The Wichita Eagle from Wichita, Kansas • 40

Mifinnnnnnnnnirnnryt niW 12C THE WICHITA EAGU-IEACON Friday January 1 1982 Time Out With Ed Muscare Night Live host Ed Muscare and studio guests from Grandview Mo recite The Creed Unde Earns Up Late -i 8 (Wi Ed Muscare is the sort of man who gets up at 4 pm has his coffee then tucks his cat into his parka and heads off to work His cat? That's right he says in a mock innocent tone that mischievously asks Muscare is host of the 3-month-old "All Night on KSHBCh 41 (21 on the Wichita TV cable) out of Kansas City And his cat the tailless Caffeina is his cohost for the 11 pm to 5:30 am Monday-Friday romp interspersing live banter and piano playing between Twilight Zone" old movies and serials Caffeina originally Caffeine but feminized when friends reminded Muscare his cat is female is about 8 months old and was a present from a viewer when the nightowl show made its debut back in October She is his nightly companion while he introduces the various shows and movies Muscare also has human hep Al most nightly faithful viewers who want to meet him in person show up often in creative outfits to fill the audience section of the studio Entertainers appearing in Kansas City also drop by The guests help recite The Creed a nightly ritual: I pledge every night at 11 I'll time into All Night A faithful fan always be And not handing you no jive And on the word Muscare and crew give viewers their special gesture waving elegantly the Queen of with the palm away from the viewers Where did it come from? hand (gesture) came from riding in the back seat of a Rolls Royce he works for a dealership incidentally I saw another friend and started to wave then de-' cided you show your palm from the back seat of a Rolls That's just not The show is all ad-lib Muscare noted (hiring a telephone interview But the calls are merely on hold he says TV delays because of the videotape apparently are more complicated than their radio counterpart But Kenin is working on that and as soon as he has it perfected the live (well almost live) calls will go on again Muscare says Meanwhile Ed" Muscare who is known for his voice characterizations is placing calls to himself on the phone" (a plastic banana held to his ear) from a stable of characters When the bananaphone went on the blink he used a zucchiniphone And once he even used a paper-towel-holderphone The callers? Well Delbert who phones to describe his unique nightly sandwiches and who wants desperately to be a radio professional although he overdoes everything in his enthusiasm Then Mrs Walker a grandmotherly homemaker- who but also attracted a following as host for both Mummy" and horror shows And he also was host for two midday movies "Dialing for and before leaving in 1977 But now he's back with Night Live" and he is beginning to extend bedtimes for viewers in Kansas Missouri Nebraska Oklahoma and Iowa How does he know? Fran the telephone calls which pepper the program after the station number is flashed on the screen When the show first went on the air producer Dave Kenin and host Muscare had planned to use live audience-participation calls as the basis for Night sort of a talk show between features the live calls lasted only the first he mused couple of viewers managed to slip a few obscenities on the air and since the station wasn't equipped for a three-second delay we had to stop imme calls to give a thought for the day or a household hint And there's Lee Cucarachi (a take-off on flashy pianist Liber ace) who calls with nightly riddles characters are all very real to he explains Muscare first planned to use these characters as visuals actually scrambling into costumes for each But he scrapped that idea as impractical and decided just their voices was better because it preserves the illusion Muscare has been interested in voice characterizatons since childhood and he says it is a have to have the gift Oh a lot of people can imitate Cagney or Jimmy he said lapsing into those familiar voces to do a non-fampus character and create a specific image takes a talent that can't really be And Muscare's talent is keeping a lot of people up very late these days Photos by Steve Haiper Text by Bob Curtright At left Muscare does gesture for Zone then grimaces at one of Delbert's concoctions There are no writers so Muscare must be quick on his feet Does he ever worry that draw a blank some night just as the camera goes on? don't really worry about he says there are times when I see the light go on that I know what going to say But I figure I can always talk to the cat or (day the piano or stand on my head I did stand on my head to open the show one Playing the piano is a favorite pastime and a self-taught talent learned by translating guitar chords to piano chords he says He can't read a note of music but he can fake it by singing all around it A native New Yorker Muscare is back in Kansas City after four years in Florida He first came to Kansas City in 1966 and worked as a radio DJ for WDAF In 1970 he switched from radio to TV to work for KBMA (predecessor of KSHB) In the '70s Muscare was a kiddie show host for Treehouse At left Caffeina to film takes a lunch break above Ed shows ornaments star Mandy Patinkin in KC to promote the movie 4 A.