It’s a live cage match from the world of radio. The Battle of the Talk Show Hosts will again come down at Comedy Works South on Oct. 12. But there is nothing really funny about this.
Last year, the hosts were Peter Boyles, Mike Rosen and David Sirota. This year, organizers are adding Jon Caldara, Michael Brown, Rick Barber, Tom Martino, Dan Caplis, Craig Silverman and Thom Hartmann. Dave Logan will be the official greeter, Steffan Tubbs and April Zesbaugh will emcee.
Knowing how much these people like to talk, I bet it’ll sound like a classroom of children yelling in Esperanto. Boyles offered me two tickets. I said, “Why would I want to look at radio hosts?”
“I just have a good time,” said Boyles. “But some of these guys are out for blood. It’s a barn-burner.”
Caldara says, “It’ll be like a three-ring circus. But with all your favorite talk show hosts there, you’ll be able to throw a tomato and hit one of us.”
You can win tix at a contest through , or . Good luck.
Poltergeist pedicures.
Denver’s Amy Allan sees dead people. Ghosts. And she proves it on the new Travel Channel series “The Dead Files.” She co-stars in the 8 p.m. Friday series with a retired homicide detective. She talks with the deceased or sometimes just investigates something unusual. Allan became interested in all this when she was tormented by “shadow people” as a kid growing up Arvada. Now that’s scary.
No episodes currently come down in Denver, but Allan works as a massage therapist at the Oxford Hotel spa and says she sometimes see an elderly gentleman in the spa area “who kind of reminds me of the KFC character.” And sometimes there is a “depressed” woman in the middle stall of the ladies room. But these ghosts are as friendly as Casper and I bet the Oxford is loaded with them. I’ve had drinks with ghosts in the Cruise Room. Fun crowd.
Great bars.
The new Esquire revisits the roster of the World’s Seven Great Bars 1959 — starting with the glory of the Floridita in Old Havana, Cuba. Author David Wondrich says this is the only bar that would still make it on the list — because it “creates its own little universe where for a little while life outside seems very far away.” As an example of the rare bars that do such a thing, he gives a shout-out to the Buckhorn Exchange in Denver — a bar that is good and never fancy. Take a bow, Bucky.
City spirit.
“A Prairie Home Companion” broadcasts Oct. 29 from the World Arena in Colorado Springs, tix $35-$100 at . . . Broadway star Gary Morris and Friends hold a benefit concert for Gary’s longtime assistant, Diane Mantzaros, who is battling pancreatic cancer, on Oct. 14 at the Red Lion Southeast in Aurora, call Bo Cottrell at 303-696-0450 . . . Denver’s ESPN commentator Rick Reilly gets a shout-out in New York Magazine for his column about a “marching band for the blind playing in front of a football team for the deaf” . . . Sez who: “I watch a lot of baseball on the radio.” Gerald R. Ford
Bill Husted’s column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Friday. You can reach him at 303-954-1486 or at bhusted@denverpost.com. Take a peek at Husted’s next column at .
