Greg Adams Short Story

We missed the last few weeks of short stories that Greg writes on the East Bay Soul facebook page, so we will be publishing a couple of them this week.  Greg wrote the following item on September 5th.

Greg writes: Sunday Feb. 25, 2007. "I was called to do the Jimmy Kimmel as a supplimental musician at the last minute. The call time was for 10:00 AM. I never turn down TV. The dough is good and you get your mug on the boober, hopefully. Which is never a bad thing, right? The night before I was at ...Spaghettini's in Seal Beach with my band featuring Deniece Williams. The plan was to go to their Sunday brunch and sing, play and sign CDs. Instead, Andrea took Deniece to brunch while I drove to Hollywood for my early call time. I later learned they had eggs benedict and smoked salmon. It is an excellent spot for a brunch with great food.


The reason I just went through that last thing about food was that I was not going to see much that day in the way of quality sustainence. No eggs benny for me. We had instruction to park at a designated lot about a mile away. We would then be shuttled in to the studio where the show was taped. Oh, I forgaot one little thing: It was Oscar night across the street at the Kodak Theater. Security? Oh boy. The police basically shut down the entire area of Hollywood and Vine. They do not want any surprises. They even seal manhole covers. They wanted everybody on the Kimmel in and buttoned up by noon

There were 5 of us on the cast for the show. Violin, cello, clarinet, flute, French horn and yours truly on trumpet. The guests that night were Ellen DeGeneres, a new and relatively unknown singer named Gaga and Dr. Phil. That's when we found out our fate. All 5 of us were going to be transformed to Dr. Phil clones. Oh, and two of our group were women. And one of the girls was Asian. And one of the guys is black. What the %#&@! How are they gonna pull that one off? In make-up for about 3, yes 3 hours and I guess anyone can be made to look like Dr. Phil. Perish the thought. Everyone except myself had flesh color skull caps applied. I did not need one. Be kind everyone. Thank you. Then the ring of hair was applied, I got that because of my short blond hair, where I still have it. Oh, and the moustashe. Somewhere along the line in this endless day we were allowed to go to the commissary for lunch.

After lunch we were taken to wardrobe. Since it was Oscar night they are fitting us all in tuxedos. Of course, ill fitting tuxedos at that. Wouldn't have it any other way, right? Now here's the good news. It's now about 4 PM. We don't go on the air until midnight!! That's TV for you. Hurry up and wait. Of course we did camera blocking and several rehearsals, but it was brutal. I was sure earning my money that day. After the run throughs we just hung around in our dressing room watching TV.

Also on the show was a girl who at the time was one of the cast of a game show I can't remember the name of. Howie Mandel was the host and there were all these babes with silver Halliburton briefcases walking down stairs in unison. Anyone out there remember that show? Anyway, this girl, Anja was her name, was a ravishing blonde. I'm sure she still is. She was hired to be in a skit during the show, and she really didn't have a dressing room so she hung with us. After introducing myself, I told her that my trumpet was a Monette AJNA. Anja. Ajna. Get it? She didn't. Showtime is finally here! By now the girls are starting to freak out about the the hair and makeup thing. Hell, all of us were. All these hours in this get up and we are only on stage for about 2 minutes. We lip synched something to play the good Dr. to the desk with Jimmy. When we were finished, you never saw 5 people run to a dressing room so fast in your life. You don't want to see someone changing? Turn your back. So, here were 5 people pulling wigs, facial hair and clothes off in record time. By the time everyone turned around, we were all dressed. Up to makeup to get cleaned up and to the shuttle to get the you know what out of there...

Fast forward to about 6 months ago. I sat in with Huey Lewis And The News at the Club Nokia here in LA. Kimmel, who hangs with Huey and the guys when they are in town, was there to introduce them for the show. Huey introduced me and I related the story of that show to him. He remembered all too we...ll. "That was brutal for you guys, huh?" he said. "Yeah." I said, " But you can call me back anytime. Just as long as it's not Dr. Phil"."

For more on Greg Adams go to his web site at http://www.gregadamsmusic.com/ or http://www.eastbaysoul.com/.  If your on Facebook you can find these stories as they are originally writtn at www.facebook.com/pages/East-Bay-Soul/89889972722?ref=ts