Just heard that the wonderful and impish and brilliant Billy Barnes passed away. When I was a teen his revues were so influential on me - I only saw two - The Best of Billy Barnes and Billy Barnes LA, but they were amazing shows. I met him in the 1970s and saw him every now and then at various shows and events. We became friendly in the 1990s, and I just adored him. In 2004, I directed and wrote a lot of a revue called What If, which we did at the Hudson Theater. It was simply my homage to Billy and he was gracious enough to let us use a couple of his great songs. He loved the show, and that was a really high moment for me - at our opening we had Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Jack Klugman and others, but all I cared about was what Billy thought. The last time I saw him was just before we reissued Billy Barnes LA on Kritzerland - we had lunch, gabbed about things, and I gave him Kritzer Time, the third Kritzer book, because I wrote lovingly of him and how important his stuff was to me. I knew he was suffering from Alzheimer's when we lunched, but still that impish, sly wit just flashed from him every few minutes. But he mostly lived a long and blessed life - eighty-five years of it. And I just know he'll be entertaining everyone wherever he is. Rest easy, sweet Billy.
