Open Wide and Say...Huh?

We’ve talked before on this forum about Sioux City’s ability to attract quality name-brand entertainment. Sometimes the magic works (i.e. this week’s James Taylor concert), and sometimes the magic does not (Ashlee Simpson).

But sometimes you have to take what you can get. For example, there’s this concert:

Appearing tonight at Sioux City’s Argosy riverboat casino is none other than John “Bowzer” Baumann, formerly of doo-wop diddy diddy do wop supergroup Sha Na Na, with his touring rendition of "Bowzer's Rock n' Roll Party!" (Exclamation point theirs; not mine.)

John who? You know -– this guy.

Oh. Him. All I had to do was show you this picture of Bowzer with his muscle flex, his hair greased back, and his mouth hanging open like some poor lockjaw victim, and you knew exactly who I was referring to, didn’t you?

So Bowzer is in town, doing his shtick for of us lucky Sioux Cityans who are into hearing 50+ year old doo-wop songs for the zillionth time. That’s nostalgia for ya.

Now, I’m sure that John is quite the talent – and according to his promoter (whose Web site I "borrowed" the above graphic from) Bowzer is nothing short of a Rock & Roll God. “...His unique reminiscences about everything from cafeteria ladies to air raid drills leave ‘em, young and old, rolling in the aisles!” (How many “young” people even know what an air raid drill is? That’s a question I suppose only Bowzer can answer.)

But I have to wonder if he ever gets tired of having to pose in a muscle t-shirt and with his lower jaw hanging down to the floor, looking like a boa constrictor trying to swallow a deer. I mean, the guy is 58 years old. Is this his destiny – to be remembered as the greaser with the biggest mouth this side of Martha Raye? All of the billboards around town for this show have him in this exact same pose. It’s the image I remember of him from the Saturday AM TV version of Sha Na Na that aired when I was a kid. They played Woodstock, for God’s sake, and that was almost 40 years ago.

But I suspect that Bowzer is happy with his career choice; otherwise he'd probably be selling insurance like a lot of the other old 50's musical acts are now doing. He’s obviously a huge fan favorite, and he makes a good living singing moldy-oldie songs to the casino crowds. And according to his bio, he loves to meet his fans, staying for photos and autographs well into the night after his show. Bonus points to Bowzer for at least being a good sport about it.

So instead of mocking Bowzer, I salute the guy. He’s making a lot of people happy, he’s got an honest job, and he can definitely belt out “Blue Moon” or “Tutti Fruity” better than I ever could.

As for any chance in hell of my attending Bowser’s Rock ‘n Roll Party! tonight? Um, sorry – I can’t make it. I have to...go home and practice my Ashlee Simpson karaoke.