Podcast appearances and mentions of larry ratso sloman

The Jokermen sit down with the legendary Larry "Ratso" Sloman for a journey through Ratso's encounters with Bob, Lou, John, Leonard, and Josh & Benny Safdie. This is a fun one LISTEN TO RATSO'S ALBUM ON SPOTIFY AND FOLLOW HIM ON INSTAGRAM CHECK OUT RATSO'S WEBSITE AND MERCH AT RATSO.ORG NEW JOKERMEN MERCH AVAILABLE NOW ON JOKERMEN.NET SUBSCRIBE TO JOKERMEN ON PATREON LISTEN TO JOKERMEN THEME-TYPE RADIO: WE'RE GONNA HAVE A REAL GOOD TIME TOGETHER ON SPOTIFY AND APPLE MUSIC FOLLOW JOKERMEN ON TWITTER, INSTAGRAM, TIKTOK, AND YOUTUBE

New podcast series goes behind the making of the new film, Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song, and the legendary artist and song that inspired it. Interviews include Includes archival footage from Leonard Cohen, himself, and exclusive content from film-makers Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine and journalist Larry "Ratso" Sloman. You will also hear from members of Cold War Kids, Old 97s, The Mountain Goats, Judy Collins, producer John Lissauer, and a special appearance by Rita Houston (WFUV - New York, NY). This final episode traces the history of the song "Hallelujah" from Cohen's original recording rejected by his record label, to the many cover versions and pop culture appearances that made it the iconic anthem as it is known today. The Sony Pictures Classics film Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song is in theaters. Details on screenings near you are online at tickets.hallelujahfilm.com Produced by True Tone Media Group, hosted by ATO Records artist Amanda Shires.

New podcast series goes behind the making of the new film, Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song, and the legendary artist and song that inspired it. Interviews include Includes archival footage from Leonard Cohen, himself, and exclusive content from film-makers Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine and journalist Larry "Ratso" Sloman. You will also hear from members of Cold War Kids, Old 97s, The Mountain Goats, Judy Collins, producer John Lissauer, and a special appearance by Rita Houston (WFUV - New York, NY). This episode details how Leonard Cohen's legendary songwriting process played out as spent many years creating "Hallelujah." The Sony Pictures Classics film Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song is in theaters. Details on screenings near you are online at tickets.hallelujahfilm.com Produced by True Tone Media Group, hosted by ATO Records artist Amanda Shires.

Brand new podcast series goes behind the making of the new film, Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song, as well as the histories of the legendary artist and song that inspired the movie. Interviews include Includes archival footage from Leonard Cohen, himself, and exclusive content from film-makers Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine and journalist Larry "Ratso" Sloman. In this first episode, you will also hear clips from the film featuring Judy Collins, a special appearance by Rita Houston (WFUV New York), and stories about Leonard Cohen's early days. Hallelujah - Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song, A Podcast Is produced by Andy Cahn and Eric Molk for True Tone Media Group, and hosted by ATO Records artist, Amanda Shires. The Sony Pictures Classics film, Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song is in theaters now, expanding to markets nationwide on July 25 and August 5. Details on screenings near you are online at https://tickets.hallelujahfilm.com

Kathy Gunst wants to open up your view of what a salad can be beyond a side dish, an afterthought or just plain lettuce. She shares three new recipes. And, the documentary "Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song" explores the life of the music icon and his most famous song. Music journalist Larry "Ratso" Sloman, who appears in the documentary, joins us.

