Performing
The Old Days
I began performing as a folk singer in the 1960's. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures from those days. I say unfortunately because you wouldn't believe how thin I was! It was a pretty casual thing, but I enjoyed it tremendously, and kept it up on that basis for many years.
Then came the "Captain" thing. People do keep asking about that. Some years back, I was working as a story teller. I had worked my way through college deep sea fishing and had long been an avid sailor. At the time I had been living on a sailboat with Mrs. Captain for some ten years. Anyway, it seemed appropriate to specialize in performing and telling sea stories for yacht clubs. The persona of "Captain Dick" fit. Later, I added ventriloquism to the act, using an old sailor, "The Old Salt", as my partner. So for many years, Captain Dick and The Old Salt were a local performing institution, and the name has stuck and carried over into my many activities. Eventually, I made it a legal entity for banking and such, and I've been called Captain Dick ever since. Like me, The Old Salt is semi-retired now. I only do the sea story act occasionally, but usually perform more general material as Dick Wightman and Friends, with my sidekicks Barney, Fred and Woody.
Story Telling as Captain Dick
Captain Dick and The Old Salt, as we appeared together on stage for many years
Dick with Barney and Fred, as we appear in the few shows I have done since I retired
Today
After a brief stint doing an old time medicine show, I finally "retired" from performing, more or less, about four years ago. I still do an occassional show for charity, and maybe two or three paid gigs per years as folks find me.
"Meet Uncle Louie"
I have been waiting for some time for two new light weight molded figures, as, due to health issues, I was having some trouble handling Barney and Fred, the larger, heavier hand carved wood figures I made years ago. Early in the summer, I asked that I be given one of the figures "as is", to finish myself, as the need for it was getting kind of dire. I received the figure head molded, but not completed as to mechanism, and unpainted, without a body. It is a design y Ray Guyll, oribinally known as "Lucky Louie", and in this incarnation is a variation of Uncle Fred, my rowdy, cranky old cowboy. I set the partially done figure aside for a bit, as I was in a bit of a low cycle at that point. About 6 or 8 weeks back, a friend who was appearing in a production of "Annie" approached me for the loan of a figure to use as the character "Wackey" in the production. I agreed to finish up the partially done figure and lend it to them if they would have one of their stage makeup artists do the finish painting. Unfortunaely, Ann and I weren't up to going to see the performance, which was at an outdoor venue off in the woods norhteast of Seattle, so I hadn't seen what they had done with the painting. Last night, the figure was returned to me, so well done it knocked my socks off! In our old routines, Fred used to refer to his brother... from whom he was estranged because the brother was a raunchy pervert (this from Fred!!!!). So, the upshot is that "Uncle Louie" has now come to live with us. He was "alive" from the minute I picked him up, and right in character. He is very light and quite a bit smaller than Barney and Fred, and I have no trouble handling him. Look out ladies... he is baaaaadd!!
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