Shark-smitten

Last night our old friend Jim Barden put on a benefit performance of his evermore-famous Roy Orbishark Show at the Captain's Club, to help raise money for Doug, a cancer patient facing an expensive series of treatments. It was a smash hit! In the course of 111 performances, Barden has developed an array of characters, from Roy himself, a shark puppet dressed like Roy Orbison who lip-syncs his songs with a big helping of soul, to Ray Charles, a manta ray in sunglasses with his own version of "Hit the Road, Jack" complete with backup mammas, and Eelvis Presley doing "Little Egypt" with a...um...stripper puppet.

Someone sitting right behind me videotaped the show and uploaded it to YouTube but a spoilsport cut out the audio. So in order to share the full experience, here's a performance Barden did in the cockpit of his boat, Ann Marie, in a slip at El Cid Marina in Mazatlan. It's Orbishark doing "Blue Bayou" with a backup of two clams.

Barden showed us a very poorly shot black and white video of the show four years ago, that didn't do it justice. The audience—all adults—was kept in stitches with a series of hilarious gags. At one point buckets of practice golfballs were passed around and we were invited to throw the balls at Roy, while he sang "Love Hurts." What we weren't told was that Roy would be throwing them back!

I just hope I get a chance to see Show #112, and I have my camera with me!