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Access Atlanta > Blog > Archives > 2006 > November > 05 > Entry
Comic pokes fun at himself, NASCAR fans
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The standup comic truism is you can make fun of minorities as long as you’re that minority. Josh Blue, the “Last Comic Standing” winner this past summer, did just that, playing off his cerebral palsy during the late show Saturday at Roswell’s Funny Farm.
“You are all going to hell for laughing at me!” he cracked.
His good-natured attitude about his disability makes it easy for audiences to laugh with him. And without cerebral palsy, he joked, “There goes my gig!”
For instance, Blue noted that his spastic right arm often seems to have a mind of its own: “Yesterday, I found out it has a job: an interpreter for the deaf.”
But he wasn’t above insulting a Southern institution. “Where are my NASCAR fans at?” he asked, at first, kindly. When a few folks yelled out, he then said, “Get the [expletive] out, you trashy [expletives]!”
This led to a heckler who kept pointlessly yelling “Who’s on the pole?” The NASCAR expression eluded poor Blue, who later told Buzz he had no clue what she was talking about. Alas, she was booted.
Charity galas
Meanwhile in Buckhead, 425 guests partied at the 17th annual Torch Gala, a benefit for the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America at the InterContinental Hotel. Gala chairs Warren and Roberta Sirzyk have two children, Samantha, 22, and David, 19, who suffer from Crohn’s. “People always ask me why I volunteer,” Roberta said. “I tell them, ‘My goal is that my grandchildren will not have Crohn’s.’ ”
Close to $500,000 was raised for the Georgia chapter.
The night before at the Buckhead Ritz-Carlton, Dudley Stevens presided over 300 guests who enjoyed the foods and wines of Spain while raising about $300,000 for Atlanta’s Senior Citizen Services’ Meals on Wheels program.
Dribble down Peachtree
University of Georgia sophomore Ben Hailey won season tickets to the Atlanta Hawks on Friday through 790/The Zone after dribbling a basketball 7.5 miles down Peachtree Street, beating 10 other guys for the prize, valued at $10,000. He plans to sell some of his tickets to a law firm and use the proceeds for a charity, MAP International.
Radio bits
Most radio DJs need to be dragged kicking and screaming from the mike. Not 95.5/The Beat’s longest running on-air personality, Stacy C. At age 26, after seven years in the game and recently married, she’s leaving on her own terms to do sales for sister rock station 97.1/The River.
“I want to be able to travel and do things for myself,” she told Buzz. “It’s very hard to do that when you’re working every weekend in the clubs and feel like you have to be at the station or you’ll miss something. I didn’t want that life anymore. I didn’t love being on air enough.”
Her co-host, Murph Dawg, will go solo starting today until the Beat finds a replacement.
Meanwhile, Juan “Yogi” Tapia and Jose “Panda” Carias of Viva 105.7 filed a criminal warrant application against Larry Wachs, an involuntarily unemployed radio host, for taping their restroom conversation and airing it on 96rock on Oct. 10. 96rock fired Wachs and his co-host, Eric Von Haessler, on Oct. 23.
A Fulton County judge last Thursday accepted the warrant, which means the district attorney’s office will decide whether to prosecute Wachs for illegal invasion of privacy. George Stein, Wachs’ attorney, believes the case is weak, contending that case law shows there is no expectation of privacy in a public restroom.
For now, Wachs remains free. (To keep the criminal case alive, Tapia and Carias had to drop their civil lawsuit “without prejudice.”)
Coming out
Neil Patrick Harris plays a bed-hopping lothario on the CBS sitcom “How I Met Your Mother,” but he has announced to People magazine that he’s gay. The declaration joins recent announcements by “Grey’s Anatomy’s” T.R. Knight and former Cumming resident and 2002 “American Idol” finalist R.J. Helton.
Buzz caught up with Helton, who chose to go public with his sexual orientation on a gay-oriented Sirius radio show last month — but not to promote something. It was just the right time, he said.
“Before it came out in a negative way, I wanted to make sure I was able to tell the public myself the way I wanted to tell them,” he told Buzz.
Now 25 and living in New York, he’s writing an autobiography and hoping to get into music producing and songwriting: “I’m extremely content and happy with what I’ve done. I’ve succeeded within myself.”
He said he’s still living off “Idol”-related money and does appearances judging singing contests. “I play Paula. I’m the nice one,” he said. If you want to relive his first season “Idol” days, watch “American Idol Rewind” on WATL-TV at 7 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.
Celebrity birthdays
Actress Sally Field is 60. Singer Glenn Frey is 58. Actor Ethan Hawke is 36. Model-actress Rebecca Romijn is 34.
Contributing: Marilyn Johnson and news services. If you have a tip, call 404-526-5688 or e-mail buzz@ajc.com.
HIGH FIVE
Top 5 ’80s songs
VH1 last week aired “The Greatest Songs of the ’80s.”
1. “Living on a Prayer,” Bon Jovi
2. “Pour Some Sugar on Me,” Def Leppard
3. “Hungry Like the Wolf,” Duran Duran
4. “Billie Jean,” Michael Jackson
5. “When Doves Cry,” Prince
OVERSCENE
Ronnie DeVoe, local Realtor and member of New Edition/Bell Biv DeVoe, enjoyed his new courtside Hawks seats Friday with his wife, Shamari Fears (of R&B group Blaque).
Buzz asked him his favorite TV shows:
1. ABC’s “America’s Funniest Home Videos”
2. Fox’s “24”
3. VH1’s “Flavor of Love” (“I’ve known [Flavor Flav] forever. It’s a perfect show for him. I remember him telling us about it before it started. He was calling it ‘The Blackelor’ instead of ‘The Bachelor.’ I guess they changed the name.”)
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
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