Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
— 13—
"Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, Sourdoughs and
Sourdettes… it's the Whaaaaale Faaaaaat Follies!"
AAAAAAND WITH A LOOOOOOOONG
drum roll, the lights come up on the tackiest bar in the
tackiest part of Anchorage, starring the undisputed King of Tacky himself, Miiiiiister
Whitekeys, and his band, the faaaaabulous Spaaaamtoooones!
There follows that heartfelt lyric so stirring to the patriotic Alaskan:
The largest state in the union
With the smallest legislative I.Q.!
Welcome to the world of the Whale Fat Follies, a musical revue with its heart in Spenard
and its target—well, just paint a bulls' eye on the state of Alaska and be done with it. The
show starts on April 1
st
and runs until December 31
st
, Tuesday through Saturday at eight-
thirty p.m., beginning with “Springtime in Spenard,” evolving over the summer into “The
Whale Fat Follies,” in an election year transmogrifying into “The Ballot Box Follies,” and
by the holidays metamorphosing into “Christmas in Spenard.”
Okay, I admit it, I didn't travel far for this column, about five minutes door to door and,
in the interests of full disclosure, I should reveal that I went knowing I would have a great
time, so I wasn't exactly impartial. This is because, along with everybody in Anchorage
and anyone who visits from the Bush, I've been to the Whale Fat Follies just a few times
before.
Like every year since it started playing at the Fly By Night Club, which began life as the
Idle Hour next to Lake Spenard, went through a series of name changes over thirty years,
and has since moved uptown—well, uptown for Spenard, anyway—into a building
formerly occupied by Spenard Plumbing. “We brought everything with us when we
moved,” Keys says, “including the toilets from the ladies' restroom. That's because we're
