Greetings from Hollywood!

Hope you've had a good week. I've been here in LaLa Land the last few days performing and doing show business stuff. Anxious to get home. I miss my little puppy Krypto. She's a six month old Bichon and I was warned that they get separation anxiety when away from their owners. I wasn't warned that I'D get separation anxiety being away from her!

I didn't have time to get to too many extracurricular things this week, but I do have a couple of recommendations for you.

BOOK

BARNUM: An American Life by Robert Wilson is the first new biography of P.T. Barnum to be published in a generation, and it's a fascinating read. Turns out most of the things I thought I knew about the man were incorrect.

Yes, he began his career as a huckster presenting Joyce Heth, a slave he claimed was the 146-year-old babysitter of George Washington and the Fiji Mermaid (the top half of a monkey corpse sewn onto the bottom half of a salmon), but he was so much more than that. He was a statesman having been elected to office numerous times, an abolitionist, a crusader for temperance and, of course, a showman.

Most of all he was a person who, especially as he got older, cared deeply about the American people and did his best to try and bring a little joy to their lives. Whether he was presenting the diminutive General Tom Thumb or the celebrated opera singer Jenny Lind or any of the various museums he founded and oversaw, he felt that the people deserved some thrills, enjoyment and education in their lives. Today, he's offhandedly compared to the current occupant of the White House. Nothing could be further from the truth.

This is an EXCELLENT biography. I enjoyed it so much, I'm going to read it again.

READ IT!

MY CURRENT TV OBSESSION

I was down with a bug for a few days and got hooked on Mecum Collector Car auctions.

Mecum is known as the world leader in selling classic vehicles and I’d glance up at the TV in the gym from time to time and see cool old cars. In the gym, the sound was down and that piqued my interest.

One day I set my DVR to record them and I ended up with recordings of three auctions totaling about ten hours. What a great thing to watch while sick in bed!

I’m a car guy and I loved seeing everything from 1940s Kaisers (I didn’t know Kaiser used to make cars. If they broke down, did you have to talk to an Advice Nurse before you could see a mechanic?) to classic Mustangs to the 1971 Chevy Malibu I drove in high school that went for $53,000. How I wish I still had that car.

The sale I couldn’t get over... $35,000 for a 1975 Chevy Vega. A VEGA. Those cars leaked so much oil you needed access to a refinery to own one.

The auctions run on the NBCSN sports network and the next one will be broadcast from Louisville on 9/20 and 21 when they’ll auction off 600 vehicles.

Question: Out of all the cars you’ve ever owned, which one do you wish you still had and why?

Drop me a line at copie@briancopeland.com and I’ll use some of the best comments in a future edition of Copie’s Choice. If you’ve got a picture of your long lost beauty... send it!

RESTAURANT

THE FRONT YARD
When I was a kid watching game shows like Truth or Consequences or The Newlywed Game, I often noticed that they'd give away stays at the Beverly Garland Hotel. Ms. Garland was a film actress best known as the eventual wife of Fred MacMurray in the later seasons of My Three Sons. Well, The Garland, as it's now named, has undergone a cool retro sixties remodel and it has a wonderful restaurant called The Front Yard. It features terrific California cuisine and serves a skirt steak that melts in your mouth.

The Front Yard is located in The Garland at 4222 Vineland Avenue in North Hollywood. Next time you're in the Los Angeles area, check it out!

PERFORMANCES

Here's where you can catch me live in the coming weeks!

Upcoming Shows:

The Great American Sh*t Show: Monologues on life in the era of Trump:
SEPTEMBER 21: Altarena Playhouse, Alameda, CA, 7:30 PM
NOVEMBER 7: Castro Valley Performing Arts Center, Castro Valley, CA, 7:30 PM (Tickets on sale next week)
NOVEMBER 14: Marin Center, San Rafael, CA, 7:30 PM

Not a Genuine Black Man:
SEPTEMBER 18: The Stephanie Feury Theatre, Los Angeles, CA, 7:30 PM
SEPTEMBER 20: Altarena Playhouse, Alameda, CA, 7:30 PM
SEPTEMBER 26: The Marsh, San Francisco, CA, 7:30 PM
SEPTEMBER 28: Tabard Theatre, San Jose, CA, 8 PM

The Waiting Period:
SEPTEMBER 22: The Marsh, San Francisco, CA, 2 PM (FREE!)
OCTOBER 5: Douglas Morrison Theater, Hayward, CA, 8 PM
OCTOBER 12: El Cerrito High School, El Cerrito, CA (FREE!)
OCTOBER 26: The Marsh, San Francisco, CA, 8:30 PM (FREE!)
OCTOBER 27: The Marsh, San Francisco, CA, 5:30 PM (FREE!)

Grandma & Me: An Ode to Single Parents:
(Workshop performances of my newest play)
OCTOBER 19 & NOVEMBER 2: The Marsh, San Francisco, CA, 8:30 PM
NOVEMBER 16 & 23: The Marsh, San Francisco, CA, 5 PM

The Jewelry Box:
NOVEMBER 30: Douglas Morrison Theater, Hayward, CA, 8 PM
DECEMBER 1: Altarena Playhouse, Alameda, CA, 5 PM
DECEMBER 6: The Marsh, San Francisco, CA, 8 PM (Tickets on sale soon)
DECEMBER 7: Castro Valley Performing Arts Center, Castro Valley, CA, 7 PM (Tickets on sale next week)

Have a wonderful weekend!

Copie

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