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One of the most clever songwriters and quick-witted live comedians in the business... with his high speed, low-drag act that constantly changes and evolves, Pat has such strong material and improv skills, no two shows are ever the same... not even close.
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Badfinger For A Day

IMG_0233When I saw the ‘Breaking Bad’ finale and they played Badfinger’s song ‘Baby Blue’, it brought back great memories of the time I was in Badfinger… for a day.

I was working on WMMR’s Morning Zoo and we were preparing to do a week of live shows from the Trump Plaza with great guests like Jerry Seinfeld, Mike Tyson, and Greg Allman—to name a few. I looked at the list of performers we had coming up and saw the British group Badfinger was going to be on our show and thought, “Wait, isn’t everybody in Badfinger dead?” I was a fan of them, and due to their Beatles connection, I knew a little bit about the band’s history (Paul McCartney wrote their first hit, ‘Come And Get It’). I told our producer, Karen Buck, I was pretty sure there weren’t any surviving members of Badfinger, because the two main guys, Pete Ham and Tom Evans, killed themselves (this was pre-Google). Karen told me her info says that the group Badfinger will be here on Tuesday, a day early, and The Flaming Caucasians (our house band) and I were supposed to rehearse a song with them. “Maybe it’s all new guys”, she said. “Maybe it’s all imposters”, I replied. “Either way, it won’t be what the audience expects.”

On the day of the rehearsal, Badfinger showed up. It was one guy, Joey Molland, their guitar player. That was it. Joey was the only surviving member of the group and it turns out he didn’t sing or write any of their hit songs. “This has the potential for disaster”, I thought.

Joey, all English toothy grin and hungover looking, picked up a guitar and told us we were going to do ‘Baby Blue’ and ran us through the chord changes. He was a great guitarist, thank God, and It sounded pretty good after a while, with him playing the iconic riffs from the song and us backing him up, but he wasn’t singing. Not a note. Nothing. I asked Joey why he wasn’t doing the lead vocal and he said, “I’m not really much of a singer. Why don’t one of you guys do it?” I looked at the band, turned back to Joey and said, “We can’t sing it, we’re not Badfinger, that would just be… bad.”

I convinced Mr. Molland to sing, but Joey said he couldn’t hit the high notes in the bridge, the emotional arch of the tune, so he asked if I would please do it. I said, “I can hit those notes, but this a Morning Zoo crowd and they know me as the ‘dick joke singing poop song guy’, and I don’t think they’d buy me doing vocals on a beloved Badfinger hit. Joey says, “Your producer says you have a great voice, so why don’t you give it a shot?” I said “Sir Joey Molland, last of the Badfingers, flattery will get you everywhere”, and I sang the living shite out of the ‘Baby Blue’ bridge, “What can I do, what can I say?”, and I was Badfinger for a day.

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