The team sits down with Daniel Adams, Director of “The Walk“. This film has its WORLD PREMIERE at the Opening Night (8pm PT) of the 25th annual Dances with Films Festival in Los Angeles. Fandor is a proud sponsor of Dances with Films, a defiantly independent festival. The festival will run from June 9 – 19th, 2022.Daniel Adams grew up in Boston and worked in politics, including two gubernatorial campaigns, a race for attorney general, and a presidential campaign. He also garnered valuable film production experience directing television commercials for a Boston advertising agency. He then co-wrote (w/ Michael Mailer) and directed his first feature film in 1989, “A Fool and His Money” which starred Sandra Bullock, Jonathan Penner, George Plimpton and Jerzy Kosinski, released through Trimark Pictures (now LionsGate). He then went on to write and direct his second feature, the critically acclaimed “Primary Motive,” for Twentieth Century Fox which starred Judd Nelson, Justine Bateman, Richard Jordan, John Savage and Sally Kirkland, produced by Don Carmody. His third feature, which he also wrote and directed, a comedy entitled, “The Mouse,” starring Rip Torn and John Savage, released through Strand Releasing, also received positive reviews. “The Golden Boys,” which he wrote and directed, starring David Carradine, Rip Torn, Bruce Dern and Mariel Hemingway, had a very successful release through Roadside Attractions and Lions Gate Films in 2009. His next film, which he wrote and directed, released in 2010 through New Films Cinema, was “The Lightkeepers” which starred Richard Dreyfuss and Blythe Danner. “Lightkeepers” has been the recipient of many awards, including Best Musical Score for a Comedy in 2010 (Int'l Film Music Critics Assoc), Best Supporting Actor (Bruce Dern, Methodfest), and Best Film (“Golden Angel” award at the CAFF in Los Angeles). It was chosen as the closing night film at the prestigious Palm Springs International Film Festival and opening night film at the Boulder International Film Festival.He directed and co-wrote (with legendary National Lampoon editor Larry “Ratso” Sloman) the satire, “An L.A. Minute” starring Gabriel Byrne, Kiersey Clemons, and Bob Balaban, which was released in theaters through Strand in August 2018. And he wrote the script for the upcoming feature film “Panama” starring Mel Gibson and Cole Hauser.“The Walk” which he directed and co-wrote (with George Powell) has already won many film festival awards including “Best Picture” and “Best Director” and has been chosen as the opening night film at the Boston International Film Festival and Dances with Films.He is currently writing a biography of American patriot James Otis and developing the book into a limited series to be co-written and produced by multi-Emmy winner Jay Kogen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

RUNDOWN  Today's episode begins with Hotshot explaining the bubble tea phenomenon which seems to have sprung up out of nowhere. Then, the guys provide their takeaways from the Richard Sherman incident and the lasting impact it will have for him and his family. Three best-of guests are local golfing legend Fred Couples, singer-songwriter Gary Portnoy, and author Larry "Ratso" Sloman. Later, Mitch and Scott chat about a variety of topics ranging from cardboard beds to the shooting at the Nationals game to stolen teeth! GUESTS  Fred Couples | PGA golfer Gary Portnoy | Singer-songwriter Larry “Ratso” Sloman | co-author of Mike Tyson autobiography Undisputed Truth TABLE OF CONTENTS  0:00 | What the heck is bubble tea and since when were they built at every street corner in sight? 21:36 | Richard Sherman broke his silence about his incident and has revealed some mental issues he is dealing with.   41:21 | GUEST: 1992 Masters Champion Fred Couples joins the show to shares some memories from his countless rounds at Augusta.  1:13:25 | GUEST: Gary Portnoy tells the story of creating the iconic theme song to Cheers “Where Everybody Knows Your Name”.  1:42:42 | GUEST: Larry Sloman steps in the ring to weigh in on Mike Tyson's return to the ring after a 15-year hiatus.   2:13:08 | Which did you enjoy more...Shark Week or The Open Championship. 2:18:24 | There is a rumor swirling around that the beds in Tokyo are made of cardboard to keep the Olympics athletes socially distanced. 2:25:03 | A shooting at Nationals Park revealed the heroism of Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado. 2:29:56 | A woman in Nevada planned her grand robbery...at a dentist office. 

This week on the Bonus Dopey show! We were lucky enough to have New York City legend and raconteur -  Larry ‘Ratso’ Sloman to actually show up at Dave’s father’s opulent apartment to kibbitz. Ratso talks all about his illustrious rise to prominence starting out writing for Rolling Stone Magazine joining Bob Dylan on the infamous Rolling Thunder tour, and then becoming the editor in chief for National Lampoon, and High Times before reinventing himself as one of the most sought after ghostwriters around. He co-wrote Scar Tissue with Anthony Kiedis, and Private Parts and Miss America with Howard Stern, among others. Sit back and enjoy two old school New Yorkers doing what they do best on this week’s bonus episode Dopey!

