Comedian Durst, Actor Sandy to Attend to Mystery Festival
By Beth Wilberding, Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky.
Jun. 7–Will Durst, a political comedian, reads so much nonfiction that he picks up mysteries to enjoy when he’s on vacation. One of his hobbies is writing “30-second mysteries.”
“I get to the meat of the story,” Durst said. “What I try to do is an entire mystery book instilled into one paragraph.”
Some of the mysteries have been published in the San Francisco Chronicle, and Durst’s love of mysteries will bring him to the International Mystery Writers Festival, Discovering New Mysteries on June 17.
The festival is from June 12 to 22.
He will also be signing copies of his book, “The All-American Sport of Bipartisan Bashing: Common Sense Rantings From a Raging Moderate,” while he’s in town.
Durst will present “America’s Biggest Mystery of the Year — The Presidential Race” the evening of June 17.
He approached the mystery festival about appearing.
“I also hope to go to a couple of the seminars,” Durst said. “It sounds like a terrific event, a one-of-a-kind event.”
Zev Buffman, president and CEO of the RiverPark Center, said he has seen Durst both on television and live, when Durst had an off-Broadway show last year.
“I got hooked on him … It was just a great surprise lift,” he said.
Durst has been nominated for five Emmy Awards, and he is a regular commentator for audible.com, Air America, CNN and National Public Radio, according to his Web site.
He has been described by The New York Times as “quite possibly the best political satirist working in the country today.”
The mystery festival will also feature a return celebrity performer.
Gary Sandy, who starred in “Final Curtain” at the 2007 mystery festival, will be in four Live Radio Theatre productions. Sandy starred as Andy Travis on “WKRP in Cincinnati” and has appeared on numerous other TV shows.
Sandy was approached by organizers for the Live Radio Theatre productions about being part of this year’s shows. Live Radio Theatre shows are done in a manner similar to old-style radio shows.
“I’m really thrilled,” Sandy said. “When they called and said, ‘Do you want to do this?’ I said, ‘Absolutely.’ That was sight unseen of the scripts. They’ve given me some really good parts.”
He’ll be playing a New York City night club owner in “Hallie Bowers”; a former president of the United States in “My Gal Sunday”; a radio-show host in “Remember WENN”; and a businessman who closes his company to become a private detective in “Flemming: An American Thriller.”
Sandy said last year’s festival was a “kick,” and it is “kind of cool to have all these actors come from different parts of the country.”
He now lives near Lexington, and his father is from Kentucky.
“From that standpoint,” he said, “I am hoping that the festival just lasts for years and years and years because it’s just good for the state.”
Will Durst will perform at 6 p.m. June 17 in the Jody Berry Cabaret Theatre in the RiverPark Center. Officials haven’t decided whether there will be an admission fee. For more information, contact the RiverPark Center box office at 687-2787.
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Copyright (c) 2008, Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky.
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