Dynomite!: Good Times, Bad Times, Our Times--A Memoir Read online

  At least I was upstaged by a teenager. I had already been upstaged by an eleven-year-old. I was booked for a gig at a civic center in Nampa, Idaho. Not Tampa, Florida. Nampa, Idaho. Outside Boise. Not even in Boise. But the place was sold out, and I saw more than a dozen media folks waiting—TV, radio, newspaper. I turned to the producer and said, “Wow, they all came out for this.” By “this,” of course, I meant “me.”

  “Oh, they’re not here for you,” he said. “They’re here for Trevor Hattabaugh.”

  “Who?”

  “He’s an eleven-year-old comedian who works around here.”

  “Oh.”

  “He’s opening for you.”

  “Oh.”

  The media rushed to a room backstage, where Trevor was with his mother. They asked him about the Funny Bone comedy club in Boise that had banned him because alcohol control officials said he was too young to perform there.

  None of the media talked to me. As Trevor took the stage, all of the cameras and reporters followed him.

  School used to be fun. Now all we do is study for standardized tests. I think it’s because of this new law called No Child Left with a Mind. Yeah, it’s working.

  He was the best eleven-year-old stand-up comic I have ever seen.

  As he exited I walked on stage—and all of the media left with him. So too did about a third of the audience. I could see the TV reporters in the back of the auditorium interviewing Trevor and shooting their set-up pieces for their nightly newscasts.

  I’m on stage, people!

  Show business is like a greased pole—even if you have climbed to the top, sooner or later you are going to slide back down. I still climb the pole every day. I may not reach the top again, but at least my butt is off the ground!

  In 2011 People magazine published a special edition titled “1000 Greatest Moments in Pop Culture 1974–2011”—and J. J. saying “Dyn-o-mite!” was among them. That word has been woven into the fabric of American life, something I never could have imagined when it first came out of my mouth.

  I will always be the guy in the floppy hat who said “Dyn-o-mite!” As Steve Crantz once said, “Your obit’s going to read: ‘Today the dyn-o-mite fizzled.’”

  It hasn’t all been “dyn-o-mite!” . . . but you should see the guy they sent to the ghetto.

  Acknowledgments

  Jimmie thanks Randie Gorbena, Diane Cantor, Kaye Morano, Harris Peet, Adam Chromy, David Brenner, Ben Schafer, Chuck Hurewitz, and Craig Glazer.

  Copyright © 2012 by Jimmie Walker and Sal Manna

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. For information, address Da Capo Press, 44 Farnsworth Street, 3rd Floor, Boston, MA 02210.

  Set in Goudy Old Style by the Perseus Books Group

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Walker, Jimmie, 1947–

  Dyn-o-mite! : good times, bad times, our times—a memoir / Jimmie Walker ; with Sal Manna.—1st Da Capo Press ed.

  p. cm.

  eISBN : 978-0-306-82110-3

  1. Walker, Jimmie, 1947–2. Comedians—United States—Biography. 3. Actors—United States—Biography. I. Manna, Sal. II. Title. III. Title: Dynomite.

  PN2287.W24A3 2012

  792.702’8092—dc23

  [B]

  2011049684

  First Da Capo Press edition 2012

  Published by Da Capo Press

  A Member of the Perseus Books Group

  www.dacapopress.com

  Da Capo Press books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the U.S. by corporations, institutions, and other organizations. For more information, please contact the Special Markets Department at the Perseus Books Group, 2300 Chestnut Street, Suite 200, Philadelphia, PA 19103, or call (800) 810-4145, ext. 5000, or e-mail [email protected].

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Foreword

  Chapter 1 - Our Times

  Chapter 2 - I’m from the Ghetto

  Chapter 3 - Stand-up for the Panthers

  Chapter 4 - Making It in New York

  Chapter 5 - Kid Dyn-o-mite!

  Chapter 6 - I Am Not J. J.

  Chapter 7 - The Whipping Boy

  Chapter 8 - Freddie, Richard, Andy, Mitzi, and Budd

  Chapter 9 - A Black Sheep among Black People

  Chapter 10 - The Late-Night War

  Chapter 11 - The N-Word

  Chapter 12 - On the Road

  Acknowledgments

  Copyright Page