller, filmmaker Larry Cohen and wrestling legend and They Live star “Rowdy" Roddy Piper -- all died within weeks of appearing at Dark Delicacies signing events!

A lively affair...

More Southern California dates are ahead for the deadly duo of Abraham and Kearns: October 19 at the Dearly Departed Artifact Museum in Hollywood and October 21 at Stories Books and Cafe in Echo Park.

The Day The Critics Cried: 'The Show Won’t Go On’ authors defend Jerry Lewis’ lost Holocaust film on the Shut Up I Love It podcast

The authors of The Show Won't Go On: The Most Shocking, Bizarre, and Historic Deaths of Performers Onstage go back to their roots, lay it on the line and challenge the conventional snark propagated by some of the biggest names in comedy, in an appearance on the popular comedy podcast, Shut Up I Love It.

Jeff Abraham and Burt Kearns defended their obsession during the ninety-minute podcast hosted by comedy performers and writers Sasha Feiler and Steve Cohen. Shut Up I Love It "celebrates those aspects of pop culture that make you go OOH and others go YUCK.”  In this case, in the podcast episode launched this morning, the topic is Jerry Lewis, and his infamous lost Holocaust drama from 1972, The Day The Clown Cried.

Two guys one mic

Abraham and Kearns are recognized Jerry Lewis aficionados.  Abraham is a top Hollywood publicist, show business historian and comedy archivist.  Kearns is a documentary writer, producer and director.  The pair met when Abraham represented Kearns' 1999 book, Tabloid Baby.  They bonded over a love of Jerry Lewis.  Abraham had worked and spent time with Lewis often.  Kearns had a production job on one of the Jerry Lewis Telethons and was allowed unprecendented access behind the scenes of the telethon when filming a documentary report in 1989.

Steven Cohen and Sasha Feiler in the podcast studio

On the podcast, Feiler notes that Kearns has not one but two Jerry Lewis tattoos on his arm.

“These aren’t fake Jerry Lewis fans, just trying to hop onboard the hype train,” Cohen points out.

“Absolutely,” Abraham says. "I sit here wearing my Jerry Lewis watch and shirt."

"Why are you asking us to shut up and love him?” Feiler asks the authors.

"He's also been a very divisive figure in entertainment," Kearns says.  "Some people love Jerry Lewis. Some people hate Jerry Lewis."

Due to rights issues, lawsuits and other factors, The Day The Clown Cried was never released, and for forty years the only word on the subject -- the single review -- came from satirist Harry Shearer.  In a 1979 article for Spy magazine, Shearer claimed to have seen a bootleg version of the film and compared it to “a painting of Auschwitz on black velvet.”  Decades later, hipster comedian Patton Oswalt produced mocking readings of the script on stages in Hollywood and New York, laughing and denigrating at Lewis along the way. In part because of these comics who actually owed so much to Lewis, The Day The Clown Cried became a joke.

In recent years, however, clips from the film have surfaced. A German assembly of the footage, combined with dramatic readings of missing scenes by the film’s actors, created a 31-minute rough cut that led to a reappraisal of the work.

"It’s unfortunate that Shearer, who seems to revel in the snarky spotlight, turns out to be the movie’s sole critic," Richard Brody wrote in The New Yorker. "If these clips suggest anything of the rest of the film, any tastelessness, sentimentality, or clumsiness of Lewis’s effort would be beside the point. He was working in the dark, in a self-inflicted state of moral shock, and attempting the impossible."

On the Shut Up I Love It podcast, Abraham and Kearns go farther. 

After the team summarizes the script and quality of the production, Kearns actually states: "I think it's an Oscar-worthy film. I think Lewis' performance is an Oscar-winning performance."

Comedy talents Feiler and Cohen are left to weigh the evidence and give their verdict as to where Jerry Lewis and The Day The Clown Cried land on the Shut Up I Love It spectrum. 

 And as they do in The Show Won’t Go On, Abraham and Kearns are rewriting history with their frank and honest appraisal of The Day The Clown Cried!

The podcast was videotaped for posterity.

Burt Kearns & Jeff Abraham surround the SHUT UP I LOVE IT team, Sasha Feiler, consultant and technical adviser Jay Hunter and Steven Cohen