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ILENE WEISS MINI-BIO RANDOM FACTS:
I grew up in Philly and "crafted" my first song, "The Ballad of Uncle Joe," when I was eight. My father's mother's cousin was Harry Ruby, a Tin Pan Alley songwriter who, with his primary collaborator Bert Kalmar wrote for the Marx Brothers, the least vocal of whom has been honored in song by Jonathan Richman...Kalmar & Ruby also wrote classics like "Three Little Words" and "Who's Sorry Now"... and...
I wrote the first song of my adulthood, “Fun With A Man,†on a sick day at home in Providence listening to "Talking Heads:77."I lived in Chicago for a couple of years. I waitressed at Joe Segal’s Jazz Showcaseand studied and performed at the Second City Theater. I waitressed *and* performed at a club right across the street from Second City called the Earl of Old Town. It was a hub of the Chicago folk scene.I’ve lived in the NYC metro area (Manhattan/Staten/ Brooklyn/Manhattan/Brooklyn/Jersey) for over twenty-six years. For sixteen of those years I’ve worked part-time in hospitals as Dr. Noodle for the Big Apple Circus (my straight job as a clown).I’ve also worked many summers as a part-time musical goofball and songwriting collaborator at the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp in Ashford, CT.As a participant in Music Under New York, I’ve played on subway platforms and in train stations around NYC, including Grand Central Station, the “Carnegie Hall†of busking spots.
Once, in a personal fund raising effort, I became a champion on the TV game show “SuperPassword.â€
I got to play Kay, as well as noise guitar and vocal sound effect generator, in the fantabulous Jazz Passengers’ multi-media presentations of “Creature from the Black Lagoon in 3D.â€
I have three recordings so far on the Gadfly label: “Outside and Curious,†“Obliviously,†and “Weiss Christmas,†an idiosyncratic collection of seasonally inspired songs.
A guy named Guy at Madonna’s publishing company solicited my work. The songs were ultimately rejected by the guy named Guy for being “too authentic.â€
I am currently in Second Year of Getting My Ass Kicked in the BMI LEHMAN ENGEL MUSICAL THEATRE WRITING WORKSHOP.