Argus Hamilton is coming to do a dinner show at the Will Rogers theater on August 21st. 8:30 pm. Buffet style great dinner starts at 7:30.

Argus Hamilton . . . Now THERE's a name I haven't heard in awhile. I used to like his daily contributions to The Oklahoman.

We're thinking about it.
Besides, while he dinna plug himself, Stan is part of the evening fun as well.

Stan, did you hear the WAFTI Sow podcast from January talking about the business of comedy in OKC? Episode 3 - OKC Comedy with BradChad and Zach (http://www.waftishow.com/episodes/2014/12/28/episode-3-okc-comedy-with-bradchad-and-zach)
It was interesting. How are people like you and Argus Hamilton doing in OKC? Episode 6 (Episode 6 - Behind the Mayor's Desk with Jabee, Chelsey, and Denver (http://www.waftishow.com/episodes/2015/2/6/episode-6-behind-the-mayors-desk-with-jabee-chelsey-and-denver) also discussed some of the business of live entertainment in OKC. Is there any money in it or do you have to be a starving artist (with a day job?) if you choose to stay in OKC?
All the same, I hope we can come out and see y'all. I appreciate your (and Argus Hamilton's) sense of humor.
BTW, do you remember when Alton Brown came to town? to the Civic Center?!? Celebrity chef Alton Brown cooking up Oklahoma City Civic Center stop | News OK (http://newsok.com/celebrity-chef-alton-brown-cooking-up-oklahoma-city-civic-center-stop/article/5370113) WTH was that? What's your take on that? Is he a comedic colleague? How do you classify that show?

Stan, did you hear the WAFTI Sow podcast from January talking about the business of comedy in OKC? Episode 3 - OKC Comedy with BradChad and Zach (http://www.waftishow.com/episodes/2014/12/28/episode-3-okc-comedy-with-bradchad-and-zach)
It was interesting. How are people like you and Argus Hamilton doing in OKC? Episode 6 (Episode 6 - Behind the Mayor's Desk with Jabee, Chelsey, and Denver (http://www.waftishow.com/episodes/2015/2/6/episode-6-behind-the-mayors-desk-with-jabee-chelsey-and-denver) also discussed some of the business of live entertainment in OKC. Is there any money in it or do you have to be a starving artist (with a day job?) if you choose to stay in OKC?
All the same, I hope we can come out and see y'all. I appreciate your (and Argus Hamilton's) sense of humor.
BTW, do you remember when Alton Brown came to town? to the Civic Center?!? Celebrity chef Alton Brown cooking up Oklahoma City Civic Center stop | News OK (http://newsok.com/celebrity-chef-alton-brown-cooking-up-oklahoma-city-civic-center-stop/article/5370113) WTH was that? What's your take on that? Is he a comedic colleague? How do you classify that show?

Thanks Dubya, for supplying us with this information. Brad Chad and Zach are good guys as well as friends and I'll listen to that podcast.
Some people make money in the entertainment biz, most have day jobs.

Argus is one of those who is a full time successful entertainer and he lives in California where he was/is the house comic at the Comedy Store, something he's done for over 30 years. Hollywood Squares, writer on Laugh In, his career touches a lot of bases. He still has a column in about a 100 papers including the Norman Transcript and the Bartlesville paper. As we get closer, I'll post more stuff. If you know of any churches where we can pin a flyer, let me know.

If you come to the show and say you're from okctalk, you get free your choice of one of my books. Special deal.

Argus-at-the-Will-features-okc-return-of-famous-night-club-comic (http://www.mooreamerican.com/news/lifestyles/argus-at-the-will-features-okc-return-of-famous-night/article_2230a41c-ad2d-50c9-9f10-d169fdeccd53.html)

Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise features Argus-will-features-okc-return-states-most-famous-night-club-comic (http://examiner-enterprise.com/living/features/argus-will-features-okc-return-state-s-most-famous-night-club-comic)

Nice article in the OKC Gazette: Argus Hamilton to perform at Will Rogers Theatre | Oklahoma Gazette (http://okgazette.com/2015/08/19/argus-hamilton-to-perform-at-will-rogers-theatre/)

Guess I am an old timer...knew Argus at Ponca City High school when he was just Jimmy. But then I knew Rand Elliot when he was Randy, too.

