McHenry eager to give to troops
Comic thrilled to get back on stage
Kirk McHenry had some pretty good training to prepare for COVID-19 isolation. He served four years with the U.S. Marine Corps, with a long stop in Okinawa, Japan.
“It’s lonely when you’re young and away from home,” McHenry remembers.
When the Oakland native left the military, he became a stand-up comic. And, never one to forget where he came from, he’s returned to entertain the troops at least 50 times.
“Me, being from the military, just seeing the smiles on those guys’ faces,” said McHenry.
It was Monday morning and the former Suisun City resident took a break to chat from Las Vegas, a three-month home for McHenry and his wife since fleeing Southern California.
“California’s become too darn expensive,” McHenry said, happy to rent “while we find our way around.”
Fortunately, McHenry said the only time he ventures into a casino is to work.
“I’m too cheap to gamble. I work too hard for my money,” he said. “I don’t like giving it away.”
McHenry was able to return to earn a few bucks doing what he loves — standup — a few weeks ago in Vegas with about 50 audience members in the room set at 25 percent capacity.
“It went really well,” he said.
It’s a different challenge doing real shows with the COVID capacity, the comic said.
“I think it makes the comics work harder,” he said. “As you start moving up the ladder, you get used to a certain volume of laughter. When you don’t hear that volume, you start questioning yourself. Making a small crowd laugh is harder.”
And those Zoom shows? McHenry would rather drop a paycheck on a slot machine. Well, almost.
“I just got offered Zoom shows and I think I’ll do it. I’ve done one. I was not a fan,” he said. “If it’s something I have to do, I’ll make the adjustments. It’s like the Marines: Adapt and overcome.”
It’s the four shows that McHenry has in the books for this weekend at the Alameda Comedy Club that have him tickled.
“I’m really looking forward to it. There will be lots of friends and family,” McHenry said. “It’s good to come home to the Bay Area.”
While comedians have surrendered to doing Zoom shows, “nothing compares to being in front of a live crowd, feeling the energy, hearing the laughs and seeing the smiles,” McHenry said.
Though the virus has thrown McHenry’s comedy career into a tailspin, he’s adjusted. Just like he adjusted when he joined security forces, figuring he was going to be stationed at Mare Island in Vallejo.
“That’s the only reason I wanted to do security forces,” he said.
Nope. He was sent to Virginia and anchored in Norfolk. No matter. McHenry said he thrived.
Once a Marine, always a Marine.
“It gives you a sense of pride and makes you feel you can do anything,” he said. “It’s the biggest fraternity in the world.”
No matter where he sees another Marine, there’s that connection, McHenry said.
“Young, old, Black, White. Semper Fi. It’s a brotherhood and I take it seriously,” McHenry said.
There’s surely nothing like entertaining the military, he continued.
“I have an insight and can say the things to the troops they want to say about high-ranking people they can’t say but I can get away with it,” mused
McHenry. “They love that.”
Because they know McHenry’s background, it’s instant credibility, he said.
“When they know you’re prior military, it helps,” McHenry said.
Entertaining the troops “means a lot to them, but it also means just as much to me,” he said.
McHenry said that a stand-up comic never visited the troops during his four-year stint.
“When I was in Japan for six months the only entertainment we got was a country band that came over to perform and we had a ball,” he said.
There was one neardangerous moment when McHenry entertained the troops. About five years ago, he performed at one base in Afghanistan and was taken by helicopter to another base.
“Our helicopter left us stuck at this base. We were supposed to go back to the first base, but it was hit with a rocket. Luckily, we weren’t there.”
Dangerous situations as a stand-up? Easy, said McHenry: Dorsey’s Locker, north Oakland.
“I’m glad I went there. I’m glad I started there. It really shaped and modeled me. But it was frightening,” he said. “It showed me how to handle a hostile crowd. There were some scary times. If they were with you, they were with you. If they were not feeling it, they made ‘Showtime at the Apollo’ look like nursery school. They did not hold back.”
Fortunately, “the more they saw you come back, the more they supported you,” McHenry said.
And no matter how bad the business gets, the storyteller says there’s no way he would quit.
“We’re invested in it,” McHenry said. “You might get frustrated. I’ve gotten frustrated. But quitting is not an option.”
The Alameda Comedy Club presents Kirk McHenry, Friday and Saturday, 6 and 8 p.m., heated outdoor showroom, $25, 2431 Central Ave., Alameda. For more, alamedacomedy. com.
“I’m really looking forward to it. There will be lots of friends and family. It’s good to come home to the Bay Area.”
— Kirk McHenry
Saturday: VXllejo Xrtist Rob Jenkins creXted X front-yXrd ‘Little Free LibrXry’ Xnd hXs X community unveiling Xt 11
X.m., 1123 ShXstX St. Book donXtion suggested, mXsks required.
Saturday: JXckie Greene QuXrtet live-streXmed from the Downtown TheXtre in FXirfield. For info, ftpresents.com.
March 5-7: (Postponed from Feb. 26-28): Penny Video TheXtre presents the first (Xnd hopefully only) “PlXyDemic FestivXl.” The “PlXy-Demic FestivXl” is X collection of stories for the stXge Xbout how life hXs been Xffected since the pXndemic begXn, how life proceeds in the midst of it, Xnd whXt hXppens next. These plXys Xre being reheXrsed Xnd filmed in X Covid-sXfe mXnner, Xnd will be presented online
Xnd on-demXnd, Xs X pXywhXt-you-cXn offering. For more, visit luckypennynXpX. o com, info@luckypennynXpX.com or cXll 266-6305. March 13: Los Mocosos in X live-streXmed concert from the Downtown TheXtre in FXirfield, 6:30 p.m. For info, ftpresents.com. March 18: Frozen Jr., VXcXville Performing Arts TheXtre, 1010 UlXtis Ave., VXcXville, vpXt.net.
