A brief introduction:
My name is Paul Howley, owner
of the Eisner Award winning pop culture collector’s store known as “That’s
Entertainment” in Worcester, Massachusetts and a second store in Fitchburg,
Massachusetts. Some people have called me the “luckiest man in the comic book
business.” (I’m not) My stores have been around for over thirty years and it’s
been a long and interesting combination of events and people that have brought
these stores to this current place. It is not my intent to boast or brag about
my store or my life. I just want to tell you my story. In many instances, my
wife remembers things a little differently, but this is the truth as I remember
it.
The current cast of
characters:
Paul Howley: age 46
Mal Howley: age 47
Adam Howley: my son, age 21
Cassy Howley: my daughter,
age 17
MY LIFE WITH COMIC BOOKS: THE
HISTORY OF A COMIC SHOP-Part 191
I agreed to participate in the “One Voice”
Christmas program because my daughter thought it would be fun to do this
together. She can sing and I can’t, but I thought I could conceal my limited
ability to sing by blending in with the crowd. Now I’ve been told that the
program will be a musical and performance production…costumes, dancing and
singing. Cassandra can dance and I can’t dance at all. This was not shaping up
to be fun at all for me.
The director gave us each music books and
CDs of the music including the harmonies that we’d each be singing. This made
it very easy to practice our musical parts at home or while we were driving in
the car. Although I couldn’t really read the music, it didn’t take me too long
to figure it out. During the actual practice sessions, I found that sitting
between two of the most talented singers (Scott Goddard and Jake Downing) made
it much easier for me to stay in tune. These two guys also made the process a more
enjoyable because they liked to goof around a bit. In fact, almost all of the
people in this singing group were fun to be around. While everyone was serious
about making this the best production they could make it, we all seemed to
enjoy the process of putting it all together. It was a big commitment of time
and energy. This musical gave me the opportunity to get to know several people
who turned out to be fun and interesting.
Most of the parts I was going to be in were
large group scenes consisting of people walking around singing Christmas songs
wearing winter or holiday clothing. I pleaded with the director and the costume
coordinator to let me just wear my normal clothes…blue jeans, a t-shirt, a
leather jacket and my sneakers. In the spirit of cooperation, I agreed to wear
a scarf.
During a rehearsal one night, the director
was assigning people to play different parts in the show. My daughter,
Cassandra was asked to play Mary in the Nativity scene. I was assigned to play
Joseph. I was glad to play that part because it gave me the chance to interact
with Cassandra on-stage and there were no actual “lines” for me to remember.
Cassy would sing the solo part and I’d just join in when the rest of the
singers started their parts. I’d also
wear a costume.
We practiced for several weeks and then, in
early December, we performed this Christmas program for an audience of over
eight-hundred people on each of the two nights. I had a great time during the
whole process but the “spotlight” is not for me. I’ll leave this to the actors.
Here’s a somewhat grainy video recording of
the song that Cassandra and I were in together.
Next chapter: Our first
Christmas without Adam.
