Joe Bevilacqua

Joe Bevilacqua (born January 2, 1958) is an American actor, producer, director, author, dramatist, humorist, and documentarian.

Biography

Early life

Bevilacqua was born on January 2, 1958 in Newark, New Jersey, the son of a policeman Joseph Bevilacqua Sr. and a housewife the former Joan Kvidahl. Bevilacqua began performing as a child. His family moved to Iselin, New Jersey in 1965. In 1971, he began recording his first audio stories, Willoughby and the Professor, half hour stories, in which he improvised performing all of the voices himself, creating live sound effects and scoring with 78 RPM records he found in his attic.

Also according to the^[1] NPR piece, Bevilacqua sent a 120 minute cassette of his Willoughby ad-libs to voice actor Daws Butler the voice of Yogi Bear, Quickdraw McGraw, Huckleberry Hound and other Hanna-Barbera and Jay Ward cartoon characters. Butler soon dubbed himself Bevilacqua's mentor.

Radio career

Joe Bevilacqua (Joe Bev) has been producing radio in many genres most of his life. In 1980, at 19, Bevilacqua produced his first radio show, Liquid Comedy, for public radio station WRSU^[2] in New Brunswick, New Jersey and subsequently distributed internationally by the National Federation of Community Broadcaster (which became Pacifica Radio Archives^[3]). He co-hosted The Jazz Show with Garret Gega in the early 1980s, a four hour a week mix classic jazz and comedy for WKNJ in Union, New Jersey.^[4]

Bevilacqua also worked for WBGO, Jazz 88 in Newark, NJ and produced documentaries for WNYC^[5] New York Public Radio on jazz legends including Louis Armstrong, Wynton Marsalis, Count Basie, Woody Herman, Cab Calloway, and Lionel Hampton. His features play on NPR Joe's Work at NPR.^[6]

He is a frequent contributor to National Public Radio, and in 2009, Bevilacqua did a commentary for Marketplace.^[7] about his "green lifestyle".

The Joe Bev 3-Hour Block

Since February 2012, Bevilacqua has been produce 3 distinct hours of radio a week, collectively known as "The Joe Bev 3-Hour Block",^[8] including The Comedy-O-Rama Hour,^[9] Jazz-O-Rama,^[10] and The Joe Bev Experience.^[11] The Comedy-O-Rama Hour has been the highest rated radio show on Cult Radio A-Go-Go! for many weeks. Joe Bev's other weekly radio show, The Jazz-O-Rama Hour debuted at #2.^[12]

The Comedy-O-Rama Hour is also podcast on iTunes.^[13]

Cartoon Carnival

In 2009 and 2010, Joe Bev hosted Cartoon Carnival,^[14] a radio hour devoted to classic animation, which aired on Shokus Internet Radio. The program still airs on a number of public radio stations, including Wisconsin Public Radio WGTD HD3, as well as Omni Media Networks, The 1920s Radio Network, North Texas Radio for the Blind, on KITC, 106.5 FM, Gilchrist, Oregon. Bev occasionally produces a new hour of Cartoon Carnival, which airs on his current third weekly hour, Joe Bev Experience on Cult Radio-A-Go-Go!

Audio Books

In 2011, Joe Bevilacqua signed a new deal with Audible^[15] to distribute all of his audio books, including radio drama, science fiction, comedy, cartoons, documentary, classic literature, biography, and autobiography. Sirius XM Radio broadcasts Bevilacqua's audio titles on the Book Radio Ch. 80.

His audio credits include such radio documentaries as From Moonshine to Armadillos: the Birth of the Austin Music Scene (2003)^[16] that tells the history of Threadgill's and Armadillo World Headquarters, One Song at a Time: Tales from the Kerrville Folk Festival (2000) and We Take You Now to Grover's Mill: The 50th Anniversary of The War of the Worlds Broadcast (1988)^[17] which includes the last interview with John Houseman. His radio documentary Lady Bird Johnson: Legacy of a First Lady (2001)^[18] was heard on over 400 public radio stations and included interviews with Johnson White House Administration members Liz Carpenter, Bess Abell, and Nash Castro, Washington Post owner Katharine Graham, Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum Director Harry Middleton, Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center Director Robert Glass Breunig; Lady Bird biographer Jan Jarboe Russell, and First Ladies Betty Ford and Barbara Bush.

Some of Bevilacqua's can be heard streamed at The Public Radio Exchange^[19]

Stage

Bevilacqua also works on stage and has performed at the Improv, Caroline's on Broadway,^[20] Catch a Rising Star, the Comic Strip, opened for Uncle Floyd, worked with Al Franken, Shelley Berman, Lewis Black and Rick Overton. Joe has also MC'd shows featuring Jerry Seinfeld, Bill Mahr and Gilbert Gottfried.

In 1989, funded by The New Jersey Historical Commission and The Monmouth County Historical Society, Joe produced, directed and starred in "A Freneau Sampler," poetry, prose and life of Philip Freneau.^[21]

Awards

Joe Bevilacqua was the winner of the 2012 New York TANYS Award for Excellence in Ensemble Acting^[22] for his portrayal of Bud Abbott in The Vaudeville in the Catskills show.

In 2004, Bevilacqua was awarded a Silver Reel Award from the National Federation of Community Broadcasters for his personal essay A Guy Named Joe Bevilacqua Audio.

He also won two New York Festivals awards for Lady Bird Johnson: Legacy of a First Lady in 2001 and the NPR Joseph Barbera, Legendary Animator, Dies Audio All Things Considered tribute to Joe Barbera in 2006.

Lorie Kellogg

Bevilacqua frequently works as a team with his wife Lorie Kellogg. Kellogg, a graduate of the Kansas City Art Institute and California Institute of the Arts, has designed all Waterlogg Production^[23] websites and book covers. She has also lent her vocal characterizations to such projects as: Spanish Halloween Stories for Children: Translated into English, Spanish Christmas Stories for Children: Translated into English, The New Stories of Old-Time Radio: Volume One, Daws Butler’s Halloween Happening, The Best of Cartoon Carnival, Volume One: 'The Interviews'. Audiobook Heaven REVIEW: "Joe an Lorie are both extremely talented voice artists. They can both do lots of entertaining voices, not just characterizations but whole personalities, and they both have a fine flair for drama, satire, and comedy. Put them together and, well, need I say more? If you haven’t heard these two at work, you’re missing out on something special.")^[24]

The couple have been working together since they met in 1996, and currently co-produce, write and voice the second version of The Comedy-O-Rama Hour for cult Radio-A-Go-Go!.

They recently toured with their Vaudeville in the Catskills stage show, in which they performed "Lambchops" the classic Burns and Allen comedy routine, and Bev MCd and performed the classic Abbott and Costello routine Who's On First? with Bob Greenberg. A second tour is planned for 2013.^[25]

From 2002-2006, Bevilacqua and Kellogg co-produced, wrote and voiced the first version of The Comedy-O-Rama Hour XM Radio, Sonic Theater ch. 160, which is now Sirius XM Radio Book Ch. 80.

References

External links

• Joe Bevilacqua's Comedy-O-Rama Hour site
• Joe Bevilacqua's Official Waterlogg Productions Blogg
• Official Daws Butler site
• Waterlogg Productions, Waterlogg Design
• The Official Joe Bev website

Authority control VIAF: 23987424

Persondata
Name	Bevilacqua, Joe
Alternative names
Short description	American actor
Date of birth	January 2, 1959
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death