Real sports experts swap opinions in bars and barbershops, not on sports-channel blabfests.
FSN Rocky Mountain unleashes “Live at the Barbershop” at 10 tonight, led by sportscaster and former University of Colorado quarterback Charles Johnson.
The setting is real, Rumors Beauty Salon and Barbershop, 2350 S. Chambers Road in Aurora. The 2002 movie “Barbershop,” starring Ice Cube, Cedric the Entertainer and others, gave an insight into the vitality of the neighborhood tonsorial parlor.
“It’s where common sense and nonsense meet head-up,” says Johnson in the show’s first outing. Or, more simply: “Barbershops are the black man’s country club. You can say what you want, no matter how crazy it is.”
He’s hoping the show will go the crazy route. “I was in the barbershop this morning to get a haircut. The barber challenged a patron about the Raiders. They were going at it. That’s our challenge. How to capture that. The barbershop levels the playing field.”
Regulars on the show include Gloria Neal, Larry Ulibarri, Nick Ferguson, Alfred Williams, David Diaz-Infante and, of course, Kevin the Barber. Not all will appear on all the shows. There are plans, too, to have a “citizen” participant. It is a barbershop, after all.
The show, has great promise, even if the participants are sometimes overamused by themselves. It’s signed for 20 episodes.
Drop the biscuit
Hockey is back. After Wednesday night’s grand opening with every team in the league playing, things settle in for the NHL.
OLN has supplanted ESPN as the NHL network. but if you are a DISH subscriber you won’t get the games unless you subscribe to DISH’s 180-channel package. OLN, which gave the opening-
night games to any system that wanted it, told cable and satellite providers that 40 percent of its subscribers must have OLN to keep airing the games. DISH passed the test.
The Avs are still on Altitude, including 6 p.m. Saturday against Dallas.
Around the dial
Marcia Neville’s award-winning “Colorado Sportswoman” (4 p.m. Sunday, KCNC-Channel 4) focuses on Boulder pro volleyball player Rachel Wacholder; the new women’s roller-derby league, and sixth-grade runner Sam Lewis, who is willing to take on all comers in a 5K run … CU fans, shut out of seeing their team’s 34-0 victory over Oklahoma State last week, get another chance when the Buffs meet Texas A&M (5 p.m. Saturday, FSNRM) … Major League Baseball and NASCAR feuding over television ratings, according to USA Today. NASCAR proclaims it’s the No. 2 television sport, behind the NFL. MLB notes NASCAR conveniently overlooks baseball’s TV numbers for the All-Star Game and the playoffs … Quotable: “In America, it is sport that is the opiate of the masses.” Russell Baker
Dick Kreck’s column appears Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. He may be reached at 303-820-1456 or dkreck@denverpost.com.