  Stu Levitan welcomes a special guest for a special topic on this day after Bob Dylan's 79th birthday. We're joined by The Rev. L. J. Sloman of the Last Exit Before the Freeway Church of God, as seen on WMTV's The Weekend Starts now with Ben Sidran, a/k/a UW graduate student Larry Sloman, a/k/a Ratso, to talk about a book, and album and a movie. The book is On the Road with Bob Dylan, his epic account of Dylan's 1975 tour, the Rolling Thunder Revue. The critically acclaimed album is Stubborn Heart, from which that brief snippet of Dylan's Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands was borrowed, and which includes 8 Ratso originals. The movie is Martin Scorcese's fascinating and fanciful Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story,” in which he has a featured role – as he did in Dylan's own movie about that tour, Reynaldo & Clara. As to Bob Dylan, he is, without question, the greatest singer-songwriter since Homer. And his live performances on that 1975 tour were among his most intense and electrifying in a 60-year career of intense and electrifying performances. As to Larry Sloman, he has had a career path I both envy and appreciate. A native New Yorker, he made phi beta kappa and graduated magna cum laude from Queens College in 1969, with a degree in sociology. To avoid the draft, he joined Volunteers in Service To America, the domestic peace corps, and was assigned to Milwaukee, where he worked with Father James Groppi's welfare mothers, and sometimes their daughters. After a year in VISTA, he accepted a fellowship from the National Institute for Mental Health and came to Madison for his Master's in Deviance and Criminology, which, as he notes has informed his work ever since. But more importantly, while here he also became music editor of the Daily Cardinal. Which helped him sell a story to Rolling Stone, after which he wrote for it some more, and then broke big news with a preview of Dylan's Blood on the Tracks album. From there, he got the Rolling Stone gig to cover the Rolling Thunder Revue– at least for a while -- and then wrote the book which Bob Dylan himself calls “the War and Peace of rock and roll.” Then five years as Editor-in-Chief of High Times magazine, six as Executive Editor of National Lampoon, and a literary career that now includes Steal This Dream: Abbie Hoffman and the Countercultural Revolution in America, Reefer Madness: The History of Marijuana in America, The Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of : America's First Superhero, and Thin Ice: A Season In Hell With the New York Rangers. And best-selling collaborations with radio personality Howard Stern, boxer Mike Tyson, magician David Blaine, Red Hot Chili Peppers singer Anthony Kiedis, and Peter Criss of Kiss. Various side projects, including producing the award-winning music video of Dylan's song Jokerman. And now he's a recording artist, as well. As I said, envy and appreciate. It is a great pleasure to welcome to Madison BookBeat the legendary Larry Ratso Sloman.  

