[Dixielandjazz] Joe Siracusa interviewed

[Robert Ringwald]

Note:  While living in Los Angeles, I had a 3-hour weekly Jazz radio show on KCSN F.M. titled Bob Ringwald's Bourbon Street Parade.  From time to time I would interview musicians.  

Sometime, probably in the late 80s, I had Joe on the show along with Linda, one of Spike Jones' daughters.  Joe was a great interview with many hilarious stories about his days with Spike.  It was a good thing Joe was there because Linda was one of the worse interviews I ever had -- with her one word answers, "yes" and "no."  


Still a Performer After All These Years
by Dennis McCarthy
Los Angeles Daily News, April 19, 2011
The old spoons-and-band-saw man pulls up a chair at his kitchen table Monday morning
and starts his day with the same breakfast he's eaten most of his life.
A banana with peanut butter on a waffle.
"I'll be 90," Joe Siracusa says. "I'm not stopping now."
For six glorious, crazy years in the '40s, this funny, talented man sat on bandstands
all over the country with one of the most innovative, popular bands to heal a war-weary
country -- Spike Jones and His City Slickers.
"Some guys always wanted to play with Tommy Dorsey or Benny Goodman. Me, I only wanted
to play with Spike Jones," Joe says.
"I climbed on the bandstand in a funny suit and wearing a porkpie hat that kept bobbing
on my head while I was playing the drums. People needed a laugh and we gave it to
them."
If you can't laugh at exploding trombones and two-headed drummers, you better check
your pulse.
Sixty-five years later, Joe's still making them laugh. The last Wednesday of the
month, he plays his spoons, bells, whistles, and band saw for residents having birthdays
over at the Jewish Home for the Aging in Reseda. He packs the room with their families.
"I basically go in and make a fool of myself," he says. "I just can't help it."
Joe's backed up by two singers, Eric Hoffman and Liza Thorn, and a piano player,
Ira Levin, whose professional name is Leo DeLyon -- a voice actor known for his roles
as Spook and Brain in the cartoon Top Cat.
When the Spike Jones era faded, Joe moved over to the studios and started making
kids laugh as film and music editor on a new animated TV series about an old, near-sighted
cartoon character named Mr. Magoo.
Alvin and the Chipmunks, Bugs Bunny, the Pink Panther, Spider-Man, and a host of
other animated shows followed until Joe retired in 1985 and got back to doing what
he loved best -- being crazy on stage himself.
He gathered up a bunch of other zany musicians and started the Red Kettle Komedy
Koncert to raise funds for the Salvation Army.
Joe played washboard, whistles, spoons, and band saw -- the usual stuff.
He finishes up his banana with peanut butter on a waffle, and heads out the door
of his Tarzana home for a dance class he takes twice a week at ONE Generation in
Reseda.
It's a line-and-ethnic-dance class taught by instructor Joanne McCollach, who has
her own star up on the wall.
Her students -- 46 women and four men -- presented it to her a few months ago for
her dedication and hard work teaching them all those ethnic dances.
As an old spoon-and-band-saw man, Joe recognizes talent when he sees it, and McCollach's
got it.
She does the teaching, he gets the laughs. He just can't help himself.
Some guys wanted to play with Tommy Dorsey or Benny Goodman.
Joe Siracusa played with Spike Jones and His City Slickers.
One head of a two-headed drum act.


--Bob Ringwald
www.ringwald.com
Fulton Street Jazz Band
530/ 642-9551 Office
916/ 806-9551 Cell
Amateur (Ham) Radio K6YBV

Paddy says "Mick, I'm thinking of buying a German Shepherd." 
"Are you crazy," says Mick, "Have you seen how many of their owners go blind?"