Guess I am an old timer...knew Argus at Ponca City High school when he was just Jimmy. But then I knew Rand Elliot when he was Randy, too.

A lot of people knew him as Jimmy, even at OU. For show business, that's not as memorable a name.

A lot of people knew him as Jimmy, even at OU. For show business, that's not as memorable a name.

You're absolutely right. Just ask Mr. Fallon, Kimmel, and Stewart. :)

I do understand what you're saying though.

If you get into SAG or any other show business union, they insist your name not be the same as any other member. Jimmy Hamilton, the jazz saxophonist, with Count Basie and others was already out there. Fallon and Kimmel were distinctive last names and Jon Stewart changed from Jon Stuart Leibowitz.

Not a lot of Arguses.

Argus Hamilton will headline show at Will Rogers Theatre in Oklahoma City

Argus Hamilton will be greeting his friends, family and countrymen on his hometown stomping grounds for "Argus at the Will," a Friday night comedy performance at the Will Rogers Theatre in Oklahoma City, a venue named for Hamilton’s comedic role model.

“God Bless America, and how's everybody?” Argus Hamilton is known for this intro to his popular daily syndicated column.

Oklahoma’s most well-known baby boomer funny man will be greeting his friends, family and countrymen on his hometown stomping grounds for "Argus at the Will," a Friday night performance at the Will Rogers Theatre, a venue named for Hamilton’s comedic role model.
Photo - <p>Argus Hamilton will perform Friday at Will Rogers Theatre. [Photo provided]</p>

Argus Hamilton will perform Friday at Will Rogers Theatre. [Photo provided]

Another of Hamilton’s dearly departed influences — legendary comedic inspiration and close friend Robin Williams — once dubbed him the “Will Rogers of the Baby Boomer.”

The comedian is actually Argus Hamilton III — and his grandfather, United Methodist minister Argus Hamilton Sr., was good friends with Will Rogers, having been high school and college buddies.

“Grandpa officiated at Will's funeral in 1935 in Chelsea, broadcast nationally over NBC radio," Hamilton wrote in an autobiographical column for The Oklahoman in 1994.

The columnist and stand-up comedian is known for his weekly syndicated column and for hosting and performing at The Comedy Store in Hollywood.

During a recent phone interview, Hamilton's infectious laugh was constant punctuation to his always-on personality. We talked about his life in Oklahoma City and Los Angeles, before and after getting sober, and his obsession with making people laugh.

On Will Rogers and family ties

The 80th anniversary of Will Rogers’ death was Saturday.

“Will arranged for my grandfather to get the First Methodist Church in Hollywood, but Grandpa couldn’t make the trip out because my grandmother was pregnant with my dad. ... So, they stayed in Oklahoma.”

Rogers and Hamilton Sr. had gone to prep school and college together, Hamilton said.

“They became good friends then. Will went into vaudeville and my grandfather went into the ministry, and they remained corresponding friends.

“So it’s a big honor for me to be performing at a theater named after literally my role model in stand-up comedy. Because, like Will, I like to say I’m clean as a whistle, but I like to think I’m sharp as a tack.

“I’m clean enough for the Baptists and I’m hip enough for the cool kids.”

On growing up in The Village

The career of Hamilton’s father, also a United Methodist minister, had the family moving every five years or so, he said. He graduated from Ponca City High School but spent an idyllic period from about age 4 to 9 living in The Village, an Oklahoma City suburb.

The Village Methodist Church made his dad’s career.