RUNDOWN At the top of the show, the guys make initial remarks about the clunky finish to Monday night's game and the regression of Carson Wentz and do a little podcast housekeeping. Then, Mitch and Scott recap their Thanksgiving weekend of food and sports viewing before delving into their takeaways from the victorious Monday Night Football contest for the Seahawks in Philadelphia. Three featured guests beginning with ESPN Hawks insider Brady Henderson for instant reaction, Larry "Ratso" Sloman to talk about Mike Tyson's journey back into the ring, & Rick Neuheisel for a college football update. Later, the guys run down the laundry list of miscellaneous topics including Marshawn Lynch's pre-game ritual, a funeral employee's exhibition of poor judgement, and a Scooby Snack by Mr. Postseason! GUESTS Brady Henderson | ESPN Seahawks insider Larry "Ratso" Sloman | co-author of Mike Tyson autobiography Undisputed Truth Rick Neuheisel | CBS Sports college football analyst TABLE OF CONTENTS 0:00 | How in the world did the Hawks allow Philly to score that desperation touchdown in the final minute of Monday's game?! 8:50 | Mitch delivers the magic code word for next weekend's trio of Beat the Boys matchups. 9:59 | Did you have a chance to listen to Hotshot's tribute to Phil Collins for the Patrons? 20:42 | How was your Thanksgiving? Mitch and Scott engage in a bit of turkey talk. 23:29 | Mitch recalls the story of the time he attended a Dolphins game that was serendipitously moved to Arizona. 29:33 | The guys share their thoughts on Nate Robinson's gruesome KO by YouTube star Jake Paul & the Tyson/Jones Jr. bout. 34:07 | Mitch and Scott run down their list of takeaways from the Seahawks 23-17 win over Philadelphia. 1:02:51 | GUEST: Brady Henderson jumps aboard following Monday night's matchup against the Eagles. 1:22:32 | GUEST: Larry Sloman steps in the ring to weigh in on Mike Tyson's return to the ring after a 15-year hiatus.  1:51:24 | GUEST: Rick Neuheisel returns to recap Thanksgiving week's slate of college football matchups and provides a Heisman watch update. 2:16:25 | Funeral worker Claudio Fernandez took a selfie with deceased Diego Maradona which has gone viral and has led to his firing and massive criticism. 2:19:30 | Syracuse football was cruising to a potential heroic victory, but committed a major brain fart down the stretch.  2:22:25 | Mr. Postseason drops by for a quick tidbit after Seattle's win over the Eagles...don't miss his full segment later this week!

Meet Cute Presents: The Train Car - Blue Line, an audio rom-com where a guy who’s lost his job finds love.Follow @MeetCute on Instagram and @ListenMeetCute on Twitter.Story by Lilliana Winkworth. Produced, Directed, and Sound Designed by Vincent Cacchione. Starring: Danny Tamberelli, Jacquelyn Landgraf, Larry ‘Ratso’ Sloman, and Vincent Cacchione.Please subscribe and rate us 5 stars! 

What is needed in these adverse times? We turn to our spirit guides, our philosopher kings, our rabbis: the musicians. Because although this particular form of adversity is new, musicians have been choosing to feel good in spite of adverse conditions for a long time.  In this episode, we explore the nature of the musician joke, particularly the jazz musician joke. Jokes about gigs, drummers, singers, trombone players, viola players, junkies, 3 legged pigs, bagpipes, bar mitzvahs, African safaris, little old ladies, family therapy, tattoo parlors, monkeys, genies, it’s all here. In other words, the classics. Featuring Steven Bernstein, Amy Cervini, Peter Coyote, Ethan Eubanks, Donald Fagen, James Farber, Steve Gadd, Hilary Gardner, Gil Goldstein, Steve Khan, Ashley Kahn, Tessa Lark, Will Lee, Phil Lyons, Les McCann, Adam Nussbaum, Ben Sidran, Janis Siegel, Larry Ratso Sloman, Dave Stoler, Jack Stratton, Neil Tesser, Michael Visceglia, Michael Winograd, and more.

Take a holiday break with The Orbiting Human Circus. This episode isn’t a part of the story of The Orbiting Human Circus in Naughty Till New Years, but the flea and the whole OHC gang will return in Naughty till New Years on January 8, 2020, with biweekly episodes running all the way through the end of April.  A co-production of WNYC Studios and Night Vale Presents. This special holiday episode featured Larry Ratso Sloman in First Night, Drew Callander in A Visit from the Platypus, and in the stagehands scene, Susannah Flood, David Barlow, Dan Solomon, Miche Braden, Nicholas Carter, and Julian Koster. It also featured, as many episodes do, musical composition and arrangement by Thomas Hughes.   Written and directed by Julian Koster, and produced by Christy Gressman. For full credits and more information, go to orbitinghumancircus.com.  Music from the show is released by Merge Records: https://smarturl.it/OrbitingS2songs. Look for Into the River Thames (The Old Seagull Explains) beginning December 23, 2019, on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, Bandcamp and more. Listen today on your preferred digital music service provider.  Become a Friend of the Orbiting Human Circus on Patreon: patreon.com/orbitinghumancircus, check out shirts, pins, and more at topatoco.com/collections/orbiting-human-circus, and follow us on Instagram @orbitinghumancircus or Twitter @orbitinghuman.

