Dave opens with “My name is Larry the Monkey.” Dave mentions that a woman in the audience has a monkey in her purse. I happened to be on stage for this before the show. Dave asked for questions. No one raised their hand, so this woman decided to. She said something about monkeys. Dave says he likes monkeys. Then the woman said she had a monkey in her purse. It was very near the time for Dave to get off stage to start the show, but Dave felt the need to see the monkey in the woman’s purse. She opened the purse and pulls out what looked like on of those Rally Monkeys that were all the rage in Anaheim two years back. Yeeesh.

Tonight we’ll be enjoying some aerobatics performed by the country’s youngest air show performer, Jamail Larkins. We find Jamail (pronounced Juh-mell) at Solberg Airport in Readington, New Jersey. What exactly is “aerobatics”? Here are the two blue cards I had prepared for the piece which was later pared down to one card.
- Jamail will be performing aerobatics; short for ‘aerial acrobatics’; aka, stunt flying.
- He is originally from Augusta, Georgia, currently attending college in Daytona, Florida
- Flying since 12 years old
- Soloed two years before he was able to drive
- Has flown 600 hours
- Bought his own plane when he was 18 years old
- Basic maneuvers of aerobatics: loops, rolls, spins, and stalls.

About the plane:
- a “Christien Eagle 2”
- A 2-seat, high performance aerobatic biplane, with an AEIO 360 lycoming engine.
- Cost: $60,000
- Can reach 210 mph; and can fly 2 hours without refueling
- Plane can pull 7 G’s and push negative 5 G’s.

I spend much of the day compiling bits of information which could spark conversation between Dave and the non-panel guests. Hopefully what I supply will assist Dave to get the knowledge from inside the guest’s noggin, out. After Dave’s “Hello” I knew that Jamail was a golden guest. He was incredibly well-spoken, tremendously poised, fantastically knowledgeable, and was able to convey information in an easy to understand manner with great enthusiasm. Dave, who knows a bit about planes, threw question after question at Jamail and Jamail slammed back every volley. Dave asked questions that I never saw mentioned in any my Google searching and Jamail was right there with an answer. The kid was good; real good.

While Jamail prepares to take flight, Dave goes through his bin of Extras.

Have you seen the Troy film starring Brad Pitt? It was the number 1 movie in the country last week. Take a look at this rather odd promo they ran last week.

(See still photos of Brad Pitt from “Troy”)

“Come see the epic motion picture everyone is talking about. It’s Brad Pitt like you’ve never seen him before. Heroic, larger than life, and with bronzed muscular arms glistening under the Grecian sun like his steely sword. His abs sculpted and toned to perfection. His flowing flaxen hair cascading gently over his broad, sinewy shoulders. Holy crap, I think I’m gay!

‘Troy.’ Now playing at a theater near you.”

Hold on for just a minute. Thanks.

COLIN POWELLL ON MEET THE PRESS – Sunday morning on Meet the Press, host Tim Russert was right in the middle of asking a question when the camera panned off Secretary of State Colin Powell, who was in Jordan, and settled looking off to sea. Russert continued with his question, then slowed, then wondered what was going on? Tim Russert said in effect, “Mr. Secretary, someone on your staff is interfering and it is very inappropriate.” You can hear the Secretary saying off camera, “Emily, get out of the way!” The camera pans back to the Secretary who answers the question.

And it’s now time for the George W. Bush Slick Finger Point. Someday, all of us will be doing the George W. Bush Slick Finger Point.

We find the President on stage in front of a huge audience. He makes eye contact with a familiar face. He smile and points in the person’s direction. But it wasn’t just your ordinary point. No. It was a Quick Draw McGraw point. Slick.

Back to Jamail: Jamail is now in flight in his 2-seater biplane. We still have communication with him and we rigged a camera to the front of the plane so we can see Jamail. Jamail explains what his first stunt will be.

1. The High Speed Camera Pass: High speed, low altitude. The low altitude pass begins with a 1,000 foot dive to approximately 5-10 feet off the ground at 210 mph, with a 6 G pull to 800 feet off of the ground right over the camera. With the smoke system engaged, it will provide for an interesting camera shot. (I copied the above from the segment producer’s notes.)

The microphone on Jamail must have shifted down a bit because it was difficult to hear him over the motor. Dave suggests, “We’re gonna have to ask you to kill the engine. We’re having trouble hearing you.”

