Episode 380 – Unstoppable Audience Connection the Bob Hope way with Bill Johnson

Ever wonder why Bob Hope still lands with new audiences today? I sit down with Bill Johnson, a gifted Bob Hope tribute artist who grew up in Wichita and found his way from dinner theater to USO stages around the world. We talk about radio roots, World War II entertainment, and how “history with humor” keeps veterans’ stories alive. You’ll hear how Bill built a respectful tribute, the line between tribute and impersonation, and why audience connection—timing, tone, and true care—matters more than perfect mimicry. I believe you’ll enjoy this one; it’s funny, warm, and full of the kind of details that make memories stick.
 
Highlights:
00:10 – Hear how a Bob Hope tribute artist frames humor to build instant rapport.
01:41 – Learn how Wichita roots, a theater scholarship, and early TV/radio love shaped a performer.
10:37 – See why acting in Los Angeles led to dinner theater, directing, and meeting his future wife.
15:39 – Discover the Vegas break that sparked a Bob Hope character and a first World War II reunion show.
18:27 – Catch how a custom character (the Stradivarius) evolved into a Hope-style stage persona.
21:16 – Understand the “retirement home test” and how honest rooms sharpen a tribute act.
25:42 – Learn how younger audiences still laugh at classic material when context is set well.
30:18 – Hear the “history with humor” method and why dates, places, and accuracy earn trust.
31:59 – Explore Hope’s USO tradition and how Bill carries it forward for veterans and families.
36:27 – Get the difference between a tribute and an impersonation and what makes audiences accept it.
41:40 – Pick up joke-craft insights on setup, economy of words, and fast recoveries when lines miss.
46:53 – Hear travel stories from Tokyo to Fort Hood and why small moments backstage matter.
50:01 – Learn the basics of using Hope’s material within IP and public domain boundaries.
51:28 – See the ethical close: making sure a “reasonable person” knows they saw a tribute.
 
About the Guest:
 
With a career spanning over thirty years, Bill has forged his niche on stage, screen, and television as a dependable character actor.
 
Bill’s tribute to the late, great Bob Hope was showcased in New Orleans, LA at Experience the Victory, the grand opening of the National WWII Museum’s first expansion project. In the ceremony, Bill introduced broadcaster Tom Brokaw, and performed a brief moment of comedy with Academy Award winning actor, Tom Hanks. Bill continues to appear regularly at the WWII Museum, most recently in On the Road with Bob Hope and Friends, which was under-written by the Bob & Dolores Hope Foundation.
 
Highlights from over the years has included the 70th Anniversary of the End of WWII Celebration aboard the USS Midway in San Diego, and the Welcome Home Vietnam Parade in Tennessee. Additionally, Bill has been honored to appear around the world as Mr. Hope for the USO in locations such as the Bob Hope USO centers in Southern California, the USO Cincinnati Tribute to Veterans (appearing with Miss America 2016-Betty Cantrell),  USO Ft. Hood (appearing with the legendary Wayne Newton), USO of Central and Southern Ohio, USO Puget Sound Area in Seattle, USO Guam, USO Tokyo, USO Holiday Shows in Virginia Beach for US Tours, and a Tribute to the USO on the island of  Maui with country music superstar Lee Greenwood.
 
Other notable appearances include Tribute Shows for Honor Flight chapters in Alabama, South Carolina, and Ohio, the Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association, the US Army Ball, the annual 1940’s Ball in Boulder, CO, “USO Cuties Show” at the Tropicana in Atlantic City, the Les Brown Jazz Festival in Tower City, PA, and Hosting “So Many Laughs: A Night of Comedy” at the National Veterans Memorial and Museum in Columbus, OH.
 
Through the years, Bill has been “murdered” on CSI, portrayed Michael Imperioli’s banker in High Roller: The Stu Unger Story, as well as, roles in films such as Ocean’s 11, Three Days to Vegas, TV’s Scare Tactics, Trick Shot, an award winning short film for Canon cameras, and the series finale of Dice, where Bill appeared as John Quincy Adams opposite Andrew Dice Clay.  
 
Bill is currently based out of Las Vegas, NV where he lives with his wife, author Rosemary Willhide, and rescue dog, Brownie.
 
Ways to connect with Bill:
 
http://www.billjohnsonentertainment.com
http://www.GigSalad.com/williampatrickjohnson
 
 
About the Host:
 
Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.
 
Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children’s Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association’s 2012 Hero Dog Awards.
 
https://michaelhingson.com
https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/
https://twitter.com/mhingson
https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/
 
accessiBe Links
https://accessibe.com/
https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe
https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/
https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/
 
 
 
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Transcription Notes:
 
Michael Hingson ** 00:00
Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I’m Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that’s a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we’re happy to meet you and to have you here with us.
 
Michael Hingson ** 01:23
This is your host, Mike hingson, and you are listening to unstoppable mindset. You know, we have a saying here, unstoppable mindset, where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet, and we’re going to definitely have unexpected today. This is also going to be a very fun episode. By the time you hear this, you will have heard a couple of conversations that I had with Walden Hughes, who is the president of the radio enthusiast of Puget Sound. And he’s also on the on other boards dealing with old radio show. And he introduced me to Bill Johnson, who is a person that is well known for taking on the role of Bob Hope, and I’m sure that we’re going to hear a bunch about that as we go forward here. But Bill is our guest today, and I just played a little segment of something for Bill with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, two characters by any standard. Well, anyway, we’ll get to all that. Bill, I want to welcome you to unstoppable mindset, and I’m really honored that you’re here with us today.
 
Bill Johnson ** 02:31
Oh, thanks a million. Michael, it’s such a pleasure to be here. Well, this is going to be a fun discussion.
 
Michael Hingson ** 02:38
Oh, I think so. I think absolutely by any standard, it’ll be fun. Well, why don’t we start before it gets too fun with some of the early stories about Bill growing up and all that. Tell us about the early bill.
 
Bill Johnson ** 02:52
Okay, well, I was born and raised in Wichita, Kansas, of all places. And I used to say, I used to Marvel watching Hope’s Christmas specials with my family that sort of spurred my interest. But grew up in Midwest, went to Wichita State University, and then after graduation, I had a job with an independent film company and a move to Los Angeles seeking my fortune. Well, the film company pulled it in three months, as those things do, and so I was left with my, I guess, my pursuit of the entertainment career from there.
 
Michael Hingson ** 03:42
So did you what you went to school and high school and all that stuff?
 
Bill Johnson ** 03:46
Yes, oh yes, I went to Wichita East High I didn’t graduate with honors, but I graduated with a B,
 
Michael Hingson ** 03:56
that’s fair B for Bob Hope, right? Yeah.
 
Bill Johnson ** 04:01
And then I actually went to college under a theater scholarship, wow. And so that, in those days, that would pay for everything, books, class, which delighted my parents, because we were a family of simple means. So that was the only way I was going to go to college was having a scholarship and but as it turns out, it was for the best years of my humble life, because I got a lot of hands on experience in a Wichita State medium sized College, yeah, but back then it was Much smaller, so I had a lot of opportunity.
 
Michael Hingson ** 04:43
I’ve actually been to Wichita State. I’ve been to Wichita and, oh, great, did some speaking back there. And we’re probably going to be doing more in the future. But it’s an it’s a nice town. It’s a great town to to be a part of. I think,
 
Bill Johnson ** 04:56
yes, people are so nice there. And what I. I’ve noticed living in other places and then going home to visit Wichitas are cleaned. Just something you noticed, the streets are usually pretty clean and foliage is well manicured. So hats off to the city for keeping the place up to date or keeping it clean
 
Michael Hingson ** 05:22
anyway. Well, yeah, you got to do what you got to do, and that’s amazing. And in the winter, everything gets covered up by the snow.
 
Bill Johnson ** 05:30
Yes, you do get all four seasons in Wichita, whether you like it or not. See there, yeah, it’s one of those places where they have that saying, If you don’t like the weather, wait 10 minutes and it’ll change.
 
Michael Hingson ** 05:43
Yeah. So, so, so there. So you majored in theater in college?
 
Bill Johnson ** 05:49
Yes, I did. Actually, the official designation at Wichita State was speech communication, ah, so that’s what I got my Bachelor of Arts
 
Michael Hingson ** 06:02
degree in so what years? What years were you there?
 
Bill Johnson ** 06:05
I was there in the fall of 75 and graduated a semester late. So I graduated in December of 79 Okay,
 
Michael Hingson ** 06:17
yeah, but that was after basically the traditional golden days and golden age of radio, wasn’t
 
Bill Johnson ** 06:24
it? Yes, it was still in the days of black and white television.
 