Anyways Dude, I trip out on the abstract connections between my old friend Rod Sweitzer and Sam Shepard, with an assist from an artistic nude photo of Patti Smith shot by Robert Mapplethorpe. CHARACTERS: Fred "Sonic" Smith, Bob Dylan, Seth Meyers, Larry "Ratso" Sloman, Matthew McConaughey, Sam Elliott, Paul Newman, Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash LOCATIONS: New York City, Toluca Lake THEATER/PLAYS: Broken Story, White Horse Theater Company, True West, Cowboy Mouth BOOKS: Year of the Monkey, M Train, Nobel Prize in Literature, On the Road with Bob Dylan MUSIC: Bring it All Back Home, A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall, MC5 MOVIES/TV: Skavlan, Rolling Thunder Revue STUFF: Facebook, skateboarding, BMX bike, feathered hair, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, surfing, Airborne, Rhodes Scholar SOUNDS: cars, car alarm, dog, snap, commotion  GENRE: storytelling, personal narrative, personal journal PHOTO: "Rod's Broken Story" shot on my "new" iPhone6 RECORDED: November 8, 2019 on the observation deck at the Zane Grey Estate in Altadena, California  GEAR: Marantz Solid State Recorder PMD670, Sennheiser MD 46 microphone DISCLAIMER/WARNING: Proudly presented rough, raw and ragged. Seasoned with salty language and ideas. Not for most people's taste. Please be advised. "Lance Anderson tells anecdotes with stunning fragmented and cluttered feeling." - Hanna Fahl of Dagens Nyheters (Google translation of Sweden's daily newspaper)  

Anyways Dude, I trip out on the abstract connections between my old friend Rod Sweitzer and Sam Shepard, with an assist from an artistic nude photo of Patti Smith shot by Robert Mapplethorpe.CHARACTERS: Fred "Sonic" Smith, Bob Dylan, Seth Meyers, Larry "Ratso" Sloman, Matthew McConaughey, Sam Elliott,Paul Newman, Kris Kristofferson, Johnny CashLOCATIONS: New York City,Toluca LakeTHEATER/PLAYS: Broken Story, White Horse Theater Company, True West,Cowboy MouthBOOKS: Year of the Monkey, M Train, Nobel Prize in Literature, On the Road with Bob DylanMUSIC: Bring it All Back Home, A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall, MC5MOVIES/TV: Skavlan,Rolling Thunder RevueSTUFF: Facebook, skateboarding,BMX bike,feathered hair, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, surfing, Airborne,Rhodes ScholarSOUNDS: cars,car alarm,dog, snap, commotion GENRE: storytelling,personal narrative, personal journalPHOTO: "Rod's Broken Story" shot on my "new" iPhone6RECORDED: November 8, 2019 on the observation deck at the Zane Grey Estate in Altadena,California GEAR: Marantz Solid State Recorder PMD670, Sennheiser MD 46 microphoneDISCLAIMER/WARNING: Proudly presented rough, raw and ragged. Seasoned with salty language and ideas. Not for most people's taste. Please be advised."Lance Anderson tells anecdotes with stunning fragmented and cluttered feeling." - Hanna Fahl of Dagens Nyheters (Google translation of Sweden's daily newspaper)

Gilbert and Frank are joined by author, journalist and songwriter (and Gilbert's old pal) Larry "Ratso" Sloman for a conversation about the Jewishness of Elvis Presley, the glory days of "Rolling Stone," the mysterious death of Harry Houdini and the new Martin Scorsese documentary, "Rolling Thunder: A Bob Dylan Story." Also, Al Lewis takes the stand, Joni Mitchell takes umbrage, Floyd the barber meets Robert Zimmerman and Ratso recalls adventures with Joan Baez, Leonard Cohen, George Harrison and Al Goldstein. PLUS: Gogi Grant! "Renaldo and Clara"! "Fred Mertz' Night Out"! Ratso samples Bela Lugosi! And Gilbert stars in "National Lampoon's" Foto Funnies! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2010: I was a huge fan of Chris Miller’s work before he co-wrote Animal House. Arnold Roth has been a guest on this show, as was Gahan Wilson and Larry “Ratso” Sloman. I was even quoted in a Stan Mack’s Real Life Funnies—but in the Village Voice, not the Lampoon. All of which leads me to this moment, in which Rick Meyerowitz, who was literally present at the birth of the National Lampoon, talks to me about "Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Writers and Artists Who Made the National Lampoon Insanely

