Barry Manilow and Brian Boitano Together At Last

Sweet Talk

From the brain flow of Paste's Editor At Large:

Some nefarious music hounds from Decatur twisted my outsized ego into creating a dialogue littered with opinionated recommendations and myopic rants. Therefore, to put a smidgen of decency back into nepotism, I have stolen the title "Sweet Talk" in homage of my father who had a weekly sports and leisure column of the same in the early 70's that was syndicated in several small town newspapers in the land the gods made great, New England (sans Connecticut of course). Luckily this space will focus more on sporting leisure, my favorite kind.

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Our esteemed Web Editor Austin Ray is a hard working man with a keen and discerning journalistic eye, but he is obviously too busy preparing his Turkey. How else could he have missed the big news coming out of the Bay Area about Barry?

No, not Barry Bonds bidding farewell to San Francisco’s AT&T Park following his indictment, about AT&T Park welcoming Barry Manilow and famed figure skater and South Park whipping boy, Brian Boitano for a one night singing and skating extravaganza on Dec. 5th.

As reported in the Hartford CT, Examnier: (we promise this is NOT from The Onion)

Barry Manilow and Brian Boitano — it’s a miracle.

That’s what the San Francisco Giants are saying in anticipation of a first-time, one-night-only show at 8 p.m. Dec. 5 at AT&T Park featuring live music by Manilow accompanying skating by world-class athletes, including the South Bay’s Boitano and Olympic gold-medalists Dorothy Hamill, David Pelletier and Viktor Petrenko.

In a telephone news conference announcing the event today, Boitano said, “I have been a fan of Barry’s for years. Every figure skater either has skated to a Barry song — or wanted to.”

Pat Gallagher, president of Giants Enterprises, which brings non-baseball events to the ballpark, said, “It’s a real first for us, a special ice show featuring someone who grew up in the Bay Area.”

“The Brian Boitano Skating Spectacular” will take place on a 60-foot-by 120-foot rink to be specially constructed in the park’s infield. The show’s theme is songs from the 1970s, including eight performed by Manilow. It will also be taped, to be aired on NBC at a later date.

Manilow, who admittedly doesn’t know a lot about skating, has already performed in a show that featured Kristi Yamaguchi. He said, “I would find myself watching and not singing; I started to pretend I was an ice skater.”

Hamill, one of Boitano’s longtime friends, said, “I’m thrilled. Anything Brian wants, he knows I’m always there for him.”

Boitano joked that when he called and asked Hamill to do the show, she told him she wanted to skate to “Weekend in New England” — but he told her he would take it himself.

Tickets for the show, which cost $55 to $152.25 for special VIP seating near Manilow’s stage, are currently on sale at http://www.tickets.com.

Not wanting to miss the “miracle”, Sweet Talk will be sending our Bay Area Correspondent, Buckshot Johnson, who first broke the story to cover the event in person.

When asked about getting the gig, Johnson was overjoyed,

“Honestly, aren’t we all “Fanilow’s” at heart? It’s no Judy Tenuta show, but still, I am pumped. To prepare for the assignment, I am simply going to keep asking myself ‘What would Brian Boitano do?‘