March 20: Kyle MXrtin performs “Joel the BXnd,” the music of
Elton John Xnd Billy Joel, live-streXmed from the Empress TheXtre in VXllejo, 7:30 p.m., $20 ticket. Visit empresstheXtre.org. March 21: POSTPONED UNTIL MARCH, 2022. A ConversXtion with Amy TXn, 2 p.m., VXcXville Performing Arts TheXtre, 1010 UlXtis Ave., VXcXville, vpXt.net.
May 21: The SelenX Experience — Los Chicos del 512, VXcXville Performing Arts TheXtre, 1010 UlXtis Ave., VXcXville, vpXt.net.
Find us online!
VXllejo Xrtist Rob Jenkins creXted X ‘Little Free LibrXry’ Xnd invites the community for X ‘GrXnd Unveiling’ this SXturdXy, 11 X.m.,
1123
ShXstX
St. MXsks required, book donXtion suggested.
It was New Orleans mother and author Mavis Beckles who once said, “Raising kids ain’t easy.”
But when they’re sleeping? Why, they look downright angelic. And mom-oftwo-girls Shana Lynn never failed to notice.
“For quite a few years now, I’ve had a thing — an obsession — when they’re sleeping,” says Shana Lynn. “I used to love watching them sleep.”
Years past. The Vacaville woman’s oldest is now 28 and the youngest is 15. Now there’s a 7-year-old grandson. And yes, the naps came. And grandma noticed.
“I’m thinking, ‘They’re angels when they’re sleeping’ and I thought, ‘That should be a song,'” said Shana Lynn.
Through the challenge of recording during COVID-19, the 49-year-old daughter of local country legend Marty Martin co-wrote “Angels When They Sleep,” available on iTunes, Spotify, Apple Music, Instagram and other platforms.
Recorded at Laughing Tiger Studios in Marin, “Angels When They Sleep” was unveiled on Feb. 11 and Shana Lynn couldn’t be happier.
“I keep going back to the fact that any parent in their right mind thinks that when a child is napping, they always take a second look like ‘It’s true, they are angels.’ I’ve always felt that way. I was always posting pictures of them sleeping way before I wrote the song,” said Shana Lynn, chatting about the tune by phone during a visit this week to her mom’s Clear Lake timeshare.
If her husband, Ken Baumgardner, had three thumbs, he’d happily improve his two-thumbs-up review of the song.
“She’s been trying her whole life to release her own song,” he said. “It’s been well-received so far.”
That includes Shana Lynn’s two big-time fans — her sister, Sherri, and their father.
“My dad loves it,” Shana Lynn said. “He’s a total country person. He doesn’t like anything else but.”
To nobody’s surprise, “Angels When They Sleep” leans country.
“Country is my roots,” said Shana Lynn, who has done her darndest to leave Vacaville but keeps getting pulled back.
Married at 18 after Will C. Wood and Vacaville high schools, Shana Lynn lived in San Diego. She returned to the Bay Area, got divorced, and moved back to Vacaville and married Baumgardner. They relocated to Palm Springs, but — there’s a pattern here — she came back to Vacaville.
Hey, it’s been good to her dad, a recording artist with deep Vacaville roots and an extensive country music fan base.
“I’ve been singing with him since I was 4,” said Shana Lynn.
Four years later came the first paid gig — with a signed contract and everything.
“That was fun,” she said. “I still have that framed $1.”
Then came radio shows. And Jerry Lewis Telethons, where Shana Lynn recalled meeting Carlos Santana.
Though interested in songwriting for many years, it admittedly took longer than Shana Lynn expected to release an original.
“Longer than it should have, as far as being from a family of musicians,” she said.
The wait was worth it,
she believes.
“I thought it would be a good song,” Shana Lynn said, co-writing “Angels” with Vic Leon.
“He helped me get it down the way I wanted it,” she said.
Shana Lynn met producer Jim Reitzel at Laughing Tiger at the studio a few months ago. From there she “went ahead, went in with mask on, took it off and did my thing.”
It took a day to record, with Shana Lynn’s daughters and grandson recording afterward.
“I wanted my girls in there somewhere,” she said, happy to add her 7-year-old grandson’s “little giggle” to the mix.
The first time Shana Lynn heard the finished product?
“It gave me goose pimples,” she said. “And I like that effect. That’s when I know it’s a done deal for me. Even if I hear a song on the radio. If I get goose pimples, I’ll find a way to learn that song.”
Shana Lynn said her sister cries “every time she hears” the new song. Sister Sherri, standing close by, didn’t disagree.
“She’s remarkable,” Sherri said.
As for future endeavors, Baumgardner said that “We are trying to save up the money for a full CD, ‘Shana, Under The Covers With One Foot Out,'” with all cover songs but one Shana Lynn original called — yes — “One Foot Out.”
Marty Martin’s got to appreciate that. And his daughter never forgets his advice.
“He always told me, ‘When you get on stage, if you mess up when singing with this band, continue to sing. You won’t stop the song or the music. Go on like a professional,” Shana Lynn said. “Now, when I goof off, I make fun of it and move on.”