Off the Record
The Place: The Byham Theater, Downtown, Thursday night.
The Purpose: To raise funds while laughing all the way to the food bank. “Off the Record XVIII: #YinzToo!” was a one-nightonly lampoon of Pittsburgh politics, power brokers, the year’s trending topics and the reporters who cover them to benefit the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. This year’s honoree, Linda Dickerson, was also a prebuttalist along with the Allegheny Conference’s Stefani Pashman, and both were mingling during the pre-show VIP reception. The show was produced by Chris Rawson with Brian Lysell and Jamie Hudzik and directed by Gregory Lehane. KDKATV’s Ken Rice stepped up once again to emcee and joined the reception with his wife, Lauren. Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald — who was depicted in the show by actor Tony Marino — teased him about never aging.
Cartoonist Rob Rogers made an appearance as himself in the show, and his cartoon on the invitation was raffled off during the cast party afterward. While some might think this is an inside job with just reporters and politicians in attendance, “OTR” is open to the public, and nearly 800 ticket holders filled the theater. Former Post-Gazette reporter Johnna Pro got a lot of laughs in a skit poking fun at the PG ads currently running on television that encourage viewers to go digital.
“It really is a community event, and over these past 18 years we have collected almost half a million dollars, and that is enough for 2.5 million meals,” said Lisa Scales, executive director of the food bank. “We are thrilled to partner with SAG-AFTRA [OhioPittsburgh], the Newspaper Guild, the Dickerson Group and the producers,” she added.
The People: Among those making an appearance at the VIP reception were Steve Irwin, Jerry Morosco, who was there to support Paul Ford (playing Louie); Ann Urwin; WPXITV’s David Johnson; former PG editorial editor John Allison; “OTR” cofounder and writer Gary Rotstein; KDKA’s Paul Martino; PG’s Sharon Eberson; Jeanne Clark; Karla Boos; Jessica Conner; Tamara Kilgore; Erin Mallory; and the Food bank’s chief advancement officer, Traci WeatherfordBrown.
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