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Where | KRCB-Windsor, 91.1 and 90.9 (Wait a minute! WINDSOR!!?) | ||
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As it turned out, the Berkeley theater company was no more successful than the Drama Departments of a couple of colleges, but it was a lot of fun (though pretty short-lived), not only for Roland but for a number of others who hitched their wagons to that particular star. Among them were two undergraduates, Howard Kerr and Richard Rollins, who soon found that their real identities were being members of a comedy team. A third comic, Wesley Hynde, worked with them for a while, but finally went off to Florida, where I believe he lives to this day. Howard and Richard honed their comedy, and hired themselves out to the rock dances of the 60s as an opening act. That worked well, and they began to write and perform comic radio commercials, particularly for KSAN-FM, the hippest of Bay Area music stations. Once in a while, I helped.
Finally, they attracted the attention of Fantasy Records, and cut two recordings of their routines, Revolting (1970), and Sophomoric (1972). Later, they put together a DVD and bonus CD package, featuring a film of one of their routines, Cedro Willy, and the bonus CD, called From the Vaults, several routines which they performed at San Francisco's Boarding House in 1974, plus a demo tape.
They did the morning radio show at KSAN-FM for a while, and managed to get me my first radio job in 1970. And what do you know? It worked, where college and theater...didn't.
On Friday, February 1st, 8 to 10 PM, I'll present samples of the Congress of Wonders' surviving works. All this happened a long time ago, and the guys, using their performance names Karl Truckload and Winslow Thrill, finally left show biz for other pursuits. So this Friday is a rare opportunity to sample comedy that's now nearly a half century old. Wow! Long Time!