Richard Simmons

Created 2005
Choreographer: Marcia Little & Dan Hollander

So the previous year was a bit of a cop out for a fresh routine by copying Doubtfire. This year I really wanted to come up with something good. Years back I heard Craig Heath, a very talented skated, talking about doing a Richard Simmons number. Well, it was years later, and I knew my version would be completely different. I bought up all the Sweating to the Oldies tapes and found the perfect opening that lucked out with Richard actually saying, “single, single, double, double, single, single, double,” in which I nailed most nights. Dancing with myself was a gimme for an ending, but the transition piece was giving me a problem. I knew I wanted to be really fat, using microbeads for some jigggle. Then one day on the radio “Get Back,” was playing. It hit the part, “now stop, and wiggle with it,” and I knew my jiggle had the wiggle jam to go with it. My fat pillow stomach flew out of my shirt (still attached) and had a major gut for a few shows until I got it pinned down. Airbrush Lenny’s did a good job of painting my TV, a prop I built myself thank you very much! Oh yeah, the remote and popcorn I did myself too.

Many years later, a connection on facebook was able to show this directly to Richard who really liked it! How cool is that?!?!