Michael Hingson ** 06:29
But yeah, there was a lot of black and white television, and there were some resurgence of radio, radio mystery theater CBS was on, and I think that was before, well, no, maybe later in 7879 I don’t know when it was, but NPR did Star Wars. And so there were some radio, radio things, which was pretty good.
 
Bill Johnson ** 06:53
And I think our friends in Lake will be gone began.
 
Michael Hingson ** 06:56
Oh yeah, they were in, I think 71 garrison. Keillor, okay, it’ll be quiet week in Lake will be gone my hometown. I know I listened every week. Oh, I
 
Bill Johnson ** 07:06
did too. So my interest in radio was, I think, started back then.
 
Michael Hingson ** 07:12
Yeah, I enjoyed him every week. As I love to describe him, he clearly was the modern Mark Twain of the United States and radio for that matter. Is that right?
 
Bill Johnson ** 07:26
Oh, gosh, well, I, I’m, I’m, I’m glad to agree with you. And a lot of that wasn’t it improvised to his weekly monolog. He’d have, oh, sure, yeah,
 
Michael Hingson ** 07:39
he, had ideas. He may have had a couple notes, but primarily it was improvised. He just did it. He just did it.
 
Bill Johnson ** 07:47
I let some of the episodes you take a lot of find a lot of humor in the fact he’s kind of pleased with himself. And he goes, Well, look what we just said, or something. He’ll do.
 
Michael Hingson ** 07:57
Yeah, it was, it was fun. So what did you do after college? Well,
 
Bill Johnson ** 08:03
after college, when I had moved to Los Angeles, after that, did not work out. I pursued my living as a as an actor, which didn’t last long. So I of course, had to get a secondary job, I guess. Let me back up. It did last long, although I didn’t have enough to pay my bills. Oh, well, there you go. I had a secondary job as whatever I could find, bartending. Usually, I did a lot of work as a bartender and but you get at least doing something like that. You get the people watch, yeah, oh.
 
Michael Hingson ** 08:47
And, that’s always entertaining, isn’t
 
Bill Johnson ** 08:49
it? Well, it can be, yeah, that’s true. Back in my that’s where I kind of develop your little stick you do for customers to get them to laugh and maybe tip you. My big thing was that you’d always see a couple, say, making out at the bar because it was kind of dark in there. And I would always say, Hey fellas, you want to meet my wife, Carol? Oh, that’s her boss. Don’t worry about it. They’re having a good time or something like that, just to try to get a few laughs.
 
Michael Hingson ** 09:23
I’ve done similar things at airports. I know that the TSA agents have a such a thankless job. And one of the things I decided fairly early on, after September 11, and you know, we got out, and most people, and most of the TSA people don’t know it. But anyway, whenever I go through the airport, I love to try to make them laugh. So, you know, they’ll say things like, oh, I need to see your ID, please. And, and I’ll say things like, Well, why did you lose yours? Or, you know, or you why? I didn’t want to see it. It’s just a piece of paper, right? You know? But, and I get them to laugh. Mostly, there are few that don’t, but mostly they they do. And then the other thing is, of course, going through with my guide dog. And we go through the portal. They have to search the dog because he’s got the metal harness on that always sets off the detector. Oh my, yeah. And, and so they say, Well, we’re going to have to pet your dog. I said, Well, just wait a minute. There’s something you need to know. And I really sound very serious when I do this. You got to understand this before you do that. They go, oh yeah. And they back up, and I go, he only likes long searches. If you don’t take a half hour, he’s not happy because his tail is going 500 miles a second, you know? Oh, great coming. But it is fun, and we get him to laugh, which is, I think, important to do. We don’t laugh at enough in life anyway.
 
Bill Johnson ** 10:57
Amen to that. It’s That’s my philosophy as well, my friend. And there’s not a lot to laugh about these days. And hopefully we can find the humor, even if we create it ourselves.
 
Michael Hingson ** 11:11
Yeah, I think there’s a lot to laugh at if we find it. You know, there are a lot of things that are not going very well right now, and there are way too many things that make it hard to laugh, but we can find things if we work at it. I wish more people would do that than than some of the things that they do. But what do you do?
 
Bill Johnson ** 11:31
Yes, yeah, from from your mouth to God’s ears, that’s a great plan for the future.
 
Michael Hingson ** 11:39
Well, we try so you you did some acting, and you had all sorts of other jobs. And then what happened?
 