From New York, it’s the legendary Larry “Ratso” Sloman, author of On The Road With Bob Dylan, the up-close-and-personal story of the 1975 Rolling Thunder tour. Ratso shoots the breeze with Luke and Kerry about Bob, Joan, Sara, Joni, Roger, Renaldo, Clara and the rest of the gang. The Scorsese Rolling Thunder Revue doc is previewed and his new album discussed. From his beginnings as a suburban teenage accountant to hanging out with the foulmouthed Fugs, blagging his way into Rolling Stone magazine, accosting Dylan outside a beauty parlour and being invited on tour, to recording a duet opposite Nick Cave (with flute by Warren Ellis) - it’s been a long, strange trip. Our conversation with Ratso includes Stubborn Heart album producer Vincent Cacchione. Ratso Sloman was known as Larry until Joan Baez changed his name. He has written books on Houdini, David Blaine, Mike Tyson, Howard Stern and Anthony Kiedis. He has directed a Dylan video, edited National Lampoon and written a history of marijuana in America. More importantly, Ratso has a Master’s Degree in Deviance and Criminology. Trailer Podcast: Ratso & Friends Twitter: @ratsosloman Listeners: please subscribe and/or leave a review and a rating. Twitter @isitrollingpod Spotify playlist Recorded 10th April 2019

THE GREAT BLUESMAN TELLS IT STRAIGHT Doc Pomus no longer had to cater to the teenage rock ’n’ roll market. He wrote sophisticated songs for adults. In his final years, he mentored dozens of singers, discovered bands like Roomful of Blues and The Fabulous Thunderbirds, and wrote the best lyrics of his life. Episode Links Doc’s website (http://www.felderpomus.com/docpomus1.html) AKA Doc Pomus, the documentary (http://akadocpomus.com/the-film/) Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (https://www.rockhall.com/inductees/doc-pomus) (Music bed under " Highway 61 (https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/josh-alan-band/44812713) " by Josh Alan Band) (https://blackcracker.fm/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Doc-Pomus.jpg) (https://blackcracker.fm/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Doc-Bitter-End-89.jpeg) Josh Alan Friedman, Josh’s mother Ginger, Doc, Larry “Ratso” Sloman, Peggy Bennett, at Bitter End after Josh’s show, 1989 (https://blackcracker.fm/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-13-at-4.29.35-AM.png) Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman at the Brill Building (https://blackcracker.fm/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Shirlee-Hauser.jpeg) Uncle Doc, courtesy of Shirlee Hauser

To call Larry “Ratso” Sloman a writer is not at all inaccurate - he is a writer. But he’s so much more. Sloman perfected the art of hanging out and he turned that art into a career. Here he talks about how studying sociology influenced his thinking and gave him a way to be inside the revolution and outside at the same time. Allen Ginsberg, The Fugs, Abbie Hoffman, Al Goldstein (Screw Magazine), Kinky Friedman, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, John Cale, Rolling Stone Magazine, Howard Stern, Anthony Kiedis, High Times Magazine… they all make prominent appearances in our conversation. On fashion: “Not to boast but I always had a good sense of unique fashion. I mean I was wearing rabbinical coats way before Gaultier was doing them.” On writing: “It’s like building a house. You have to have a great foundation. Have a great beginning and great ending. You can get away with a lot of sh$t in the middle.” On celebrity: “They don’t want someone to put them on a pedestal.” Visit www.third-story.com or go to www.patreon.com/thirdstorypodcast.

