An entertainer who is a singer, multi-instrumentalist, impressionist, and comedian that has been the heart and soul of his show for over four decades and has been headlining his own show in Las Vegas for over 18 years. He also still performs on the road, having bookings this year alone in locations ranging from Cleveland to Buffalo to Paso Robles, California, to Rochester, New York, and more. He does a stage show that features big band and a 32-piece orchestra, plus he performs a live weekly show on Facebook. Listen for the amazing Garth Brooks story that he tells here, plus, he emotionally recounts performing the night that his brother/bandmate passed away. He was also the guest on this show way – way – back, eight years ago this month, on Episode 35.
“If I could tell you how many times over my lifetime I’d been made offers to go out on my own… and I always said, ‘No no, I work with my family’.”
“Rich Little, ya’ know, the great impressionist, said, (Frankie’s brother’s) impression of Joe Cocker was the best impression of a human being he’s ever seen. And I was standing right there, I go, ‘Well wait a minute, I do impressions.’ He goes, ‘Yeah, that’s nice’.”
“So here I am, this many years later, 22 years now headlining in Vegas, and it’s a little different these days, Vegas has changed.”
“I have a 32-piece orchestra I work with, and we’ve done a bunch of concerts around the country with symphonies, with pop orchestras, and I’ll tell ya’, I love those too, but I really love my big band.”
“I don’t care how old I get; the word Retire is not in my vocabulary.”
“I live to be on that stage. Every night no matter where it is, when it is, I’m chomping at the bit to take the stage. I live to perform. I live to grab somebody’s heart and hold it in my hand. I live to make somebody laugh. It’s a great feeling.”
“At the very end of the show, I looked out at the audience – and this still hurts a little bit – and I said, ‘Folks, if I wasn’t quite as funny as I always am, it’s because today I lost my brother.’ And, this was at the end of the show, and the mood of the audience changed rapidly. And they gave me probably one of the greatest standing ovations I ever had.”
“I started creating material AND my musical director did too. He came to me with songs. ‘I want you to do this song. I want you to try this one.’ Ninety percent of the time I love ‘em and ten percent of the time I go, ‘Sorry, I’m not gonna do that one again,’ and this is after he wrote 32 parts for it. But, if it doesn’t sell it ain’t worth doing. If it doesn’t work, I don’t care if David Foster wrote the chart.”
“When there’s not a reaction, get rid of it. For any entertainer, if there’s no reaction or somebody doesn’t turn their head and stop and watch what you’re doing, if they don’t laugh, get rid of it. Don’t keep trying it, just dump it. And it don’t matter how much work you put into it, how many rehearsals you did, the audience is the final answer.”
“Never perform for yourself. There are entertainers out there that perform for themselves… If you’re performing for yourself, that’s what you’re going to end up doing in the long run. Always perform for the audience.”
“Let the Good Times Roll” (Frankie doing the Ray Charles song)
“You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ ” (Frankie and Clint Holmes doing the song by The Righteous Brothers)
“Love Me Tonight” (Frankie doing the Tom Jones song)