Wayland Flowers & Madame

Open Arts 1987


Host: Roy Williams, with guest: Wayland Flowers & Madame.

Master Wayland Flowers

My Friend

Wayland Flowers, Jr. (1939-1988), American comedian and ventriloquist (his puppett Madame) who starred in the TV show Madame's Place (1982-1984); he was a popular guest on the talk show circuit and was a panelist on the original Hollywood Squares, when he died of AIDS-related cancer 1988, he was buried with Madame.

I began opening Comedy Shows locally in Jacksonville. It was at this time, that I went on the road with The Radman and performed on my first comedy tour. Starting in Jacksonville at the Punchline, we then performed at the Sandy Springs Punchline in Atlanta. Robert Wuhl was performing that night, and he caught my show, and told me he liked it. From there, we traveled to Birmingham Alabama, to the Bruce Ayres' Comedy Corner. I wasn't on the card when I arrived, but after the first night, I ended the show with my set. Fortunately enough, Wayland was headlining the club. They had gone through a rehearsal with a local "lightman" for the show. BUT, no show for the "lightman".... I was recruited. And instantaneously, with sweat on my brow, I did the best I could to keep up with Wayland and the transitions on stage for the act. Another long story short ~ Later Wayland and I started talking about martial arts, and surprise to me, he was a great fan of the martial arts. He admired all the things you might imagine, and often wished he, himself, could have actually had the time to train. He told me, my blacklight performance was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. He was SO HAPPY, that the martial arts had graduated into something other than "taking it too! one another"... as the movies depict. Wayland said, "you are the last person I would ever expect to see on the comedy tour, but, it fits." He asked me where I was from, and I told him from Jacksonville Florida, and that when I wasn't "on the road", I produced and directed my own local television show, called "Open Arts", a magazine formatted martial arts TV Show. With guests local and national: some of them were Brad Mitchell, who also announced for the show, Christopher Rube of 96 Rock, Atlanta, Bill "Superfoot"Wallace of martial arts fame. Wayland said "I'll be in Jacksonville in two weeks." So I invited him to be a guest on my show. And he Accepted. The photos on this page, are of that time. The experience of interviewing "Madame" and Wayland, was childlike...she was so real! I actually caught myself talking to her, like she was real! That was the magic of Wayland Flowers... He was, A TRUE MASTER OF HIS CRAFT.

 

Puppeteer, comedian, musician, composer, craftsman, devoted to the employee's of his show. I have the footage of the show, and I treasure it. Working with Wayland was truly a role reversal for me, because, I had become the student once again, and Wayland was truly the Master.

~~~ RhythmArts.com ~~~
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