Ongoing History Daily: A Bob Hope impersonator? WTF?
It’s time for another look at the greatest contract riders in history. The rider is the part of the deal that the promoter strikes with a performer over what will be supplied to the artist on the day of the show. It’s supposed to cover everything from the nature of the load-in of the equipment to–and this is the interesting part–what needs to be supplied to the artist backstage in the dressing room.
Here’s what Iggy Pop once requested in an 18-page rider:
- A copy of USA Today, seven dwarfs dressed up as the characters in Snow White
- Something unmentionable about morbidly obese people
- A Bob Hope impersonator to “perform jokes about golf, Hollywood and Bing Crosby.”
Iggy is a big golfer, but I had no idea he liked to warm up for a gig this way. Or so he says.