Jamail performs the above as we go to commercial.

We see Jamail again, who says doing the aerobatics is like the ultimate roller coaster. You can tell Dave is just itching to get up there in flight with Jamail. Dave would love to fly but hates receiving instructions. It’s why he doesn’t like to golf. It’s always, “Keep your elbow straight, head down, bend your knees, relax your grip, be careful of your nuts, spread your feet, relax . . . .” It’s just too much.

Stunt #2: the Aileron Twist: The aircraft pulls to a 45 degree upline, starts a quarter roll to the right, and then does 2 and a half rolls to the left, and executes a hard 180 degree competition turn 6+ G maneuver.

TOP TEN: Questions on the John Kerry Running Mate Application
He’ll be picking a running mate this summer and he’s in the pre-selection stage. Possibles include John McCain, Ralph Nader, and others
#10. “Do you support both sides of every issue?”
#9. “Excluding horse, what animal do I most resemble?”
#7. “Are you related to any governors ho can help rig an election?
#6. “In the Vice President debate, will you make Cheney your bitch?”

Stunt #3 from Jamail Larkins.
#3. Half Cuban – Dave’s first wife was a half Cuban.

Uh oh. I was going to do my Kate Hudson recap at home last night. I fell asleep before I could get to it so I had to do it Friday morning at work. Unfortunately my notes on her visit are at home sitting by my computer. I’ll try to recap the ACT 3 and 4 the best I can.

Before we introduce Kate Hudson, we turn Dave upside down and the upside down Jamail right side up on a split screen. I imagine all the change in Dave’s pockets fell to the ceiling.

KATE HUDSON: She’s stars in the May 28th release of Raising Helen. We see a clip from the film of Helen being asked for a date by a pastor.

Kate says the last time she was here, she mentioned to Dave that he would make a great father and wondered if he ever planned on becoming a father. Dave hemmed and hawed and suggested he had no plans of such. Kate called him on it tonight, saying he knew at the time he had one on the way. Dave grins and says, “I know.”

They talked about Kate’s brother who is living in Vancouver (?) with the parents, Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell. Little bro’ is hoping to become a professional hockey player and mom and dad thought living in Canada would provide the best opportunity. I was talking to my Canadian friend this morning and he says the young Russell is actually a very good goalie and there is a good chance of his making it to the big time. This isn’t just some Hollywood kid with Hollywood parents living a fantasy. I’ll be keeping an eye on this.

Sorry, Kate, but that’s all I have for today. Plus, I have to start getting ready for Friday’s show.

ACT 5: more aerobatics from Jamail.

OUTKAST: The 3-time Grammy winner, including Album of the Year with Speakerboxxx: The Love Below, Outkast performed “Roses.” The performance was much like their video. How do I know about the video? My 8-year-olds play it all the time on the computer. A fight scene takes place during the number. Plus, throughout the song a guy is eating potato chips. Now there’s a nice gig.

And that was our show for Thursday May 20, 2004. Wahoo EXTRA!


Right before the show I took a closer look at the Outkast CD. Inside the front cover is one of those red sticker warnings of explicit lyrics. I tried to peel the sticker off but it was too sticky. This has happened in the past so what we do is simply find a clean CD cover and make the switch, placing the correct album cover on the front. But this Outkast CD is a double CD and the case is kind of funky. A regular CD cover doesn’t quite fit. What to do? I had to find another double CD case and make a complete change over, front and back. We have a stack of CD’s from past guests in the corner of the office and I had to find one that’s a double. I hardly had the time to look through all of them. Why not just find a single CD case and make the switch, placing only one of the Outkast’s Speakerboxxx/The Love Below CD’s inside? I thought of that, but I know that one day Dave will open the CD case to look at the CDs during the show and the day he does that will be the day I finagle with the CDs. So how am I going to find a double CD case in the big pile in the corner of the office? I was on the verge of panic. But then my experience and age which transcends many generations came into play. I saw the Jessica Simpson CD. Of course, she doesn’t have enough of the portfolio to put together a double CD, right? But I had taken a Jessica Simpson CD home for my girls. And I remember that inside the CD was also a DVD of her wedding and honeymoon with Nick Lachey! I remembered because my girls were so excited to find a DVD to play on our new DVD player. I pulled the Jessica Simpson CD out from the pile and made the quick change; removed the Simpson CD and DVD, took out the paper work on both sides of the case, and replaced it with the Outkast material. So what you saw last night on the show when Dave held up the Outkast CD was actually the case from the Jessica Simpson CD/DVD.