“It was just a glorious time there for baby boomers. There were just thousands of kids,” Hamilton recalls. He and his buddies spent time exploring the creek that runs through the neighborhood and pretending they were Confederate soldiers in the Civil War.

“I pretended I was the Confederate Major John Singleton Mosby, the 'Gray Ghost' Calvary battalion commander. We would patrol that creek at Britton Road, and if any cars drove by with Northern license plates, we would throw rocks at them.

“So much of everything at that time was about the approaching centennial of the Civil War, and Oklahoma is a Southern state, whether you know it or not. Completely settled by Southerners. It’s in our blood. Our grandparents turned us into little Confederates."

Hamilton started performing at his Dad’s church.

“I would surprise people a lot. When I was 6, I was supposed to walk on stage at the Christmas pageant … There was all the baby Jesus and Joseph and the animals out there. I was supposed to walk in and sing 'Away in a Manger,' a cappella."

Instead he opted for a ditty he’d heard on the radio.

“So I sang Perry Como's hit, ‘Hot Diggity (Dog, Ziggity Boom)' … what you do to me when you’re holding me tight.’

“The place just went wild. It was Jesus and Joseph and Perry Como singing this song of lust at the birth of our Savior.

“It was a golden time to be in Oklahoma City in the later ’50s for all the World War II generations settling into north Oklahoma City and all the baby boomer kids. It was a magical time.”

On his OU days

One of Hamilton’s favorite things to do when he comes home to Oklahoma City is to meet up with his frat buddies from Alpha Tau Omega.

“I like to see as many old frat brothers as I possibly can. Mel Clark, the famous doctor at Baptist; Greg Hall, the oil man; John McCaleb, famed attorney in Oklahoma City, we were all ATOs together at Oklahoma.”

He’s also hoping to see the new ATO house in Norman.

Hamilton attended University of Oklahoma from the early to- mid ’70s.

“I had a column at the Oklahoma Daily throughout the Watergate period all the way into the disco era,” Hamilton said. The column was called “Okie Dokie” and was a forerunner to his current column with a similar format of telling jokes about the day’s news.

He had his own show on Campus Corner called Trivia Night.

“We gave away free pitchers of beer for answers to trivia questions and punchlines to jokes,” he said.

On sobriety and Robin Williams

“I'll be 29 years sober in November,” Hamilton said.

But the son and grandson of preachers wasn’t always carrying Alcoholics Anonymous sobriety chips. He partied like many of his comedy contemporaries of the day, including Williams.

“Robin Wiliams, my good friend, we started out together in ’76,” Hamilton reflected. “Robin Williams called me the Will Rogers of the Baby Boom generation.

“We started out together and we partied together and had the time of our lives together in the late ’70s and early ’80s during his time with ‘Mork and Mindy.’

“When his movie career started, his wife made him move out to San Francisco to get away from all that fun in LA.

“Eventually we both got sober the same year in 1986.”

When he comes to Oklahoma City, Hamilton said he plans to visit a few AA meetings where he has friends.

He also said he would “like to stop by Rose Hill Cemetery and see all the guys I used to party with that couldn’t get sober. How I miss them, you know.”

On his Oklahoma gigs

Hamilton’s performance at Will Rogers Theatre will feature a buffet, “free soft drinks — that’s for all my new friends in recovery. And we have Oklahoma’s number one-rated bartender. That’s for my old friends."

“I just love reconnecting with all my old OU and Oklahoma City friends. Whenever I come back to Los Angeles after a couple of days in Oklahoma City, I’m just glowing, because there’s something special reconnecting with people who have known you all your life.

“It lights you up like nothing else does, especially us baby boomers who have really experienced the long strange trip that was described by the Grateful Dead when the world was young.

“It’s like when the car runs out of gas, it’s time to go to the gas station. And if I get too hip, slick and cool, it’s time to go back to Oklahoma to fill up my tank on who I really am.”

Did anybody from OKC Talk come to the show last night?