Bill Johnson ** 11:47
Well, I finally got fed up with the whole bartending thing and the rat race of trying to make it in Los Angeles. I did some commercials. I had a couple of small roles in some independent movies, as they say. But on my first love being theater, I hit the road again doing some regional theater shows to where I finally ended up back in Kansas, once again, that the there was a dinner theater in my hometown of Wichita, and I got hired to do shows there. Oh, so eventually becoming a resident director so and my my family was going through some challenges at the time, so it was good to be home, so I hadn’t really abandoned the dream. I just refocused it, and I got a lot of great experience in directing plays, appearing in plays, and I met my white wife there. So so that was a win win on all counts.
 
Michael Hingson ** 13:00
I first got exposed to dinner theater after college. I was in Iowa, in Des Moines, and the person who was reading the national magazine for the National Federation of the Blind, the magazine called the Braille monitor guy was Larry McKeever was, I think, owner of and very involved in a dinner theater called Charlie’s show place, and I don’t remember the history, but I went to several of the performances. And then he actually tried to create a serial to go on radio. And it didn’t get very far, but it would have been fun if he had been able to do more with it, but he, he did do and there were people there who did the dinner theater, and that was a lot of fun.
 
Bill Johnson ** 13:45
Oh, gosh, yeah, although I must say that I was sort of the black sheep of the family being in the arts. My My mom and dad came from rural communities, and so they didn’t really understand this entertainment business, so that was always a challenge. But there’s one footnote that I’m kind of proud of. My grandfather, who was a farmer all his life. He lived on a farm. He was raised on a farm. Every year at the Fourth of July Co Op picnic. The Co Op was a place where they would take the crops and get paid and get supplies and so forth. They would have a picnic for all the people that were their customers every year he would supposedly play the unscrupulous egg buyer or the egg salesman. And so he’d go to the routine, was an old vaudeville routine. He’d go to this poor farmer and say, Here, let me pay you for those eggs. That’s here. There’s one two. Say, how many kids do you guys have now? For the No, five. 678, say, How long have you and your wife been married? What is it? Seven years, eight, they get the guy go, no, 1011, 12, so that was the bit, and he would do it every year, because I guess he did it
 
Michael Hingson ** 15:15
really well. Drove the farmers crazy.
 
Bill Johnson ** 15:18
Yeah, so, so humble beginnings in the lineage,
 
Michael Hingson ** 15:23
but on the other hand, once you started doing that, at least being in the theater was enough to pay the bills. Yes.
 
Bill Johnson ** 15:30
So my parents really couldn’t complain about that.
 
Michael Hingson ** 15:34
Well, see, it worked
 
Bill Johnson ** 15:36
out, yes indeed. And I met my wife, so I’m not complaining
 
Michael Hingson ** 15:41
about any of it. Now, was she in the theater? Yes, she was a performer.
 
Bill Johnson ** 15:46
We met in a show called lend me a tenor, and she was the lead, and I was at this point doing my stage management duties. But suffice to say we have gone on and done many shows together since then, and even had been able to play opposite each other a couple of times. So that cool, yeah, that’s, that’s a you can’t ask for better memories than
 
Michael Hingson ** 16:13
that. No, and you guys certainly knew each other and know each other well. So that works out really well.
 
Bill Johnson ** 16:20
Yeah, that works out pretty good, except, you know, you sometimes you have to have a conversation and say, Okay, we’re just going to leave the theater on the stage and at home. We’re at home. Yeah?
 
Michael Hingson ** 16:32
Well, yeah, there is that, but it’s okay. So how did you get into the whole process of of portraying Bob Hope, for example, and did you do anything before Bob of the same sort of thing?
 
Bill Johnson ** 16:51
Well, interestingly enough, to complete the whole circle of my experience, when I was performing in Wichita, I got a job opportunity here in Lacher. I’m living in Las Vegas now, to move out here and audition, or come out and audition for a new dinner show that was opening at Caesar’s Palace. It was called Caesar’s magical Empire, and it was, it was in 1996 and during that time, there was this big magic craze in Las Vegas. Everybody was doing magic
 
Michael Hingson ** 17:27
shows. You had Siegfried and Roy and yeah.
 
