Name game joins some odd couples
ALEX Mullen, a well known front man in local bands, went on to voice radio commercials and now has his own business – Absolute Media – making them at his studios at The Old Stable Block at Lockwood Park.
The column piece about the problem of names when ladies get wed, had him chuckling as he recalled a routine he used on stage many years ago.
Bands Alex was in, included Gatsby, Nicky Nacky Noo and Why Not (with the inimitable Bernie Walton).
Later he was in the duo Bandits At 2 O’clock with Rick Fry, whom he met years before when he cadged a cigarette from him as they both went to work on the number 40 bus to Longwood.
“What you wrote about married names reminded me of the tumultuous laughter Rick and I created on stage.
“Here’s the situation: we could flick a switch on the keyboard which would automatically take my voice to ‘Pinky and Perky’ mode.
“Then I’d deliver the following:
“Ladies and Gentlemen, think about it… if Whitney Houston had married Gene Pitney, she’d be called Whitney Pitney, and if Whoopi Goldberg married Peter Cushing, she’d be called Whoopi Cushing.
What if Zsa Zsa Gabor had married Jean Michel Jarre?
She’d have been Zsa Zsa Jarre.
“And if Joanna Lumley had married Charles Dance she’d be called Joanna Dance.
“Finally, if Isla St Clair had married Barry White, she would have been called Isla
White but, hang on, if she divorced him and married Bryan Ferry, she’d have been Isla White Ferry.”
Alex says: “I know they’ve been used before.
“But it was the funny way I delivered them in that ‘pitch’ that got people crying with laughter.
“It may be an idea to ask your readers, before they read them, to do so in their funniest voice.
“It just adds to the delivery.”
They made me laugh.
Does anyone have any new odd couplings?