Happy Thursday Everyone!
I hope all of you had a wonderful Halloween in spite of all the craziness around the city. I for one, am quite sick of all the violence and destruction. We all need to have something positive happen for a change!
On that note, I want to start by sharing my interview with my next Spotlight Guest, MAC Award Winner for best Emcee, Bobbie Horowitz, who happens to be my cabaret "Mommy"!
A little history for those of you who don't know. How did I end up with Bobbie as my cabaret "Mommy"? :) I was brand new and discovered cabaret in 2012. I met Bobbie Horowitz in 2013 for the first time at the MAC awards. We were sitting right next to each other at the same table along with my bestie Christopher Tefft, the late Dana Lorge, Joey Infante and Mike McDonald!
Since then, I ran into her almost every Sunday at the Salon. She came up after one of my performances one day and declared "You are adorable! I want to kidnap you as my kid!" Since then, I've acquired my cabaret Mommy!
Most of you probably know Bobbie Horowitz but I bet not too many of you actually know everything that she accomplished! Here's a little bio for starters:
Bobbie Horowitz is a song writer, performer, theater/cabaret/event producer, actress, image consultant just to name of few things that she had done. Over the years, she has collaborated with composers such as David Friedman, John Meyer, Sharon “Spector” Schapow, Jimmy Curtiss, Malcolm Dodds, Ales Rybeck, Bill Zeffiro and others.
She wrote a musical, The S.C.R.A.P. Workshop with Mr. Meyer. She was asked to write a special tribute for Jimmy Smith, recipient of the Ambassador Award given by Isagenix, which she performed at the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas. As half of the comic musical writing/performing team Horowitz & Spector, she won a MAC Award (Manhattan Association of Cabarets & Clubs) for their show, “Whatever Happened To the Kids From Brooklyn?” Their songs have received NY Daily News, Billboard and ASCAP panel awards and have been played on theatrical & country music radio stations, scoring highly on the independent country charts. Tony winner, Chuck Cooper recorded “Together America”, a song they wrote with Malcolm Dodds, composer of “We Always Look For The Union Label”.
Bobbie’s show, “It’s Just a Number!” has been nominated for the 2017 MAC Award for BEST SERIES and Bobbie won the 2016 MAC Award Winner for Best Emcee for the series she emcees, produces, writes for and performs her songs in called: “It’s Just a Number!’ In each show Robbie honors someone over the age of 50 who is doing something wonderful in their life.
Bobbie began her theatrical career as an actress. Her first four years of acting included over thirty NYC productions in theaters including: Playwright’s Horizon’s, AMAS Rep., Hudson Guild, The Gene Frankel Theater, TNC, All Souls’ Players, and the Jean Cocteau Repertory. She then appeared in regional theaters and summer stock, working with Jose Ferrer, Katherine Houghton and others.
For more details, check out her website: http://bobbiehorowitzproductions.com/
For this interview, I asked Bobbie the following questions:
1) Can you share with us an interesting fact that most people don’t know about you?
I don’t think too many know that I weighed 163 lbs. when I was in the 7th Grade.
In case you need something else. Hmmm….I think some cabaret folk do know that for some reason I often got friendly with political people like Mayors and congressmen – and I even went to dinner with Princess Diana and Prince Charles a few times. They even came to the little apt. the theater got for me in London and then we went out to dinner. I kept in touch with wonderful Diana until she was killed in the car crash that I don’t like to think about! I had dinner with Harry Truman when I went to a Cornell reunion and he was speaking there. Truman knew my grandfather through my Grampa’s law practice. I really liked him! I also became quite friendly with and truly loved, Francis Perkins, the first female to be accepted into the cabinet. She spoke at my college my senior year and we hit it off! She’d call and we’d meet for dinner one night of every visit she made to NY after I graduated. She died in 1965 - 4 years after I graduated. On my own, I became very, very friendly with Mayor Koch and I also became friendly with Mayor Bloomberg. I had a party-production partner who was very friendly with Mayor Dinkins. His mom worked for Dinkins.
2) How did I discover writing songs was what I wanted to do?
It started at Camp Reena! We had SING and I loved, loved, loved it! I also learned I loved to be in musicals there.
Luckily my parents took me to Broadway Musicals from the time I was 4. Yes 4! I saw Song of Norway. Then I saw Oklahoma, Carousel, etc. etc. etc. my Dad was the Labor Relations Attorney of the NY Hotel Association and many of the hotel owners also owned pieces of the theaters.
DRUM ROLL:
Then at New Utrecht High School – we instigated Sing!!!
I had a dear dear friend Sharon Spector and she and I would have fun writing the Sing. Our class always won!!!!
After I was at Cornell and my parents moved to White Plains - I lost touch with Sharon………….Then we were reunited in the 80s and when we wondered why – we knew it had to be to write songs again!
3) What motivates your creativity and passion for life? Name three things that never fails to put a smile on your face!
a) My son and watching him use his genius (I’m not the only ne who says that!) and
how he works with his theater troupe.
b) People and music - if the whole world could watch how the Cabaret world works
we’d have a happy peaceful world – AND WE WILL.
c) Realizing that I’m now what I used to think of as the older people. I made it! I got here! AND it took no time to do it. I now understand what my mom would mean when she’d say “Before you know it you’re a senior… AND… I was just a Senior at New Utrecht!” (My mommy went to the same high school that I did!) She was born in 1912.
4) What do you have for us in the pipeline?
A show of my songs; Perhaps a show with a plot – Off or On Broadway Musical with my songs; My basis of my book “Fit and Fabulous From Fifty Forward “ possibly becoming the plot of the book; Figuring out how to get a show produced that has me (and some H&S lyrics) and a few different composers; Bringing back my Dress to get YES Workshops; Doing talks about my book – a SHOW might teach the principals better.
Now Bobbie forgot to mention that she has coming up, her next episode of "It's Just A Number", honoring Award Winning Bob Diamond and Sally Darling at the Triad on Sunday, November 19th at 5 PM! Don't forget to mark your calendars!
Come join us at the Spotlight to experience some of her songs on November 17th! Until then, stay safe and happy!
Sending you all love!