Nicky Shane

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Nicky Shane Nicky Shane is a harmonica player, artist and former stand up comedian, who resides in Santa Barbara, California. He established and received the first Guinness World Record for The Fastest Harmonica Player.

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NICKY SHANE//ARTIST, MUSICIAN, STAND-UP COMIC/ GUINNESS WORLD RECORD - FASTEST HARMONICA PLAYER

Before Silicon Valley existed, East San Jose, California was the fruit capital of the world. The market imposed a machismo of Chicano gangs that worked the fields and dominated the area. The neighborhood Nicky Shane lived in appeared rural and relaxed but the underlying conflict was an earthquake building pressure. Inside his family home a small indignant world that had been handed down for centuries incurred a daily battle. With his Italian father Angelo and a macho mom named, Toni. They were victims long before they were parents and they readily passed it down. With five brothers and sisters there was a lot of yelling, screaming and hitting. Nobody knew about the obtrusive behavior because when people would stop by the adults became award-winning actors. Even in the darkness of survival it was very creative.

On top of that money was a constant problem and a daily reminder that there was not enough. The up and down cycles of experimentation started to revolve around “How much did Nicky have to do to be loved and eventually pushed him into the des-functionalism of how much could he get away with.” 

Angelo was extremely conservative and Toni the complete opposite, an iconoclast handed down through genetics. They drank to escape the neurosis and the contradictions that lived in the closet. Love was stressful and painful and carried a price as six wild kids were constantly running around basking in the insanity. In this very physical family your mind was considered second to your body in a sense of it’s use and priority.” says Nicky “This was substantiated by bent backs, stooped over old men and relatives who walked around carrying their pain as badges of honor for putting in a life of hard physical work. “You’ll see” was the self-pity work mantra. From the beginning Nicky didn’t fit in and thought he was adopted. Very little made any sense to him. An anomaly, Nicky would become very bored and stalk himself (setting up the mirrors would take hours). His early artistic passion was motivated from a need to define his paradoxical childhood The Italian stereotype pervaded “This is the way it is, were Italian we can’t help it. You better get ready to work hard it’s the only way to get ahead.” Nicky observed that older people were dieing before they really had a chance to live! This had a major impact on him. Adjusting his survival to dance around the contradictions Nicky tried to plan a different life. With all the contradictions he didn’t know who to believe or trust so these attributes became very important to him. Self-honesty and being a man of his word soon became Nicky’s creed and the basis of his self-expression to define his own life. . He learned quickly how to avoid gangs and side-step hostile environments. It didn’t always work and several times he had to fight his way out. This was far from a relaxing creative environment to live in. He craved for someplace to go but their was no way out. Finally, when he was eight, Nicky’s parents divorced (thank God!) At first, Nicky emotionally quit school and sat in the back of the classroom to draw. He would draw cars inspired by a friend of the family, graphite artist Dave Graham. Nicky was not very talented but he worked hard at it. Fortunately, Nicky found a mentor in Jerry Willis who was his oldest sisters boyfriend. Jerry, twelve years older, philosophical and studied Far Eastern philosophies, which interested Nicky tremendously, shone a small light on his life.

He also loved sports and the harbinger was his mom’s determination to better her life by joining AA and it started to rub off. At fourteen, they (his mom, brother Tim and Nicky) moved across town, to the west side of San Jose. A much mellower atmosphere with no gangs the daily pressure to survive was finally lifted.
Nicky learned to set goals and two years later at Branham High School with a lot of hard work became an all-league star in several sports. After spending so many years alone on the hostile east side, success was great but he constantly felt a twinge of distrust. He received a lot of attention and had a lot of new friends but the truth was he rarely fit into any peer group. He didn’t want to be stereotyped as his forefathers were because of the limitations it fueled. He was curious about many aspects of life and bounced around from the athletic, art, drug, surfing, music crowds and eventually into many more sub-cultures.

At that time his art was inspired by classmate, Dave Grizwald and Nicky began painting landscapes with pen and ink and watercolor. People started calling him an artist but Nicky was aloof. He was young and successful and thought he had the key after finally breaking out of the east side and all it’s inclusions. The world was at his beckon and he was going to experience as much of it as possible.

