EDDIE MEKKA
THE BIG RAGOO
FROM
"LAVERNE AND SHIRLEY"
I also met Eddie Mekka on the Roy Radin Vaudeville Revue. We became fast friends and have remained so over the decades. Eddie is one of the few, true, "Song and Dance Men" left in the business. He can sing, dance and act...occasionally like a fool...but that's mostly when he's off stage.
When I moved to Los Angeles in 1978, he was one of the first people I hung out with. We played on the out of work actors and musicians softball league and played a lot of Kamakasi Volleyball at his house. We worked regularly together for a couple of years and then Donald O'Connor got too busy and Eddie started carrying his own band. We lost touch when he moved to New York and then in 1993, I moved to Las Vegas and ran into Eddie, who had moved there a year prior. We started hanging out again and he asked me to help him put a new act together. Since then we have been all over the U. S., Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, the Philippines and South America. We have also done too many cruises to count.
Eddie's rapport with an audience is great. People feel like they are visiting a friend...a very talented friend, but a friend none the less. One night we were playing a condo in Florida. The stage was beautiful. It would rival any small theater stage in the country. In the act, Eddie would do a tap dance. The stage manager did us a favor and wanted to have the stage beautiful for us, so he put a couple of extra coats of wax on the stage, making it extremely slippery. When it came time to dance, Eddie told the audience that the stage was too slippery to dance, but he would try anyway. He had to tap very carefully and keep it small. When the show ended, we packed up our stuff and headed for the car. As we came out the stage door, there were several elderly couples waiting outside and a lone woman waiting off to the side. After Eddie finished signing the autographs, we went to the car. Finally, the elderly woman who had been off to the side approached. She put out her hand to Eddie, shook it and said "Eddie. You have a beautiful voice---Don't dance!". We both broke up. She was just so serious, but way too funny.
Another nice thing about the relationship between Eddie and me is that we both have daughters, about 9 months apart. Soli and Mia, Eddie's daughter, have been friends since they were about 2 or 3. They love hanging out together and Eddie and I can compare notes and commiserate about the trial of fatherhood.
In 2004, We collaborated on Eddie's first album. It was a lot of work, but I am extremely proud of the way it turned out. Eddie sounds wonderful and the musicians were the best to work with. Many of them went to Berklee with me and it was almost like a class reunion in the recording studio. Mac Dougherty, the guitarist, and I have worked together many times, in L.A., since leaving Berklee and Henry Newmark, the drummer, and I had not seen each other since our days at Berklee. The drummer we had for the date had to cancel and Henry came as a replacement and I didn't know it until I showed up at rehearsal, the day before the session. Of course, it is always a pleasure to work with Michael McDonald. He is always my first choice in engineers and is truly the best.
I hope you have as much fun listening to it as we did making it. It's been a long time coming for Eddie, but hopefully, it won't be a long time before the next one.
Mekka, his wife Yvonne and myself at her show "American Superstars"
"EDDIE MEKKA, WITH A LITTLE RAGOO ON THE SIDE"
Copyright 1994
Produced, Conducted and Arranged by Tim Fowlar
recorded at Private Island Trax - Hollywood, CA
For sale from this link below or from most online music sites
"Eddie is one of those rare talents that Hollywood should put to better use"
Eddie recently guest starred on "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia", on the FOX network,
with Danny Devito
CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT
Check out Mekka as a "redneck" in a music video on "Youtube"
http://youtube.com/watch?v=H_7a1D0412w
Travels with Mekka
OUR FIRST WORLD CRUISE
S S ROTTERDAM
The final cruise for this beautiful ship before it was decommissioned.
Our leg of the cruise was Honolulu to Tahiti
CROSSING THE EQUATOR
When you cross the equator, for the first time, it is a tradition that you kiss the fish.
BORA BORA
A beautiful, yet very small island. We drove around the entire island in 30 minutes.
Nice welcoming committee Our sightseeing companions from the cast
TAHITI
Gorgeous view from our hotel Romantic view and I have to be here with Mekka
We drank in this lagoon until dawn Last dinner with the departing cast from the ship
LOMBOC, INDONESIA
A Beautiful backward island
Amidst the straw huts and cows is the Lomboc McDonald's
HONG KONG
Hong Kong Harbor on a rainy day
Stanley Market. Great shopping Hong Kong McDonald's. They are everywhere
ECUADOR
Ecuador beach front restaurant and bar Mekka with the German bar owner drinking moonshine
Mekka's "MOON" over Ecuador Our total tab for 4 people was $14.00, including dinner.
SAN BLAS ISLAND
San Blas Island marketplace, off the coast of Costa Rica
SAN JUAN PUERTO RICO
Hooter's. My home away from home in Old San Juan
BLACKHAWK CASINO
Our Christmas show at the Blackhawk Casino near Denver, Colorado, with 6 dancers. Tough work and I obviously hated every minute of it. At least I didn't have to wear pajamas, like Mekka.
For more travels with Mekka, click on the gates above
click on this to see what's next
http://www.thesavvyclick.com/mekka.htm - great revue
MAIN I O'CONNOR I FISHER I BERLE I MEKKA I BARTY I RADIN I JAZZ FEST I PHOTO GALLERY
