John Denver – Thank God I’m a Comedy Podcast

Heathen on a jet plane? Yes. Is that what it was? Yeah. A man who refused to pray whenever he flew. And that's the only way those airplanes stay up. I know that. You know that. Oh, yeah. On the wings of God. You're listening to Expertise, spelled wrong. The podcast where the world's most expert experts discuss their areas of expertise expertly. Expert comedy writer Clare Sera and expert comedy writer Danno Sullivan bring their expertise to other unrelated expertises. Clare, our audience tonight is composed mostly of fans of beloved 1970s songsmith John Denver.

And that's your... Expertise. Spelled wrong? Naturally. Clare Sera, it's a real treat to have you with us here today. So many people love the deceased singer, songwriter, performer, country, soft rock superstar, bespectacled John Denver. I am high as a rocky mountain to talk about John Denver whenever I can. Clare, I'm eager to find out your personal history with John Denver, the man and the music. When you first began researching John Denver, were you drawn to his personal story or more to the music itself? Interestingly, I was drawing him. I did caricature sketches at Disney.

Oh, that's so sweet. It's one of my favorite features at Disney. I always wondered if those people actually make any money. How was it for you? Oh, I did not make money at that, which is why I became a soft rock star journalist. Just before we step away from that, were you doing sketches of the celebrities who were there at Disney posing? Yes. So you must have met a lot of really well-known people. I met over three. I met Marie Osmond twice. She seems like she would be really easy to draw a caricature of because of the teeth. You would think so. I'm not an artist and I can draw teeth like that.

Look, I've had cameramen say they take a white valance off her smile. I started getting a lot of, I don't want to say there were complaints, that all of my caricatures looked like John Denver. Oh, so that sort of steered you in a particular direction. Yeah, I felt I was being called towards John Denver. You said you weren't getting paid much. Is that because celebrities did not want to pay for a portrait of themselves that looked actually more like John Denver? Oh. You never thought about that, did you? I didn't put two and two together. Let's talk about your move into soft rock journalism that you mentioned.

Yeah. So I decided to cover all the star of soft rock journalism. You said star singular. Yes. So you focused on John Denver, F-O-L-K-ust. Yes. There were other soft rock stars around. Maybe from your personal perspective, which seems like it was fairly John-dest in that all your celebrity portraits already were looking like John Denver, there were soft rock greats. Well, that's almost an oxymoron, isn't it? Well, you're talking about your Dan Vogelbergs. Yes. Your... The Somebody Trio. There was that trio. Yeah. Kenny. And that duet. Kenny. All the Kennys. Yeah. That's what I was thinking of.

The duet of the Kenny and Kenny. And the trio was also and Kenny. And Kenny. The Irish soft rock trio was nice. That was Kilkenny, Kilkenny, Kilkenny. But then somebody did. And they... They were down to a duo again. Yeah. But I don't know if people really understand where his songs come from. They were dismissed as almost like adult lullabies. And the last thing you want is a bunch of adults dozing off at inappropriate moments. That was another, you know, side effect of a John Denver concert where the clouds were not just cumulus, if you know what I'm saying, Daniel.

You mean the weed? I mean... The smoke? I do. The doobie? The J? The horse? The horse. The lamp? The keyboard? I do. The tripod? The glass? I do. The little lamp with a little switchy? Yeah, baby. Yeah. So there was a lot of dozing off at his concerts. But that was great for me because if by chance, and it happened more than once, the entire audience was asleep, then I could take that time and interview him. That strikes me as an extremely rare opportunity for a soft rock journalist to actually be able to conduct the interview on stage during the concert. Yeah. He would sing the answers to me.

I think it was actually part of John Denver's charm is that he never lost his Colorado accent. And a lot of the songs that we thought were, you know, for instance, Almost Heaven, West Virginia, his big hit. That's not the words of that song. That's sure what it sounds like, Claire. Well, that's because his accent... Oh, it's so strong. It's almost heaving. Almost heaving? West Virginia, because he hated it. He hated to have to go to West Virginia. He hated to have to tour there. He was an East Virginia man all the way. He had the ball caps. He had the sweatshirts, East Virginia.

