‘Christmas’ present

Shaker native Jim Brickman got to work with a childhood idol on recent album

Shaker Heights native and platinum pianist-composer Jim Brickman recalls the time he unsuccessfully tried to call Dick Van Dyke. ¶ No, the widely popular “Mary Poppins” actor didn’t avoid the Grammy Award-nominated artist, who has sold more than seven million albums and scored 32 top-20 radio singles. Instead, Brickman’s efforts were thwarted by his mother.

“When I was a little kid growing up in Cleveland, the first movie I ever went to was ‘Mary Poppins,’” said Brickman, calling from York, Pennsylvania. “My grandmother took me to see it at the Mayfield Theater. I came home and told my mom I wanted to call Bert from ‘Mary Poppins.’ I just loved the song, and he was so good.

“She said, ‘Well, he’s not real. He’s an actor, and Dick Van Dyke is his name.’ I remember having the phone in my hand. I was like, ‘I don’t understand. Why can’t we call him?’”

It may have taken 53 years, but Van Dyke finally took Brickman’s call — to appear on his recently released holiday CD/DVD, “A Joyful Christmas,” which also features Five for Fighting, Russell Watson and Leslie Odom Jr.

“I told him when I met him, ‘It only took me 50 years to get your phone number,’” Brickman laughed. “Getting Dick Van Dyke on the album came from (actress) Jane Lynch, who is also on the album.

“They were doing a duet together, and she said, ‘Do you think you’d want to have Dick Van Dyke on the show?’ I said, ‘What?’ Those kinds of things are so surreal. It’s not something you say ‘No’ to. He could have been singing the phone book, and I wouldn’t have cared.”

Instead of singing the 440, 216 or 330, Van Dyke and Lynch appear on Brickman track “We’re Going Caroling.” Fans of Brickman, who attended Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Institute of Music, will have a few chances to see his holiday show this year.

Not only will “A Joyful Christmas” air Christmas day on WKYCTV, but the “A Joyful Christmas Tour” comes to Cleveland for a show Dec. 16 at the KeyBank State Theatre at Playhouse Square.

For a guy who is on his 21st holiday tour, Brickman said he never gets jaded regarding the happiest time of the year.

“My approach has always been to play music that was positive and that has hope and dreams in it,” Brickman said.

Regarding the notion of creating an atmosphere of hope, optimism and people reaching for their dreams, these days there are plenty of folks out there struggling to find a positive outlook. More importantly, they seem to really need to find a joyful Christmas.

“Yes, this is sort of the anecdote to the chaos,” Brickman said. “Especially during the season, there’s a couple of things at play. One is that there’s a lot of noise. A lot of it is very happy noise, but there’s still a lot of stimulation. I feel like the reason to come to this show is to escape and have this emotional connection with the audience, to gather together as a community and celebrate.

“Especially with live theater, it really takes you out of this shortattention-span kind of world. It’s where you sit and let the music kind of flow through you and escape all of that.”

SUBMITTED Jim Brickman is on the road in support of his latest album, “A Joyful Christmas.”