Arts & Entertainment
Dan Hicks Aims for the Funny Bone
Longtime Mill Valley resident set to debut new concept show, "See You in the Funny Papers," Friday night set at 142 Throckmorton.
Anyone who’s been to a Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks show fondly recalls a moment when the head-bobbing and the foot-shuffling was briefly interrupted by side-splitting laughter induced by one of the Mill Valley songwriter’s witty one-liners.
For the fifth straight year, Hicks is debuting a new concept show at the , and this time, he’s mining that inimitably wry wit as a theme. Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks’ perform a set of humorous tunes like “How Can I Miss You When You Won’t Go Away” and “First I Lost My Marbles…” The tunes will be interspersed with images and sounds from classic movie and newspaper cartoons, as well as original work from local artist, cartoonist and animator Michael Lipman aka “Lippy.”
“The idea was to gather all the tunes of mine and maybe a few from others that I thought were kind of funny,” Hicks said. “The ‘Funny Papers’ name means, well, you’re kinda kooky – maybe I’ll see you in the funny papers. And it lent itself to the visual aspect of the show as well.”
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Hicks plans to draw primarily from his own catalog, including tracks like 1989’s “Is This My Happy Home,” in which the subject “is disenchanted with the way his wife doesn’t comb her hair,” Hicks said. “Laughing Song,” from 1987’s Striking It Rich, centers on a guy living on a deserted island entertaining himself by laughing.
“We’ve got a good repertoire of funny songs, and a lot of them we haven’t done in a while or we haven’t ever done,” he said.
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The Hot Licks will be joined by West Marin multi-instrumentalist Banana, best known as a member of the 1960s group the Youngbloods, who had a top 40 hit in 1969 with “Get Together.”
“Banana’s been in a couple of my capers in the past, and he’ll be playing all sorts of instruments, including dobro, some piano – even some saw,” Hicks said.
As for the music itself, “if it’s going to say Hot Licks on the bill, it’s going to swing,” Hicks said of the "Funny Papers" set. “And I’ll probably do a little pitter patter on who writes funny songs and a bit about my love of cartoons.”
Hicks typically heads out on the road in the fall, and he’s got live dates booked into April 2012, including a mini-tour of New England. He typically takes the concept shows he debuts at the Throckmorton on the road, and he’s still deciding where else to perform “Funny Papers.”
“It takes me time to do these little projects,” Hicks said. “Hey, I’m almost 70. I’m past retirement age.”
The 411: Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks perform “See You in the Funny Papers” at , Friday, Aug. 19 at 8 p.m. But tickets ($28 advanced, $31 day of show and $36 reserved seating) by calling the box office at 415.383.9600 or online at www.142throckmortontheatre.org.
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