It was an eclectic group that gathered at The Lodge last night to mark the establishment’s 20th anniversary with a special appearance by Kinky Friedman, the iconic, irreverent Jewish Texan singer/songwriter/novelist and sometime political candidate. There in a private back room at the “classy gentlemen’s” club were people like the Lodge founder and CEO Dawn Rizos, Robert Wilonsky and Gromer Jeffers Jr. from The Dallas Morning News, The Ticket’s Mike Rhyner, and Ruth Buzzi. Ruth Buzzi, the Laugh-In lady who’d whack the old man with her purse? Yep; turns out she and her husband Kent Perkins are old friends of Friedman’s, and often put him up at their ranch near Stephenville. It’s a good thing all these people in the private room understood and appreciated Kinky’s offbeat brand of satirical humor, because some people at the upscale strip club didn’t.
Dressed in black from his cowboy hat to his boots, Friedman chatted with the backroom guests and then—after everyone chowed down on a dinner of beef or fish—strolled around the long tables with a guitar, singing a couple of his songs. Or, trying to sing a couple of his songs. The club was so loud—it’s a strip club, after all—you could barely hear. Kinky’s jokes, on the other hand, were more audible: “I want to remind you, if you’re driving this evening, don’t forget your car,” he said in a fake announcer’s voice. Then: “‘Jesus loves you’ can be very comforting words. Unless you hear them in a Mexican prison.” Finally he launched into one of his best-known tunes, “They Ain’t Makin’ Jews Like Jesus Anymore,” and everyone sang along. Especially Kent and Ruth.
Pausing to talk before moving out into the “big room” (where the women dance) to sing a couple more songs, Friedman said he was headed to Germany and several other countries later this week in support of his newest album, “The Loneliest Man I Ever Met” (Willie Nelson co-produced.) “I’m kind of the new David Hasselhoff of Germany,” Kinky said. “The thinking man’s David Hasselhoff.” Then: “Germans are my second favorite people. Know my favorite people? Everybody else!” I mention one of his earlier songs, “Ride ‘Em Jewboy“—it actually makes a serious point about the Holocaust—and he said Nelson Mandela used to play it in his prison cell every night. He added that he’s one of the few people to spend the night at the White House under two presidents (Bill Clinton and W), and that Clinton’s favorite song of Kinky’s was “Waitret Please Waitret (sit on my face).” I thought that was a joke, but he said it’s the truth.
A few minutes later Friedman took the big main stage and launched into another of his early hits: “***hole From El Paso,” a takeoff on Merle Haggard’s “Okie from Muskogee.” Even though the acoustics were poor—many in the club kept talking or didn’t seem to know who Kinky was—you could make out the song’s edgy lines, but just barely: “”I’m proud to be an ***hole from El Paso, a place where sweet young virgins are deflowered … and the wetbacks still get twenty cents an hour.” At the bar, a 20-something guy in a t-shirt and thick glasses said to his friend, “Did he just say wetback? I’m a little offended, and I’m white. I’m angry!” “He’s a comedian,” the friend replied. “You want to kick his butt?” “No,” the guy in the glasses said. By that time Kinky had left the room, anyway.
