From This I Make a Living?

written by Ari Dane

I never wanted to be a big star and

look how great it worked out!

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From This I Make a Living? is a non-fiction scrapbook of my humorous life stories and personal experiences as singer, musician, comedian, agent, and writer. Set against the backdrop of show biz, this is a comedic "On the Road" with a feel reminiscent of Jimmy Buffett's fictional Tales from Margaritaville.

Detailed are various scenes with characters from the famous--like Bob Dylan, Dave Crosby and Jackie Mason--to the simply bizarre who frequented the coffee house circuit, supper clubs, resort hotels of Miami Beach, Catskill Mountain Borscht Belt, and Las Vegas casinos, as well as those encountered in Nairobi, Mombassa, the Caribbean Islands, and Alaska via engagements on cruise ships. In addition, we shop for a Christmas tree, befriend snakes and wolves, play a few practical jokes, and learn how to make won ton soup.

For every entertainer who becomes a "star" there are thousands who try but fail, and hundreds who, like me, perform and make a living in relative obscurity. This is the story of anyone who dreams a big dream as yet unrealized, of false starts and dead ends, of trying a different path or a different place, of making choices and, for better or worse, living with the consequences. For those particularly interested in show biz life and history, this story spans a unique time period--from Yiddish vaudeville, through nightclubs and the Borscht Belt, to coffee houses and comedy clubs to Las Vegas stages.

Partly because of being born between the generations--neither WWII veteran nor Baby Boomer--and partly because of trying the different paths and the different places as a working entertainer,

I believe I bring a perspective shared first-hand by only a few to my tales in From this I Make a Living?