December 6 - LYN BALDWIN
At 11:00 a.m., the room came to life when the spotlight focused on the very pretty, effervescent and talented vocalist, Lyn Baldwin. She surely held everyone's attention as she belted out one lively song after another, starting with "Almost Like Being In Love," "They Can't Take That Away From Me," and "Who Can Ask For Anything More."
A vocal powerhouse and a born singer, Lyn delighted us all with songs from the 40's: "By Meir Bistu Shein," "Alexander's Ragtime Band" and "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy."
Lyn brought smiles to many of the men sitting within a radius of 20 feet from the stage when she sang "Love Was Made For Me And You," sat on their laps, and wrapped her long red feather Boa around their necks.
Unfortunately, right in the middle of "I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby," Lyn's amplifier with her background music died along with the microphone. It was an awkward moment, but then the power was restored and she continued singing.
Next, Lyn took us to the 50's, 60's and 70's with "Rock Around The Clock," "The Twist" and "YMCA" and had everyone dancing in their seats.
After the meeting, we heard only favorable comments, and the concensus of opinion was that everyone enjoyed Lyn's performance.
Earlier in the meeting, the drawing of our annual Meeting Sponsor Lottery was held. The winners, Wilma and Mel Fishman, won free memberships to The Philadelphia Social Club for the year beginning March 1, 2010.
November 1st - The PsychoDramatists
Taking a break from the various singers who have performed for us at our monthly meetings, today we offered our members and guests something quite different and entertaining.
The Center for Group Counseling's PsychoDramatists perform skits depicting typical life situations and relationship conflicts. The scenes are roughly scripted, but actual dialogue is improvised. After each skit, actors remain in character and engage in an interactive discussion with the audience.
In addition to providing entertainment, psychodrama performances increase awareness and understanding of psychological and sociological issues. All actors are Center volunteers and proceeds from performances are used to help fund the Center’s free group counseling programs for children, adults, and seniors.
The performance this morning was titled, "Mothers-in-law and Daughters-in-law and other In-laws and Outlaws."
In the first act, there were four chairs on stage, depicting the living room of the Yenta know-it-all monster-in-law and her woosy husband.
Enter bitch daughter-in-law with an attitude (carrying her new born baby) and the woosy husband, a chip off the old block. Right from the start, Monster Mother is kvetching about the baby's name (Sydney) and insists on calling her "Cindy." Throughout the first act, Monster does everything possible to ruffle her daughter-in-law's feathers. Daughter-in-law is not afraid to open her big mouth to Monster and it is here where the laughs begin.
There were three skits and at the end of each one, audience members and guests (equipped with microphones) were able to challenge the characters on their behaviors, attitudes and actions. At this point, the cast would argue their point of view with the person in the audience challenging them.
In the second act, the daughter-in-law's parents were in the scene with Mr. & Mrs. Monster, and of course they did not see eye to eye with one another at all. Towards the end, other cast members were worked into the dialogue and at the very end, Bitch divorces Woos.
In my opinion, the presentation was a hoot and the actors were all quite good. Intermittently, when I looked around the room, I saw many smiles and heard lots of laughter. The hour went quickly and I for one was sad to see it end. (written by Dellie Rosen)
October 4th - Marty Kaye - Erudite and professional, Marty Kaye exhibited a touch of class as he entertained in his vested tux for an audience left mesmerized by a virtuoso exhibition of his Electronic Wind Instrument, EWI, as well as by his singing artistry. The EWI resembled a clarinet and provided the entertainer with the ability to produce the sounds of more than two hundred instruments.
The attentive audience was treated to several selections including the sounds of violin strings in a hauntingly beautiful rendition of “Windmills of Your Mind.” A magical piano was replicated
in Marty Kaye’s orchestration of “On A Wonderful Day Like Today.”
Marty‘s vocalizations demonstrated his great versatility from “Bei Mir Bist Du Shayn” to “Aishes Chayil” to “Hallelujah, Come On, Get Happy,” segueing to “Time to Say Good-By” in English and Italian.
His versatility was showcased further with popular Broadway show tune ballads from
“Carousel,” “Phantom of the Opera,” “Guys and Dolls,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Cabaret,” and “Kiss of the Spider Woman.”
The Tom Jones tribute finale of “Love Me Tonight,” “It’s Not Unusual,” and “Delilah” resulted in a well-deserved standing ovation from the delighted Philadelphia Club audience.
September 13th - Derrick Hadley
Many of our entertainers, as if apologizing, have told us, "I was entertaining late last night and had to wake up so early this morning." BUT you would never know it judging from their excellent performance at 11 a.m. Derrick Hadley was no exception; he was in rare form.
