OK Seniors Cabaret to celebrate 10 years
During his decades as an electrical contractor and shop foreman, Charles Jones always envisioned himself on a stage, blocking scenes, cutting a rug and belting out a tune.
“Oh, I was one of those fellows who watched ‘The Carol Burnett Show,’” the 84-year-old Wyandotte native said. “She had skits on and everything. I just didn’t know how to get into it. I wanted to be a Tim Conway, but didn’t quite make it.”
Jones got his big break when he met Joan Colee, an 84-year-old Oklahoma City resident who directs the Oklahoma Seniors Cabaret, a music and dance show she started 10 years ago.
“She talked me into it,” Jones said Monday at Messiah Lutheran Church, where some of the cast gathered in costume to go over a couple of routines. “She felt like seniors weren’t doing anything, like they were just growing old. She gave them something to do they wouldn’t do otherwise.”
Before changing into a cowboy costume, Jones sported a short-sleeved white shirt, shorts and a rainbow propeller hat.
“I got to fulfill all my ambitions of singing, acting, dancing,” he said. “I got to do what I always wanted to do.”
Shows will be Saturday and Sunday at Randall University in Moore. Proceeds from the show will benefit the John W. Keys Speech and Hearing Center at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. The money helps seniors who cannot afford hearing aids.
Jones will perform “I Dropped My Dolly in the Dirt,” a traditional children’s song about, well, a kid dropping a doll in the dirt.
“We’re just a bunch of old people trying to be young again,” Jones said.
Giving people a reason
Colee, the nonprofit cabaret’s director, is a native Oklahoman who is quick with a hug and always hustling, even in her 80s. Last year she sang on “America’s Got Talent.”
For about 20 years, Colee performed in Hollywood and worked as a voice coach. She returned home to Oklahoma for retirement. “Retirement” being a relative word — Colee wasn’t ready to settle into a life of blue perms and Bingo.
“It was such a boring place to be, Oklahoma City, for seniors,” she said.
As she started meeting seniors around town, Colee learned that many had a knack for performing. The volunteer cabaret, for those 55 and older, was born.
“It’s changed lives,” Colee said. “We’ve had marriages. We’ve had deaths. It gives people a reason to get up out of bed.”
Bill Paulk, 87, a former member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives and former State Labor Commissioner, is in his third year with the cabaret.
“I was a bathroom shower singer until 43,” Paulk said. “I sang my first song in a church choir. Freewill Baptist.”
Paulk is a big fan of honky-tonk musicians like Webb Pierce, Ferlin Husky and Faron Young. For the cabaret, he plans on singing “Cold, Cold Heart” by Hank Williams and “Walking the Floor Over You” by Ernest Tubb.
Indeed, there will be plenty of singing to go along with dancing and comedy sketches.
Norma Goff is a 69-year-old retired registered nurse who will sing “This Little Light of Mine,” and Patsy Cline’s “I Fall to Pieces.”
She answered an ad in the paper for auditions. Being in the medical profession, she was excited that cabaret proceeds go to help people with hearing loss.
“It’s been fun,” Goff said.
Colee writes and directs the performances. On Monday at Messiah Lutheran Church, she directed performers through a rendition of “‘A’ You’re Adorable,” a children’s song popularized by Perry Como.
“This is our 10-year anniversary,” Colee said. “I’m so happy I started this group.”