Thank you, Jessica Simpson for including your wedding and honeymoon in your most recent CD. You saved me.

The other day when looking up highlights of Randy Johnson’s career for Dave to read before the Top Ten, I found that he had twice struck out 19 batters in a game. For some reason I thought he had struck out 20 in a game but couldn’t find a mention of it. I received this from Wahoo reader John Hill.

“Randy Johnson's 20K game gets forgotten because it isn't a MLB record. He struck out 20 Reds on May 8, 2001. Kind of a freak event.

Johnson pitched the first 9 innings and struck out 20 batters. The game went into extra innings. The DBacks won in the 11th.

He wasn't credited with tying the nine inning record because it wasn't a nine inning game even though he only pitched nine innings. Most single game records have a ‘Most in One Game’ and ‘Most in a Nine Inning Game’.

Clemens, who accomplished the feat twice with the Boston Red Sox, and Wood received wins in their games, which each lasted nine innings. Tom Cheney holds the Major League record for most strikeouts overall when he punched out 21 in a 16-inning game when he was a member of the Washington Senators in 1962."

. . . . .

Dang it, I can’t find it on the internet copy. Anyway, there was a trivia question in today’s Rockland Journal News that claimed a minor league player struck out 27 batters in a game back in the 50’s. He was called up by the Pittsburgh Pirates later that year and had a 1-6 record for his career.

Hold on, I’ll Google it and see what I find.

Stolen from Baseball Digest, George Vass.

“On May 13, 1952, Necciai, 19, a 6-5 slender right-hander with Bristol in the Class D Appalachian League, struck out 27 Welch (West Virginia) Miners batters.

The box score showed no hits, no runs, and 31 batters faced in a 7-0 rout of Welch. Four batters reached base: on a walk, an error, a hit by pitch, and the fourth and last when he swung and missed a third strike that would have been the final out. The ball hit the crease in front of the plate and skipped past catcher Harry Dunlop. It was scored as a passed ball. The next batter struck out.

At game's end, Dunlop complimented Necciai, ‘You know you struck out 27 batters.’

Necciai replied, ‘They've been playing this game for 100 years. Someone must have done it before.’

No one had done it before or has since.

‘I was 18 and he was 19,’ Dunlop told Hall of Fame baseball writer Jerome Holtzman a half century later when he was a Cincinnati Reds coach. ‘In about the sixth inning, the fans began chanting numbers--'16! 17! 18!'--I didn't know what it was all about. I came into the dugout and I asked, 'What are all the numbers about?'

They told me he was striking out everybody. And I thought I better bear down."

It might be natural to assume that a 27-strikeout performance would entail 27 up, 27 down, with the catcher making all the putouts. That wasn't the case. Two putouts were made by the first baseman, one on a line drive that bounced in front of him, another by a swinging dropped third strike that required a throw.

Prior to the ninth inning, the primary concern of his teammates was to protect Necciai's no-hitter. When it was realized there was a possibility of 27 strikeouts, the focus changed. With one out in the ninth and the strikeout total at 25, the next batter hit a high foul ball between first and home plate. Dunlop was ready to make the catch, but the first baseman yelled, ‘Drop it! Drop it!’ and the catcher let it fall. Necciai struck the batter out on the next pitch for No. 26.

Then came the moment of truth.

‘He was an overhand pitcher,’ explained Dunlop. ‘He had a great curveball, an old fashioned rope. A lot of them dropped in the dirt. He wasn't easy to handle. There were two outs and he had two strikes on the batter. That's when the ball hit the plate. The batter swung and missed, but the ball bounced away, and he reached frst base.’

To Dunlop's relief, Necciai struck out the next batter for his fourth strike-out of the inning and 27th of the game. If the game hadn't been prolonged by the intentionally dropped foul he would have fnished with 26 rather than the memorable 27.

What's more, he struck out 24 in his next start.

‘There were no radar guns in those days, but his fastball was in the middle or upper 90s,’ said Dunlop. ‘I thought he was going to be a great major league pitcher.’

It was not to be. After being called up by the Pittsburgh Pirates that year, Necciai injured his arm in one of nine starts and his career ended with a 1-6 record.”