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news
Dr. Demento to
visit
By Michael Watanabe
On-line Forty-Niner
Dr. Demento, the
famous radio show host who discovered "Weird Al"
Yankovic, is scheduled to be on campus today at 2 p.m. in
the Daniel Recital Hall presenting a century of comedy on
records as part of the Odyssey program.
Formally known
as Barret Hansen, Demento will be presenting recorded comedy
throughout the 20th century. Demento plans to include rare
recordings from his personal collection of hundreds of thousands,
also known as Demento's Archives.
Demento became
interested in the Odyssey program after a chance encounter
at the airport with Saundra McMillan, a film and electric
arts professor, he said. She had recognized him from his show,
and invited him to make an Odyssey presentation.
Demento hosts a
weekly two-hour radio show that combines music and comedy.
Often, he will play funny songs by amateur and professional
songwriters, including the Long Beach-raised Spike Jones,
and Yankovic.
"I play all
new and old recordings of all kinds of funny music,"
Demento said. His recordings range from original work to parodies,
he said.
The choice to become
a radio disc jockey was not a surprising one for Demento.
His father was a pianist, and he took lessons himself at age
six. But, at 12 he discovered a local thrift shop that carried
old 78 rpm discs for five cents each. Thus, the Demento Archives
were born.
But Demento was
not always a comedy specialist. He studied rock ‘n' roll,
particularly rhythm and blues and country. Rolling Stone hired
him to write two chapters on R&B in their Illustrated
History of Rock & Roll.
Demento received
his education at Reed College in Portland, Ore. as a classic
music major. He then went on to UCLA, where he wrote his master's
thesis on the evolution of R&B in the 1940s and 1950s.
He went through
a number of various jobs before working for KPPC-FM in 1970
where he became Dr. Demento, playing favorites such as Spike
Jones, Tom Lehrer, Stan Freberg, Monty Python, and Frank Zappa.
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