PINE NUTS – A Call from Mark Curtis

I had a call this morning from Reno advertising guru, Mark Curtis, inviting me to tell, in five hundred words or so, how I got into portraying Mark Twain. Mark might possibly include this brief exposé in his impending coffee table book, One of a Kind (Part Two), due out right around Thanksgiving. I was happy to assure Mark that such a request would make for an enjoyable undertaking…

In 1983 I had the best job in the world, a job my father thought should be illegal, that of a morning radio host on the Valley Island of Maui. I was off the air at ten o’clock and riding a wave at ten after. I had everything a Maui Boy could ever want, except skiing. 

So I booked a cabin at Lake Tahoe for five days and was so excited I could hardly sleep that first night. But it snowed five feet overnight and my little cabin was buried. I made the mistake of opening the front door and it took me an hour to get it shut again. I thought it was the worst stroke of luck to ever befall this Maui Boy, but in fact it was the best…

I played darts for two days, then my elbow gave out, so I sat down and picked a book off the coffee table, The Complete Essays of Mark Twain. I had cabin fever by then so my brain was soft, and that seed was planted in fertile ground. The next thing I knew, fast forwarding a little, I was lecturing at Leningrad University in Russia in a white suit, and they were treating me like an elder statesman. They even let me climb inside Sputnik Two, but I’m getting a little ahead of myself.

As it took them five days to plow up to where I was snowbound, I did not get to ski, but I accrued some more vacation time and returned to Tahoe for another chance. In a now much appreciated God Wink, a lady riding up Ski Incline with me in the chair asked what I did. I told her and she put her hand on my arm…

“I’m starting a radio station up here at Tahoe, how would you like to host the morning show?” I took a look over my right shoulder at that beautiful blue lake, and in the next two weeks I would trade my surfboard for a brand-new pair of skis. That providential chairlift ride would springboard me to a rewarding 37-year career portraying Mark Twain in Nevada schools, across America, into Europe, and yes, even into Russia. How lucky is that?

Thank you, Mark Curtis, for inviting me to be a small part of your big coffee table book, and I wish you every success. I shall purchase of copy myself, if Big Daddy Lerude will float me a loan… 

Audio: https://open.spotify.com/show/7Fhv4PrH1UuwlhbnTT23zO