On February 25th, Rick Bockner will be returning to the stage at Mansons Hall, as MC of the CKTZ Lip Sync.
Rick Bockner: “We are having a Lip Sync after taking two years off because of COVID. We’re all very excited about it because it’s been a while, but it’s been a great tradition for the radio station and a great fundraiser and a community event that we all need these days.”
Cortes Currents: Why should we care about Lip Syncs?
Rick Bockner: “You don’t have to, but lots of people do.”
“I didn’t care about Lip Syncs, I thought it was kind of stupid. I thought of it as karaoke or something in a bar – which can be fun in the middle of it. We got the idea from – I think Hornby or Salt Spring had been using them as a fundraiser. Somebody told Howie about it at a radio conference and we decided to give it a try, and it was so much fun because it’s a community-wide involvement.”
“We have 4-year-olds up there and we have 85-year-olds up there. It’s always been a full house and incredible enthusiasm. It’s turned into kind of a special Cortes event.”
Cortes Currents: Tell me about your first Lip Sync.
Rick Bockner: “Hmmmm, I’m not sure I can. They’re all blended together in my old brain. What I do remember as challenging, was trying to figure out how to have a thread that went through the show.”
“The best humour always comes from what’s nearby and so we started looking around at what was going on in the community. What were the issues, and just trying to have some ridiculous fun with that. We’d break it into topics and I’d have a few jokes about each topic and would weave them into the narrative of the intros in between acts.”
Cortes Currents: Howie tells me that when you step onto the stage with your clipboard, there’s not very much written on that. Is that true?
Rick Bockner: “That’s true. It’s not scripted. It is just discussion points, it’s the idea. I might put a punchline in, but basically the words come from the moment and whatever’s going on with the audience too. So there’s a lot of back and forth.”
Cortes Currents: Can you give me an example of the kind of humour you’re talking about?
Rick Bockner: “Well, I’ll give you an example from the past. There is still a housing crisis and part of the problem is seasonal rentals. So people want to be in their summer homes during the summer, but they don’t want anybody there in the winter. Or if they do, they want them to leave when the weather gets good and they want to be there.”
“So we came up with Cortes cryogenics. If you have the perfect tenants for your house, freeze them until the time comes when you want them in your house again. Conversely, if you have the perfect landlord, you can freeze them so that you’ve got peace of mind until it’s their turn to be in the house, which seemed like one solution to the housing crisis.”
Cortes Currents: Give me another one.
Rick Bockner: “We had the one about how to deal with the overload of large vehicles on the ferries, and that involved having about 150 metres of road built on Read Island that went nowhere, that ended up in a cul-de-sac. We’d have a special lane for Winnebagos that are pulling cars that have motorcycles tied to the bumper and a boat on top. When we get to Read Island, off they go and they drive up the road and we go away. They drive up the road to the cul-de-sac, until the next ferry comes to take them back to town.”
Cortes Currents: You got a third?
Rick Bockner: “Well, I like word play and there’s a saying in herbal medicine that the cure for your ailment is always close at hand or contained in your environment. So with words, it’s the same. And one that I came up with recently was the word stress, STRESS, and the cure for stress is restss – with two S’s on the end. So that kind of thing comes up.”
“Boy, I should have some of my notes. I do save them to make sure I don’t rehash the same thing all the time. We’ve made fun of the Co-op, we’ve made fun of Hollyhock. We’ve made fun of logging issues. We’ve made fun of everybody basically. Nobody gets away unscathed from the Lip Sync, but it’s all friendly and in fun and people wear the egg gracefully usually.”
Cortes Currents: You did a virtual Lip Sync too.
Rick Bockner: “Did we do an online Lip Sync?”
Cortes Currents: “Yes, Jason Thompson sent me some photographs of you and Howie selling light bulbs.”
Rick Bockner: Oh, yes, yes. We filmed that at the Gorge Hall and we put a little skit together around those wonderful magical light bulbs that save us from blackouts. It was a series of pretend advertisements basically, that we did.
Cortes Currents: How many Lip Syncs have you done?
Rick Bockner: “I think this is 24 or 25, something like that. And then there’ve been a couple of other community events that I’ve emceed that were not Lip Syncs, but similar in function, raising money, always raising money, and, so it’s been a while. I never thought I’d be remembered for doing a lot of Lip Syncs, but I guess that’s part of my patina”
Cortes Currents: When I spoke to Howie last week, he said there’s only been three acts that have signed up so far. Have any more come along?
Rick Bockner: There have been a few more that came along since then. We need about 18 acts to make a good show. 18 to 20 is very comfortable and that gives us two 45-minute-sets and a break. I have no doubt that the community will rise to the occasion.
Cortes Currents: Do you think the Lip Sync is going to continue?
Rick Bockner: “I don’t know. Every year we think it might be the last one. I’ve been trying to find the next incarnation of an MC, which is not as easy as it sounds. It takes a special touch and not too heavy, and with awareness of who your audience is. It’s grace and bad taste.”
Cortes Currents: What was there before Lip Sync?
Rick Bockner: “We used to have variety nights to raise money for the Gorge Hall in particular, before we had funding. Those were an incredible time because it wasn’t just limited to mouthing something. People actually sang or did a skit or actually did something that was complete to them.”
“We didn’t need the soundman to run the music beforehand, so those were wonderful and outrageous and I’m sure we’ll have more of those. We did do the adult cabaret as a fundraiser one year, and that was very successful. We got to be a little more tasteless at that event and we got a liquor license and stuff.”
“The general Lip Syncs are family fun and that’s what they’re designed for.”
Cortes Currents: Any final thoughts?
Rick Bockner: “Not yet, thank-you.”
Top image credit: Rick Bockner – Photo by Bill Wheeler
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