Today's Guest: Larry Ratso Sloman, author or co-author of celebrity memoirs from Howard Stern, Abbie Hoffman, Anthony Kiedis, Phil Esposito, Mike Tyson, and a biography of Harry Houdini   Order by clicking the DVD cover above! Larry 'Ratso' Sloman, co-author of Howard Stern's 'Private Parts' Writing the biography of a well-known person in pop culture is an assignment fraught with trap doors, two-way mirrors, and shackles. Some writers even disdain their subjects. Others hopelessly suck up to the person, if living, in hopes of winning their favor. Journalists working the genre, however, are usually after something more. They took on the life of an individual because they believe -- through professional research and interviews -- that they can add more color or depth to what’s known about the figure’s public and private lives. Today’s Mr. Media guest, Larry “Ratso” Sloman, has trod the path of biography and ghostwritten autobiographies a number of times in his career. He wrote Steal This Dream about the life of 1960s dissident Abbie Hoffman. He helped Howard Stern pen his life story in two memorable books, Private Parts and Miss America. When Anthony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers needed someone to help tell his story, Kiedis turned to Sloman. The book many people remember Sloman best for, however, may well be his chronicle of Bob Dylan’s remarkable 1975 Rolling Thunder Review concert tour, On the Road with Bob Dylan. That is also where he earned his unusual nickname, which I’m told he wears with pride like a badge of courage. Sloman’s latest book, written with William Kalush is The Secret Life of Houdini, the Making of America’s First Superhero. Larry "Ratso" Sloman Website • Twitter • Wikipedia • IMDB • Order Horward Stern's Private Parts from Amazon.com BOB ANDELMAN/Mr. MEDIA: Houdini is a fast read, thanks to the focus on storytelling and the wealth of incredible detail that you and your partner uncovered about the magician and the man. Can you tell us a little bit about how the book came about and the style in which it’s written? LARRY "RATSO" SLOMAN: I first got interested in magic when I co-authored or ghostwrote -- David Blaine’s memoir, Mysterious Stranger. It was a hybrid book. That book was part reminiscence about his various stunts and being encased in ice and being buried underground. It was also part teaching you how to do some magical effects, and it was also a kind of history of magic. For the history part, David said, “You have to go work with Kalush, because he produced all my shows, and he’s got the most amazing magic library in the world.” So we spent a lot of time at Kalush’s library, the Conjuring Arts Research Center. We did all this research, and we did a chapter on Houdini in the David Blaine book. That was my first exposure to reading about Houdini. I read all the extant biographies of Houdini at the time, and I remember sitting around with Kalush and saying, “You know, it’s really strange. I mean, there are all these gaps in Houdini’s story, and he makes strange career choices. I think there’s more to this than meets the eye.” And Kalush says, “I agree.” And the more we looked into it, the more we said, “It’s time to take a fresh look at Houdini,” and that’s the genesis of The Secret Life of Houdini. ANDELMAN: What about the storytelling? What I really like about the book is that every page is almost a separate anecdote in some ways in that you’re always storytelling. It’s not so much analysis, which some people expect in biography, but it’s storytelling, which is what I expect, and I really like that. Order 'Undisputed Truth' by Mike Tyson with Larry Ratso Sloman, available from Amazon.com in print or as an ebook by clicking on the book cover above! SLOMAN: It’s funny the way we wrote this book. In a way, we almost wanted to do a celebrity biography of Houdini akin to the ones I had written with Howard Stern and people like that. We wanted it to be accessible; we wanted it to be anecdote driven. There was a professor at NYU, Silverman, who had done an exhaustive biography, which kind of laid out a lot of the facts, and yet it really didn’t. The story wasn’t driven by these anecdotes, and to us, that seemed the best way to capture Houdini. He’s such an incredibly complex guy. ANDELMAN: You did a tremendous amount of research in terms of organizing stuff that was arcane and seemingly unconnected. SLOMAN: Thanks to what we lovingly called, “Ask Alexander.” It was based on Alexander the Mentalist, and what we did was create a huge, huge database. We scanned in every known Houdini book, all the magic magazines that Kalush had in his collection, all the letters, and all the scrapbooks, and made them text searchable. The book could have taken 25 years to write if we weren’t able to really have that instant access. This research project was over two years. So at the beginning of research, you may come across a name. A year and a half later, you may come across that name