Derrick's deep powerful voice reverberated throughout the room while accompanied by Kenny Zerkoski on trumpet. Both men captured the audience while Derrick sang in the voice of Billy Eckstein, "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter." This was followed by a tap dance a la Sammy Davis, Jr.
Derrick's songs included Duke Ellington's "It Don't Mean a Thing if you Don't Have That Swing", Cab Calloway's "Minnie the Moocher", an impersonation of Nat King Cole's "Unforgettable", "Side by Side", "Only You", and "On the Street Where You Live".
As the morning progressed, Derrick got more and more into his routine and had members and guests dancing in their seats when he did his rocking version of "Twisting the Night Away".
Derrick really excelled when he brought us Motown in the late 50's and early 60's, doing the voices of the Temptations in "Here I Come", "My Girl", and "I'll be Around" by the Spinners.
Derrick received a standing ovation as he concluded with a deep and moving rendition of "God Bless America".
August 9th - Jose & Patti Davila - You can imagine yourself in one of the top showrooms in Las Vegas when Jose and Patti Davila performed for us at the South County Civic Center. To start, the stage was completely taken over by their very extensive state-of-the-art sound system. You could almost imagine a 20-piece band in the background. And then they began.
Their performance was both unique and amazing. Their voices were unique and it was amazing that they were able to choose songs as they went along from a repertoire of over 900. They first got the feel of what the audience preferred and then burst into song.
Accompanied by his guitar, Jose did a perfect Johnny Cash while Patti interjected a few loud "Hee Haws." They went from Doo Wop - the Everly Brothers' "Dream, dream, dream" to "Run Around Sue." They both did an outstanding duet - Patti as Barbara Striesand and Jose as Neil Diamond singing "You don't bring me flowers anymore." Patti sang "La Vie en Rose" in both French and English, and Jose did wonderful impersonations of Louis Armstrong singing "What a wonderful world" and Neil Diamond's "Coming to America."
Their performance continued for over an hour, encompassing Frank Sinatra and Paul Anka, but when Jose did Elvis singing "Don't be cruel," everyone was dancing in their seats. Another song that brought the house down was Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline," and long before their last number ended, mostly everyone was standing for a very well deserved ovation.
As so many people remarked, this was truly one of our best programs!
July 12th - Josie O'Donnell - Besides having an incredible singing voice, this effervescent redhead sure added a ton of zing and funny shtick to our July meeting. Josie could belt out tunes with the best of them and included in her repertoire, "How are things in Glockamora," "What America means to me," "La Vie En Rose," "Somewhere over the rainbow," "You made me love you," just to name a few.
Among her notable impersonations, Josie did a great Katharine Hepburn. Dressed in a long red sequinned gown, she added to her ensemble an impressive array of hats, including one that identified her as Carman Miranda.
What made Josie most outstanding was her ability to mingle with the audience and make them laugh. On stage, she was quite an exuberant personality and after an hour and fifteen minutes, Josie received a well deserved standing ovation.
June 14th - Myrna Goldberger - This highly talented speaker delighted our members and guests with fascinating true stories, focusing on unusual history that most had never heard before.
Ms. Goldberger related how in 1976, in celebration of the Bicentennial, the guest of honor at the White House was the Queen of England. According to protocol, after dinner, President Ford would have the first dance with Queen Elizabeth II. Much to everyone's astonishment, the band began to play "The Lady is a Tramp." Mucho big embarrassment!
Ms. Goldberger spoke about Cornelius Vanderbilt and his unusual connection with the invention of the potato chip.
In conclusion, Ms. Goldberger told us about the illegitimate son of a British nobleman who made a fortune, but always resented his father for never acknowledging him. The son, upon his death, willed his fortune in gold to the United States. The president, John Quincy Adams, used this legacy to start the world famous Smithsonian Museum and Institute in Washington, D.C.
As expected, Myrna Goldberger proved to be a master story teller and was without a doubt enjoyed by all.
May 3rd - Manny Silver - In honor of Mother's Day, Co-President Dellie Rosen brought her Jewish puppet "Shoiley" back to the stage. In a tribute to Mother's Day, her performance was called, "If they had a Jewish Mother", which ran the gamut from Lady Godiva to Dr. Ruth to Bill Clinton to Sarah Palin.
But the real laughs were brought on by singer/impersonator Manny Silver who, in between songs, peppered his act with some funny anecdotes emanating from his pre-schoolers at Temple Beth El. Also known as the "Swinging Cantor", Manny overwhelmed the audience starting with a medley of Frank Sinatra songs followed by Elvis Presley, Tony Bennett, Julio Iglesias, Dean Martin and Al Jolson.
After a prayer for peace in Hebrew, "Shalom Aleinu" and an Al Martino "Godfather" song in Italian, Manny ended with Elvis singing "America". How could we not like this incredibly talented singer - after all, he grew up in Philadelphia.
