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About
THE MINGO REVUE, Part 2…
From August to October of
1985, with the synthesized drummers in place, the Revue made it's
last appearances at The Ramada Inn in Springfield. New management had different directions in mind for the
property, including discontinuing the Ramada's tradition of live
entertainment in the lounge. Tim, Mike, and Grovor hit the
road once again.
In January
1986, the Revue began an eighteen-month engagement in downtown Lima,
Ohio at "Leon's Black Angus." They played to packed crowds and made a
host of new fans four nights a week. It was during this time that the
first of the five comedy cassette tapes were recorded and
released. "Grovor's Greatest Hits" was released in
July of 1986, followed by "Grovor's Sports Reports" in
January of 1987. These were live recordings of Grovor's shows
and became huge sellers everywhere the Revue performed.
Also during the 1987 year, Moose Lodges started to become a staple
in the Mingo Revue schedule. It began with a seven-week stay
at the Springfield Moose Lodge which was hosting the Ohio State
Moose bowling tournament. Mike, Tim and Grovor performed
Friday and Saturday, selling over 500 of Grovor's tapes in
one weekend!
The “Christmas with Grovor” tape was recorded and released
in November of 1987 at SoundSpace Studios in Yellow Springs,
Ohio. Tim, Mike, and Grovor (and even Grovor's brothers) all took
turns doing some of their favorite Christmas songs. (If
you're lucky enough to have one of these tapes, please take
special note of the "12 Days of Christmas" cut -
completely ad-libbed in only one take!) This recording also
contained two original songs composed by Tim – “Christmas the
Whole Year Through” and “Christmas is the Bestest Time of
Year.”
In March of 1988, the act moved to
Leon's sister restaurant in Kalida,
Ohio, "Bert & Bernie's Black Angus," and began a three
and a half year run. It was here that the "TV Theme Songs"
medley became one of the most popular and talked about parts of
the show, always ending with Tim's rendition of "The Beverly
Hillbilly's Rap." Much of the comedy interaction between Mike
and Tim was developed during the engagements at the Lima
and Kalida Black Angus locations, and helped shape the act for the
upcoming decade.
During August of 1988, a
fourth tape was released, "Mingo Revue & Greatest Hits,
Too" the third tape to be recorded live.
In the early 1990's, Tim and
Mike sold "safe-suckers", panty roses, ball caps, T-shirts,
and thousands of tapes. A fifth cassette tape was also added
- "Grovor On The Air" - again written and recorded at
SoundSpace in Yellow Springs. Mike and Tim did all the voices and sound effects and wrote
most of the material in the studio, while Grovor supplied his own
voice and complaints.
In April of 1990, after several years of discussing the idea, Mike and
Tim opened up their own night club in Springfield,
Ohio. GROVOR'S served as home base for the Revue, who
performed there five nights a week and managed the new night club. While intentions were good, and despite playing
to packed houses on weekends, maintaining the momentum five
nights a week turned out  to be a more considerable challenge than
it had been in the early 1980’s. New DUI laws, the rising popularity
of DJ’s and karaoke, and the involvement of a couple of somewhat unethical
business acquaintances, all took their toll, and GROVOR'S was an unfortunate
victim of the times. The business was sold to one of the original
backers in 1991 and closed permanently a year later.
From 1991 to 2003, The Mingo Revue performed at various Moose,
Elks, and Eagles Lodges throughout the
Ohio
and Indiana
area. In 1999, Mike started caddying full time on the
Nationwide and PGA Tour, including seven years with golfer Darron
Stiles. Though never fortunate enough to win a
PGA Tour event, Mike won three times with Darron on the
Nationwide Tour, including the 2000 Tri-Cities Classic in
Richland, Washington, the 2002 Food City Classic in Knoxville,
Tennessee, and the 2006 Rheem Classic in Ft. Smith, Arkansas.
Tim’s performing interests shifted to behind the scenes, first
as Outreach and Education Director for Clark
State
Performing
Arts
Center, then to his current position as Marketing and Communications
Director for the Springfield Arts Council.
And so, following 24 years, thousands of performances, and
countless songs, jokes and stories, it appeared that The Mingo Revue was
a fond memory. However, the call of the stage
(and Grovor’s constant bitching!) has brought Mike back to
performing again, singing Neil Diamond and Elvis, some of those good old
sixties songs, and occasionally explaining just how the game of
golf works to Grovor… one more time…
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