Claire, we know John Denver for all those beloved hit songs, of course. But in your One Man Show, we learned that there were plenty of surprises from this multifaceted talent. A lot of folks also associate him with his activist activities. You know, we know that John Denver was an activist, which, again, was not his intention. It's another mistake with his accent. He wanted to be an actorist. Oh, which is a female actor, right? He didn't stand a chance. Hollywood would eat him alive. It was his dream. And when he sang Sunshine on My Shoulders, he was talking about, for him, that was the silver screen.

The reflection of the silver screen and his big mug on it beaming out to the world. He envisioned himself playing the great roles, you know, Tara in Gone with the Wind. And he saw himself. Claire, I just have to interrupt for a second. Did you mean Scarlet? Oh, no. He wanted to play. Did he want to play the part of the house in Gone with the Wind? Oh, absolutely. He saw himself as the mansion, the Atlanta, you know. I misunderstood what an activist was. Right, right. It is a architectural actor. Somebody who likes to play buildings, large or small. Yes. Could he do different eras of architecture?

Because that really is the highlight to me of an architectural actor. If you had seen his audition for the Empire State Building. In King Kong? Oh, my gosh. He would have been fantastic for that. He would have brought the layers to that movie that it was missing, quite frankly. A lot of people have compared his distinctive haircut to a mansard roof of the 1850s. That's right. And I didn't realize that that was not a haircut, but that was acting. That was acting. That was architectural actorist in motion. And I'll tell you one other thing, too. He was mistaken for the Golden Gate Bridge one time at a concert.

I mean, you know, John Denver is sunshine on my shoulders, but I was there at that concert when somebody tried to jump off of him. That sounds like a rare once in a lifetime experience. Were you sketching that night by any chance? Is there any way that that was recorded on paper and felt it? Oh, absolutely. I was sketching it. I was using every bit of my talent to quickly capture that down on paper. Unfortunately, when I looked back at it, it was a perfect caricature of Marie Osmond. I'm just so happy to be able to share these aspects of the John Denver that people didn't...

I'm not even going to say that they didn't see. I'm going to say that they didn't want to see. You know, they created the man that they wanted to see up on that stage. And the man himself, due to his accent, his speech impediment, his constantly being higher than a kite, allowed himself to be interpreted by others rather than to interpret himself outwards. Claire, I think what you're describing is the dark side of celebrity as we know it today, the dark side of creativity that we see in artists. And dare I say, I'm getting a sense that this might be a reflection of yourself.

I know that you've struggled as an artist, feeling maybe trapped in this John Denver shaped box all of your creative life. Yeah. I'm not going to argue that every artist's output is a reflection of their own inner input. Well, let me just put it in the words of his greatest song. Do you know where you're going to? Do you like the things that life is showing you? And you know, Daniel, honest. He was a poet. A poet. On a side note, I could never get him to sing that song for me. I discovered that with other great artists. You know, Bob Dylan, Vincent van Gogh, you sit in the audience and you shout out for your favorites and sometimes they don't like to do Starry Night again, you know, they've done that.

Rink ass. So I don't think you should take that personally. And I think that in the pantheon of John Denver fans, followers, and illustrators, you are deserving of a very special place. And if you were with us today and a podcast listener, he would be listening to this podcast and maybe asking for royalties. He seemed that way. Don't you think? He was that way. Tannin. Yeah. It has been a treat and an honor and an unusual experience to talk with professional Marie Osmond caricaturist, I'm sorry, John Denver musicologist, Claire Sarah. Thanks for joining us here today.

The expertise spelled wrong podcast is free and like the Amish, all are welcome. Be sure to sign up for our email announcements at funnypodcast.com and follow us in your favorite podcast app like the expert podcast listener we know you are. Leaving on a jet plane. Yeah. Your version on the album. Are you checking your text messages? I was looking up what are John Denver songs because I cannot think of any.