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It's hard to tell when he's kidding.
"I'm going to start out by playing my guitar. . . then I'll play my banjo. . . tap dance. . . I'll demonstrate card tricks. I may do some mime . . . and close with my famous mind-reading act." says Jean Shepherd matter-of-factly when asked what he'll be doing in Dayton on Friday afternoon.
Audiences will have to see for themselves if he's jesting, Shepherd, one of America's leading humorists, will perform for Friends of the Library, a newly formed organization that holds its kick-off event Friday at noon at the Fifth Avenue Banquet Room.
Last summer, a local steering committee began investigating the possibility of starting a Friends group for the Dayton and Montgomery County Public Library. The group has met regularly and is considering a variety of possible activities from children's events to library beautification.
The group decided to do something "fun" for the first event, Shepherd was a hit when he last appeared In Dayton In connection with one of his hobbies, ham radio.
"He had the entire audience laughing for a solid hour," says Mark Willis, public Information officer for the library, Shepherd's one-man comedy show is a favorite at Princeton University, where he Is the only performer to have appeared for 19 consecutive years.
While In town, he'll also share screenwriting advice in a workshop sponsored by the local chapter of the National Academy of Arts and Sciences. His 1983 film, 'A Christmas Story', (In which he serves as the film's narrator) is rapidly becoming a cult classic.
Shepherd will also appear at Books & Co. Friday evening to read from and autograph his works.
"But I've never read from my books in front of people," he said in a phone interview from his home.
If that's true, it's probably the only thing Shepherd hasn't done in front of an audience.
In radio days of the 1950s and 1960s, he dished up his humor via WOR In New York, where his show, Shepherd's Pie ran 45 minutes, six times a week.
"What I did on radio has remained unique." he says," and nobody else has ever done it. But I'm not a radio man. . . I'm an actor. . . an entertainer. . . At the same time I was doing the radio show I was also working clubs, doing off-Broadway."
Shepherd gained his acting training at Goodman Theatre in Chicago's Improvisation's heyday, His WOR shows were never scripted. "I had notes, but I didn't read them word for word. I'd have a different theme each night."
Shepherd's humor collections include 'In God We Trust - All Others Pay Cash' (the basis for A Christmas Story), 'Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories. . . and Other Disasters', 'The Ferrari in the Bedroom' and 'Fistful of Fig Newtons'.
Jean Shepherd's America, a PBS series, featured Shepherd in various locales. ("Charles Kuralt copied It") He has also written other shows for PBS, including several award-winning episodes of American Playhouse.
"I love to write," he says. "I've been a student of language all my life. I love the language."
Unlike writers who write and then edit their work, Shepherd explains that he edits in his head and then writes it down. "When I have a project to work on, I work steady until I am finished 10 to 15 hours a day."
Critics and biographers often suggest that much of Shepherd's work is autobiographical, a nostalgic look at his growing-up days in Indiana.
Shepherd emphatically disagrees, "I don't like nostalgia, It's an American sickness," he says. "It's a great Illusion. Most of the people who think that everything used, to be better just don't remember much about what it was like"
'A Christmas Story tells of a small boy's longing for a Red Ryder BB gun, "That story is timeless. It doesn't have anything to do with the time of year," says its author. "It's based on a universal desire. Every male kid in the world would like to have a BB gun."
"This may surprise you, but everything physical in the story is available today. It's generic Americana. The Red Ryder BB gun is the No-1 selling BB gun in the world this minute."
He wrote the original story during Vietnam as an anti-war parable. Though the central character Is continually warned ("you'll shoot your eye out") he continues to want a gun. "War is a fact that's always with us," Shepherd says.
"I don't write what happened to me because biography is not universal. I'm a fiction writer."
Then where does he get the ideas for his stories?
Shepherd says he has no idea. "I think writers tend to invent pat answers for things they can't answer. People are disappointed if I say I don't know where my ideas come from.
"If I say I keep watching the milk man and what he does I just write down, that satisfies people."
What is he working on now? "I'm trying to work on my ice skating, and getting my car cleaned."
He's also working on a children's book ("it's basically a modern retelling of the Black Beauty legend, but it's not about horses") and the Christmas Sto¬ry sequel. ("It won't be about the next Christmas where the kid wants a choo-choo train.")
Last week he was in California working on his new film and 'doing lunch.' "Farah Fawcett is going to be in all my movies in the future,” he adds.
LUNCH WITH JEAN SHEPHERD is sponsored by the Friends of the Library and will be held at noon Friday at the Fifth Avenue Banquet Room, 101 Pine St. in the Oregon District. Tickets are available at all Dayton and Montgomery County public libraries for $ 12, which includes lunch. Those interested in attending Satur¬day's screenwriting workshop should call Neil Black at WPTD (Channel 16) at 220-1600. Shepherd will appear at Books & Co. at 7:30 p.m. Friday.
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