After graduating from high school he went to several colleges playing football, soccer, taking art and acting classes, writing poetry and surfing as much as he could. (He worked out constantly and actually over worked his body causing himself a lot of injuries.) In his early twenties he painted houses. Eventually, he lived in his van like a gypsy for two years. Always looking to shake his laggard past he pursued the life of a party animal. He felt the more he could experience the more creative doors would open. All of his friends from his past had disappeared and the trust that he looked for was rarely found. So when Nicky found somebody good he tried to stick with them.

Artistically, he escaped into surrealism, sold a few paintings at art fairs and worked doing street portraits. He witnessed a lot of older visual artists struggling and looked for other ways to expand his creativity. Most important, during this period he met a very funny man who became his new mentor, Kirt Moore. Kirt was spontaneous and loved to make people laugh. Once again it started to rub off.

As time passed visual arts remained his prerogative. In the mid 70’s after a frustrating athletic college career he played semi-pro football in LA, then a lot of soccer (trying out for a professional team) then running 10K races for a year. In the mean time Nicky would paint large dark surrealistic pieces and sold several of them. He could see his limitations he felt he had a long road ahead of him as a visual artist. So, at 24 he started to pursue acting doing plays but his growth was slow and rehearsals were long and boring. He took acting classes and learned a lot. Three years later in 1978 Nicky craved for a change. He saved his money doing body-fender work and went to Europe, alone, for three winter months. This proved to be a milestone as the travel brought about copious changes in his thought process. Writing poetry became his cathartic release as he wrote hundreds of poems. He came back with a completely different perspective of life’s opportunities. He realized he had to change his old athletic self-image. He discovered people were psychologically holding him back because they were always reminding him of his past success. This is a common dilemma for most x-athletes but Nicky was about to break out. After attending several live stand-up comedy shows he-was-bitten by the bug to be a stand-up comedian. He started a house painting company and when that didn’t work out he was coaxed by an old friend, Mike Gomes to move to Santa Cruz, California. There he immediately found a small theatre where some very creative locals were just starting to perform stand-up. Anybody that knew Nicky up until this point thought he was wasting his time trying to be a comedian as he had never displayed any comedic talent. But very few had seen him perform theatre or knew that he was highly regarded by his teachers as having the gift of physical presence, confidence and very strong vocal projection. Surviving on odd jobs he approached his new art form with great discipline and broke it down like a scientist working on his weaknesses. He wrote and rewrote material for long hours and performed anywhere he could learning the craft turning himself into a strong performer, comedy and screenplay writer. Four years after working part time on the West Coast, Nicky became a full time national touring stand-up comedian and stayed on the road for thirteen years. He temporarily settled in New York, Chicago, Texas, Florida, North Carolina and eventually Louisville, KY for four years. Stand-up allowed Nicky a lot of free time and he was able to paint series of pictures which became his forte’. He also wrote a lot and directed plays, three one man shows, made independent movies and played a lot of harmonica. He jammed night after night at clubs occasionally with some big names like Mick Jones from the Rock band Foreigner and Blues great Tinsley Ellis. His creative growth was tremendous. The wisdom accumilated from this lifestyle of travel and the study of human nature was another milestone. In comedy, Nicky started to acquire small pockets of followings in different towns. He worked Canada and Mexico and became an international headliner for ten years. Over that period Nicky sold thousands of prints of his artwork after his shows and gave half the profits to the homeless. In 1997 Nicky retired from stand-up comedy and the hard road that led to burn out. He moved to California and continues to create art and music at a high level. He completed several art commissions for the Jerry West family (LA Lakers) as well as many others in the U.S. and in Europe.

Progressing musically Nicky promotes himself as “The Fastest Harmonica Player in the World” (103 notes in twenty seconds) He has recorded eight CD’s and is planning more Jazz, Latin, Rock and Blues CD’s. In the mean time he is very close to selling his first screenplay titled “Crew Stories” and two others “License to Be Crazy” and “Chattanooga Choker” are being shopped.

Now, in 2007 ten years after his stand-up comedy retirement, Nicky is rejuvenating that comedic spark. He’s writing new material for his new character Nick Toast (From a movie he once made called “Puggs and Toast” who carries his toaster wherever he goes.) and is slowly going back on the road. Fortunately, Nicky is a nutritionist and works out constantly. He has enough energy to teach and share his knowledge in the Santa Barbara area where he resides. His new mentor and friend Paul Welch is helping guide Nicky to focus on one thing at a time. Thank God it’s rubbing off and Nicky is very thankful.

www.nickyshane.com nickyjshane@gmail.com