21. January 2009 by Robert Sokol.

My friend Franc D’Ambrosio is back in town. Best known locally for his five-year stint on The Phantom of the Opera, he is a truly talented guy, too handsome to be buried under all that latex and a sweet, warm-hearted soul. This show is a mix of his Broadway and Hollywood sets, but with a twist which you can read about in our interview in the Examiner that hit the streets today. I’m heading over to The Rrazz Room at Hotel Nikko for his show on Saturday. Get yourself a ticket and join me! He’s there until February 1st….the day I turn 50! For the singers among you, Franc will be offering a master class at New Conservatory Theatre Center the day after he wraps The Rrazz. Usually you have to traipse to Lucca, Italy for this opertunity! Don’t miss it!

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21. January 2009 by Robert Sokol.

We all get too much email! Some of it is essential. Some of it is self-inflicted, like the mailing list that seems interesting until you discover there are thousands of members who post twice a day. Some of it is benign, like Aunt Sally’s broadcast of pictures of your newborn fourth-cousin (twice removed). And then there’s spam (or worse).

Now, I’m old-fashioned. I live by a “do unto others” philosophy, so I try respond to any human who has reached out to me directly - even if I cannot help or am not interested in the content of their message. There’s been many a night, after a long day, when all I do is manage my email queue. It can be a full-time job if you let it. That said, I am particularly puzzled and occasionally irked when I send email to a contact@insert-name-of-entity-who-has-something-to-gain-from-talking-to-me.com and get no response. Keeping up with that queue IS supposed to be somebody’s job - full-time or not.

I find this behavior particularly Julie-Andrews-egregious when it comes from publicists. They’re supposed to be out there beating the bushes for people like me to promote their clients. I don’t mind when the answer to a request for an interview is “No” - well, actually I do, but I understand that you can’t always get what you want. Stephen Sondheim was just too busy last year, but he sent me a personal note (okay, an email) with his regrets. Kathy Griffin once declined because her people felt they had “sold enough tickets” for an upcoming gig. (Does that mean I’m not even on The [Media] D List?) Most recently, Amy Sedaris needed to be selective about how she spends her limited free time, so we’ve yet to chat. It goes with the territory.

But when an entertainment publicist or venue does not even acknowledge the request they are ignoring the hand that potentially feeds them and their client. This has happened a couple of times in the last month.  It’s bad manners, and worse, bad business.

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