again and say, “Wow, I think this guy has something to do with…” Well, we just put the name into the database, and boom, in five seconds, we had every hit on that name. It was a tremendous expedient. I think it’s really the first Houdini biography of the digital age, and we were able to collate all this incredibly diverse material. ANDELMAN: Now, a lot of writers -- and Doris Kerns Goodwin comes to mind -- have been in trouble the last couple years with issues of plagiarism. I’m not saying that you did this, but my question is, when you scan in material like that, how do you avoid that? I mean, Doris’ comment was, “It was inadvertent that I used material from another source,” but when you go to this digital type of system and you scan in all this stuff, it would seem like the situation is ripe for that kind of abuse SLOMAN: Our book is full of citations. We very liberally use Houdini’s own writings. We use letters that he had written. I don’t think the problem so much is plagiarizing anything, because the analysis that we did was almost separate from the writing process. We overlaid the analysis onto the writing, and the analysis was basically between me and Kalush, who was the magic expert. So if there was a question of how Houdini did something and we wanted to reveal that, and a lot of times we didn’t reveal that, obviously. But there were times where we did reveal some of his methods, and that was overlaid after the main narrative had been written already. ANDELMAN: Will the way that you used technology to research this biography affect the way you do it in the future? SLOMAN: Absolutely. I mean, I think there’s no other way to do it. It’s so overwhelming to have that amount of material, but when you have it in a way that’s manageable and that literally you can do searches in microseconds … All the major newspapers now have their entire archives in databases. We were able to find out a lot about John Wilkie, who was the head of the Secret Service and whom nobody really knew anything about. We were able to find out his connections to the world of magic through an article in the Washington Post in 1908, because of this new technology. It is certainly an incredible boon. I’m sure we would never have been able to find those articles if not for that. ANDELMAN: I think one of the most controversial revelations in the book is Houdini as a spy. SLOMAN: It’s funny. It was controversial at first. The magic world is very insular, so a lot of these guys were saying, “We don’t know about this, so therefore it can’t be true.” But when you get a guy like the former head of the CIA, John McLaughlin, who reads the book and says, “Yeah, I’ll write an introduction to your book,” and says in the introduction, “This is absolutely plausible to me.” So I don’t think you could have anybody better vouching for your theory than the former head of the CIA. ANDELMAN: Absolutely. Well, it’s a great read, and I hope it’s doing well, and I hope more people will read it. Order by clicking the book cover above! SLOMAN: Well, it’s doing well, and in fact, the latest wave of unbelievable press and attention has been the whole exhumation thing, and that was based on our research. It was one of these serendipitous things. Two years ago, I attended the annual Houdini séance that Sid Radner, a Houdini scholar and collector, puts on every year. That year, it was in Las Vegas, because he was also auctioning off a lot of Houdini material. At the séance, there was the great-granddaughter of Margery, the world’s most famous medium at the time, who was Houdini’s adversary in the last years of his life. I approached her. It turns out she lives in Long Island not too far from where I have a weekend place, so I said, “Could I come and interview you?” figuring that there may be some great family anecdotes about Margery and Houdini, and she said, “Sure.” And I go to visit her and her husband, and they make me a nice dinner, and we have a great interview, and at the end of the interview, I said, “You wouldn’t happen to have like some letters or any kind of documents laying around?” She said, “Oh yeah, come on.” And she takes me into a spare bedroom, and she opens up the closet door, and the entire closet is filled with boxes and boxes of correspondence, including correspondence with Arthur Conan Doyle, Sir Oliver Lodge, all the leading luminaries of the spiritualism movement. It’s got over thirty scrapbooks of Margery that were amassed by her husband, and nobody had seen this material for 80 years except for her and her mother. My jaw dropped. I wound up spending the next two weeks over there every day. She was such a doll, she even helped me carry the material to the local store to Xerox it. Those thousands of pages were then put into the Alexander, made text searchable. From that material, we developed the most compelling part of the book to me, which was the last few years of his life and how the battle with the spiritualists may have ended with Houdini’s dea