Post #566916 by congawa on Mon, Nov 29, 2010 10:25 AM

John-O, great stuff! I can't think of The House Without a Key without thinking of Charlie Chan (the first Chan novel was called that, and was apparently named after the bar where some of it takes place). Essentially the House Without a Key is to Charlie Chan as John's Grill in San Francisco is to Sam Spade.

Sorry to hear Buffett has infiltrated Don Ho's spot at the Beachcomber. I saw Don there in December 1996, and will always remember it. I went to Oahu with my hot rod band Del Noah and the Mt. Ararat Finks to play a surf industry-related gig with the Ziggens (this was when Eric Wilson of Sublime was playing bass with us in Del Noah).

We got into Waikiki on late Friday afternoon, and I was bummed because Arthur Lyman played the New Otani during lunch every Friday, so we missed him by about 3 hours. Miguel of Skunk Records (who set up the show we were playing) had arranged/schmoozed us into the Don show on the guest list. This was at the time Don was trying to promote his daughter Hoku, who was about 15 at the time, into a show biz career (she did indeed become a brief Britney Spears-type pop star about 3 years later), and he knew (or his managers told him) that Skunk was a hot label with Sublime's success, so before the show (at the meet-and-greet in the outdoor entry to the theater, where Don did his photo-ops in his white chair) he had Hoku introduced to Miguel. A little later I saw the protective father in Don come out a little bit, when it seemed to him that Miguel was getting a little too "friendly" with his daughter!

We got our picture taken with Don as a band. I got to sit in Don's chair (I thought we'd have time to change clothes between getting off the plane and going to Don's, otherwise I would have dressed more nicely than a t-shirt)--Vince is next to me, and Eric, Blair and Mudd are at top surrounding Don.

Then--showtime! Don Ho's show operated like clockwork. Don sat in front of his piano with an earpiece, and his director talked to him through it the whole time, telling him what dedications were coming up, what guests, etc. His typical crowd, as you'd expect were retirees, some on 50th anniversaries, having birthdays and other special occasions which were all relayed to Don via his earpiece (names, places, dates, etc.). And it was obvious how tired Don Ho was of being "Don Ho," and doing the same songs and the same greetings and dedications for several shows a night. However, he also realized long before that it was impossible for him to f#@$ up his career: he was DON HO, and no matter what he said or did, any retirees coming to Waikiki HAD to see Don Ho, so he was in that golden place for entertainers where his career was virtually un f#$%-uppable.

He had enjoyed a few cocktails before and during the show, was just ripping on the retirees he was saluting with anniversaries and birthdays (tons of death and can't-get-it-up jokes), in what would almost be mean-spirited ways if he didn't have a smile on his face. When it came time to introduce "Tiny Bubbles," he said "God how I hate this song!" and we all felt his pain. But it was a fun show. Eric, and Jon from the Ziggens, got to go up and jam with Don on bass and percussion for a couple of songs. Don put on a great show, even though it was stage-managed within an inch of its life. Definitely an experience I'll always remember, especially now realizing that not only is Don gone, his former home has been Buffetized.

Caltiki Brent