CT man on tonight
Hayden Brockett
Aaarrgghh! I was going to post this! THat's the second time you've
stolen my glory! :-)
MarilynSar wrote:
>
> Willington lends Letterman a couple of trick hands
> By ALEJANDRA NAVARRO
> This story ran in the Courant August 29, 1997
> WILLINGTON - Just about any class clown knows how to make an
> obscene noise with his hands, but it takes real talent to squeeze out
> the``Jeopardy!'' game show theme song.
> At least that's what the David Letterman people think.
> Douglas S. Pearce's peculiar talent of playing tunes with his hands has landed
> him on the ``Late Show With David Letterman.''
> Pearce, a Willington resident, will appear tonight on the popular late night
> show's ``Stupid Human Tricks.'' The segment gives people from across the
> country the chance to show off their unique, odd or just plain stupid talents.
> Pearce, a 20-year-old University of Connecticut student, can play a song by
> sucking air in and out of his clasped hands, like a bellows, and using his
> index
> fingers to change the pitch. He makes a whining sound of a beginning violinist
> or a whimpering cat.
> He first learned the trick by making obscene noises in his ninth-grade
> homeroom class in Ledyard. He later refined the sounds into songs, and his
> repertoire now includes everything from the theme of ``Star Wars'' to ``The
> Star-Spangled Banner.''
> Of course, being a percussionist for the UConn marching band for three years
> helps.
> ``I can pretty much play anything that sticks in my head,'' Pearce said.
> Pearce initially contacted the ``Late Show'' by sending in a tape of his
> handmade music, and within a week he was contacted.
> ``He's been annoying us for years, but it got him a free trip to New York,''
> said his friend, Laurie Alexander, also a UConn senior.
> Of the four songs he played on the video, ``Late Show'' personnel were most
> impressed with the ``Jeopardy!'' theme song.
> Being on the stage with Letterman, or sitting in the green room watching the
> show, ``it's pretty cool,'' said Pearce, who was chauffeured to and from his
> hotel in a black limousine for the show's taping.
> ``It was nerve-racking. Once I got out there I just did it,'' Pearce said
> after his
> appearance at the studio. He said he practiced all afternoon.
> Because Letterman's studio is cold - and Pearce can't play well with cold
> hands - he had to set them over a lamp to let them warm up.
> Pearce was one of six finalists invited to New York on Thursday for the
> audition and taping of the show. Only four of the finalists will appear on the
> telecast.
> Other finalists included a boy who could jump rope while sitting down, a
> human ``bowling ball'' and a woman who pulled a worm from her mouth
> through her nose.
> He said his hand-playing is more than a stupid trick - it's almost a part
> of him.
> It's typical to see him walking down the street playing the theme to ``Star
> Wars.'' While roaming the streets of New York, the city with a great mix of
> strange people with even stranger habits, he received more than a few raised
> eyebrows and a couple of hushes from people who had not acquired a taste
> for his music.
> His father, Dennis Pearce of Ledyard, said his son can't go through a family
> dinner without playing a song.
> ``It's comical,'' said Pearce's father.
> After his five minutes of fame, he plans to apply to medical school, and he and
> his other hand-playing friends will continue annoying people.
> Friends?
> ``Yes, there are actually more of us out there,'' Pearce said.
>
> "You'll come for the ham, you'll stay for the band."
> http://w3.nai.net/~marilyn
--
The above address is faked in order to thwart spammers.
"Just because something can't be, doesn't mean it isn't." -Me (as far as
I know)
Hayden Brockett red...@hotmail.com
