St. Pat gets short shrift in Spa City
Cheech Marin, comedian, actor, director, writer, musician, art collector and humanitarian and half of the legendary comedy team Cheech and Chong is the “headliner” for the First Ever 17th Annual World’s Shortest St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Hot Springs, which kicks off at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Marin is this year’s grand marshal of the parade, which covers the entire 98-foot length of Bridge Street, billed by the Spa City as the World’s Shortest Street in Everyday Use.
Marin’s friend and fellow actor Danny Trejo is the parade’s official starter. This year’s participants include Fredbird, the official mascot of Major League Baseball’s St. Louis Cardinals; characters from television’s PAW Patrol, accompanied by fishing legend Charlie Evans; the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders; the Marching Order of Irish Elvis Impersonators; marching Irish wolfhounds from Mount Carmel; roller derby queens; the World’s Biggest Idaho Potato (all 72 feet of it); marching tap dancers; and the Mountain Pine High School Pride of the Red Devils marching band.
The parade, which began in 2003, annually attracts more than 30,000.
“Cheech will fit in perfectly with the zany, fun-for-all atmosphere that defines the [parade],” says Steve Arrison, Chief Executive Officer of Visit Hot Springs and one of the parade founders.
“I’m looking forward to coming, especially that long distance. That appeals to my sense of humor,” Marin says.
“I love that. We have it marked at the three-quarter mark — somehow the car will break down, and we’ll renegotiate our fee to go the remaining 15 feet.”
Marin quips that his parade participation will count toward 500 hours of court-mandated community service.
It’ll be his first visit to the Spa City — “I always wanted to come to that part of the state, and I never have,” he says — and the first visit to Arkansas for his wife, a native of Russia. “Her goal is to visit all 50 states, and Arkansas is in the last four,” he says. “I’ve been to Little Rock, but she hasn’t.”
That Hot Springs is a national park is news to Marin — “Have they got big-horn sheep and everything?” he asks. No, but he was pleased to find out there are several museums: “You’re talking my talk here.”
The parade isn’t taking him away from any projects. “It’s a break for me,” he says. “I’ve been off work because I’ve had a new knee put in.” The parade probably won’t tax his new joint — he’ll likely ride down the short street in an automobile.
Speaking of joints, Marin, famously a promoter of cannabis with Chong in films and on comedy albums, did inquire as to the legal status of “weed” in Arkansas, where voters approved medical marijuana in 2016. He said he’d be willing to help promoters collect signatures for a proposed November ballot initiative to make it recreationally legal.
Connected to the parade will be two free public concerts — Blues Traveler performs pre-parade on Monday on a stage at Bridge Street and Broadway; Foghat takes that stage immediately after the parade. No chairs or coolers will be permitted at either concert, according to Arrison.
And parade organizers are adding a two new leprechauns: Roger Scott and Hot Springs real estate agent Stephen Inman-Crawley. For next year’s parade, they will jointly replace World’s Tallest Leprechaun Dick Antoine, a Hot Springs radio personality, who is retiring this year. Fellow leprechaun and in many ways the face of the parade, Monte Everhart, will continue in his role.
And citing logistics problems, organizers of the First Ever Second Annual World’s Shortest St. Patrick’s Zero K race have moved it away from the parade and scheduled it for 11 a.m. May 30, in conjunction with the Stueart Pennington World Championship Running of the Tubs bathtub races on Hot Springs’ Bathhouse Row. The 250-foot race features three heats: One for runners who want to see how fast they can complete the course, one for runners in costume and one for determining the slowest participant.