April 5th - Ben Kurland - Prior to Ben Kurland's appearance, Co-President Dellie Rosen delighted members and guests with more of her puppet, Shoiley Goldboig. There were questions submitted by our members that were read by Co-President Carol Weiss-Singer and answered by Shoiley. The topic was senior citizen sex and Shoiley got quite a few laughs.
BUT not as many laughs as when Ben Kurland took center stage. Ben was a 5-Star Hoot and the laughter was continuous for nearly an hour. A very funny, stand-up comedian from Philadelphia, Ben sure tickled a lot of funny bones and certainly lived up to his reputation, which has earned him the Best Philadelphia Monologist award from the Philadelphia Comedy Awards.
This was a most successful meeting, judging from all the guests who immediately put their names on our wait list to become members.
March 8th - Paid Up Membership Meeting with Special Catered Breakfast to celebrate the beginning of the new 2009 Membership Year.
When 300 Philly Club members entered the Civic Center's large meeting room, they found huge platters of bagels, lox and cream cheese on each table, just waiting for them to dig in. This was just the appetizer prior to being called up to the buffet stations, where an extensive array of breakfast delights awaited them. This included bacon, eggs, potatoes, sausage, blintzes, danish, cookies and coffee.
Many people were in the process of obtaining their breakfast; some just about starting to eat, when the sound of a siren's wail alerted us to a repeated message that there was a fire in the building. At this point, most members leisurely evacuated the room and went outdoors, until we were told it was safe to return. Apparently the caterers were warming food right outside the kitchen, which triggered the alarm.
Shortly after Carol Weiss-Singer and Dellie Rosen, Co-Presidents, began the meeting, Michael Rapposelli, the entertainer du jour, was called upon to introduce the Board of Directors for 2009-10; this being the start of the 6th year of the very successful Philadelphia Social Club of South Florida.
Prior to our Board leaving the stage, club member Diana Brown appeared. In a very moving speech, she thanked both Carol and Dellie for all the work they have done throughout the years and presented each one with an exquisite bunch of roses. Quite unexpected and appreciated.
After a few brief club announcements, Michael Rapposelli was introduced once again, who captivated the audience instantaneously. He immediately bonded with everyone, reiterating for those who had not seen him before that he hailed from South Philadelphia and was half Jewish. Mike is not a stranger to our stage and this was his 4th performance.
Michael began with a great impersonation of Arnold Schwarzenegger. His comedic talent was evidenced by his interpretation of Bert Lahr's Cowardly Lion if portrayed by John Travolta, Marlon Brando, Robert DiNero, Jackie Mason and others. As he continued, if one closed their eyes, they would have thought it was Elvis Presley, Billie Holiday, Satchmo Armstrong, and Sammy Davis, Jr. singing.
Most hysterical was when Michael stuffed a large turkish towel in his pants and roamed the audience in a perfect imitation of Tom Jones, complete with all the gyrations. As expected, several women threw dollar bills and house keys at him.
Michael did much more than sing. BUT when he sang, you never heard anything like it, especially his interpretation of "Bring Him Home" from the show "Les Miserables," dedicated to the troops in Iraq.
Mike performs with the sensitivity of a crooner and the power of an operatic tenor. Yes, we were indeed fortunate to be in his audience on Sunday and certainly look forward to his return next year!
2/8 - Julia Langley came to our stage Sunday morning portraying the consumate showman that she is.
For 50 minutes, she kept the house rocking with songs like "Jambalaya" (on the Bayou) and "Mack the Knife" plus a bit of country/western and a medley of some popular tunes relating to New York (we'll forgive her for that).
She surely held everyone's attention as she belted out one lively song after another, with a voice that was truly incredible. Quite a bundle of dynamite, it was apparent that she captivated the audience. After her performance, we heard only favorable comments, and the concensus of opinion was that Julia Langley is truly a star!
1/11/09 - Our January meeting got off to a flying start when Co-President, Dellie Rosen, took center stage with her new 25" puppet, Shoiley Goldberg. Shoiley had the audience in stitches as she told of her arrival in Boynton Beach by UPS AND an explosive love affair emanating from a dating service. This bit of entertainment was quite unexpected. It was not publicized, but everyone seemed to LOVE Shoiley.
The actual professional entertainer was a wonderful singer who now resides in South Florida - Steven Leeds. With his warm personality and powerful voice, he stole the hearts of many women in the audience as he sang to them a la Frank Sinatra. Not realizing ours was a Philadelphia Club, Steven sorta had his hoof in his mouth when he was about to sing "New York, New York," but at the last minute, cleverly altered the lines to pertain to Philadelphia. To sum it up, everyone left the room smiling. |
