A new stage show that took more than 35 years to create and is packed with popular stars will debut June 27 at the Katz Jewish Community Center of Atlantic County when it presents the premier of “Rubbing Elbows with David Spatz,” created and hosted by the Emmy Award-winning television host, producer and entertainment journalist.
Admission to “Rubbing Elbows” will be complimentary to those with subscriptions to the JCC’s summer entertainment series.
Show time is 7 p.m. Single tickets for “Rubbing Elbows” are $10 and are available at the Katz JCC at 501 N. Jerome Avenue in Margate or by calling (609) 822-1167.
“Rubbing Elbows with David Spatz” will feature excerpts from shows culled from the extensive library of casual and compelling television conversations Spatz has had with entertainers including Joan Rivers, Tony Bennett, Carol Burnett, Don Rickles, Donny & Marie Osmond, Ann-Margret, Debbie Reynolds, Sylvester Stallone and many more.
Spatz will set up each video with a quick explanation of what the audience will see. Following the excerpt, he’ll share candid moments he experienced with the stars that weren’t captured by the cameras.
“In some cases,” Spatz says, “the best stuff happened after the lights were off and the cameras were packed away. Very few people have heard those stories, and some of them were just as fascinating as the conversations we’d just recorded. ‘Rubbing Elbows’ is as nostalgic as it is entertaining. We’re taking our audience on stage, backstage and behind the scenes for unguarded moments with the entertainers that most people never see.”
Spatz and his production partner of 30 years, Jake Glassey Jr., won a 2007 Emmy Award for outstanding interview and discussion series for “Curtain Call,” the show they produced and which aired on South Jersey’s NBC40-TV from 2005 until 2014.
“Ever since our local TV station, NBC40, left the air five years ago, we’ve had friends and fans ask us to find an outlet to show some of the program’s best moments,” says Glassey, an Emmy-winning editor, producer and director. “I’ve heard David tell stories about those moments so many times, I told him he should get out on stage and tell them. And with that, ‘Rubbing Elbows’ was born. It just seemed like the perfect solution. So we opened up the archives and went to work. The stories just flowed out of the editing sessions.”
Glassey is excited the show will debut in its own backyard. “It’s where we produced most of our shows for an audience that watched them locally, regionally and across the country on nationally syndicated stations,” he adds. During its national run on a satellite channel, “Curtain Call” once reached into nearly 90 markets around the United States.
“Rubbing Elbows” won’t be a one-and-done show after the JCC performance, either. A tour is already being planned for the program. And considering the sheer numbers of shows Spatz and Glassey have produced, they can create virtually a brand new edition of “Rubbing Elbows” every year.
In print and on television and radio, David Spatz has been covering entertainment since Day One of the Atlantic City casino era in 1978. He left the staff of The Press of Atlantic City after a 23-year run to focus on television and radio, but continues to write an entertainment column for the paper’s weekend section, At The Shore, a publication Spatz helped create in 1990.
He currently hosts the daily radio talk show “Midday” from noon to 2 p.m. on NewsTalk 1400 WOND-AM, where he served as news director for eight years.
Artists scheduled to perform during the JCC’s summer entertainment series include legendary singer and songwriter Judy Collins on July 18; Sandy Hackett’s “Rat Pack Show” on July 25; celebrity impersonators the Edwards Twins on August 8; and comedian Paula Poundstone on Aug. 22. Tickets are available through the JCC.