Mcmanus Comedies Playing At The Met

Thu., Dec. 7, 2000

By Jim Kershner jimkershner@comcast.net

Two Pat McManus comedies, “Potts’ Luck” and “Scrambled McManus,” arrive at The Met this weekend, just in time to deliver their usual quotas of Christmas laughs.

McManus is a nationally known best-selling humorist from Spokane and Sandpoint. His one-man stage plays starring Tim Behrens have become annual Christmas traditions at The Met, 901 W. Sprague.

McManus and Behrens have written five such shows. This year’s Met run will feature two of the most recent, both developed in 1999: “Potts’ Luck,” Friday at 8 p.m. - This show features Pat arriving on the set of his new, low-budget TV show only to discover that the actor whom he hired has disappeared. Pat has to take over the entire show himself. He tells several stories, including one where he takes 100-year-old Ed on a fishing trip. Other characters include Crazy Eddie, Mr. Muldoon and Rancid Crabtree. As usual, Behrens plays all of the characters, including Pat.

“Scrambled McManus,” Saturday at 8 p.m. - This is a collection of the most-requested segments of the other four shows. It features Behrens playing all of the characters in such classic McManus stories as “The Mummy,” “The Night the Bear Ate Goombaw,” and “My First Deer” (about a bicycle-riding deer).

McManus will be at both shows to sign copies of his books. Tickets are $14 for adults, $7 for children 12 and under, through G&B (325-SEAT, 1-800-325-SEAT or www.ticketswest.com).

`A Piece of My Heart’

The Spokane Civic Theatre’s Reading Stage series presents Shirley Lauro’s Vietnam War drama, “A Piece of My Heart,” on Sunday.

This drama, based on a nonfiction book by Keith Walker, is about six women, five nurses and a country-western singer, who went to Vietnam. Sandra Hosking directs.

The theme of this year’s series is “Vox Populi (The Voice of the People).” The plays are read from scripts by actors, with a minimum of staging.

Tickets are $5 each, available only at the door. Showtime is 7 p.m. at the Civic’s Firth Chew Studio Theatre, 1020 N. Howard.

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