Bill Johnson ** 17:30
So I came out, I auditioned and got hired. And so then it was like, Well, now you got to move. So we moved on a just on hope and a prayer. And luckily, they eventually hired my wife, and so we got to work together there, and I eventually went on to become the, what they called the show director. I didn’t do the original show direction, but it was my job to maintain the integrity of the attraction. So during those years it was that was kind of difficult, because you have to listen to being on the administrative team. You’ve got to listen to all the conflict that’s going on, as well as and try to keep the waters calm, keep peace. Yes. So anyway, doing my show and being interactive, you talk back and forth to the audience, and after it was over, you take them out to a next the next experience in their night, when they would go see magic in a big showroom. And a lady came up to me and and she said, say, I’ve got this world war two reunion coming up next month. I’d like you to come and be, pretend to be Bob Hope. Do you know who that is? And I was like, yes, he’s one of my heroes. And so that was the first opportunity, suffice to say, I guess I did. Should have prefaced it by saying, when the magical Empire first opened, we were all playing these mystical wizards and dark characters. Well, that didn’t fly. That wasn’t any fun. So then the directors, the producers said, well, everybody, come up with your own character, and we’ll go from there. And so I created this character named the Stradivarius, because I like to fiddle the room. I get it and
 
Michael Hingson ** 19:37
but I played it like Bobby and you like to stream people along. But anyway, hey, I wish I would have
 
Bill Johnson ** 19:42
thought of that. My approach was like Bob Hope in one of the road pictures. So the show would be sort of a fish out of water type thing. Come on, folks. You know, I laughed when you came in that type of thing. Yeah. So when this lady saw the show that. How she got that inspiration?
 
Michael Hingson ** 20:04
Well, your voice is close enough to his that I could, I could see that anyway.
 
Bill Johnson ** 20:09
Oh, well, thank you. Sometimes I’d say it drives my wife nuts, because I’ll come across an old archival material and say, Hey, honey, how about this one? So she’s got to be the first audience, yeah.
 
Michael Hingson ** 20:23
Well, I’m prejudiced, so you could tell her, I said, so okay,
 
Bill Johnson ** 20:27
that you would, you’d love to hear it, right? Yeah.
 
Michael Hingson ** 20:31
Well, absolutely. Well, so you went off and you did the the World War Two event.
 
Bill Johnson ** 20:38
Did the World War Two event shortly after that, the met this, well, I should tell you another story, that shortly after that, a young man came to my show, and during the show, he stopped me and said, say, You remind me of someone very dear to me. Have you ever heard of Bob Hope? And I said, yeah, he’s again. I said, one of my heroes. The guy said, Well, you kind of remind me of him. Went on his merry way, and I didn’t think much of it. Well, it just so happens. The next day, I was watching the biography documentary of Bob Hope, and all of a sudden this talking head comes up, and it’s the same guy I was just talking to in my show the day, the day before, it turns out that was, that was Bob’s adopted son, Tony Tony hope. So I took that as a positive sign that maybe I was doing something similar to Mr. Hope, anyway. But then, as I said, The show closed very soon after that, sadly, Mr. Hope passed away. And 2003 right, and so there was, there was no real demand for anything like that. But I didn’t let the idea go. I wanted something to do creatively. I continued to work for the same company, but I went over and ran the 3d movie at Eminem’s world in Las Vegas 20 years. So I had plenty of time to think about doing
 
Michael Hingson ** 22:26
something creative, and you got some Eminem’s along the way.
 
Bill Johnson ** 22:30
They keep them in the break room for the employees. So it’s like, here’s all the different brand I mean, here’s all the different flavors and styles. So to have a way and you can tell guests, oh yeah, that’s delicious. It tastes like, just like almonds or
 
22:45
something. Yeah.
 
Bill Johnson ** 22:47
So based on that, I decided to pursue this, this tribute, and it, I’ll tell you, it’s difficult getting started at first, you got to practically pay people to let you come and do a show. I’d go to retirement homes and say, Hey, you want to show today. Sometimes they’d let me, sometimes they wouldn’t. But the thing about doing a show at a retirement community is they will be very honest with you. If you ain’t any good, they’ll say, man, no, thanks. Oh, nice try. So know where my trouble spots were,
 
Michael Hingson ** 23:29
but, but audiences don’t treat you as the enemy, and I know that one of the things I hear regularly is, well, how do you speak so much and so well. You know the one of the greatest fears that we all have as a public speaking, and one of the things that I constantly tell people is, think about the audiences. They want you to succeed. They came because they want to hear you succeed, and you need to learn how to relate to them. But they’re not out to get you. They want you to be successful and and they love it when you are and I learned that very early on and speaking has never been something that I’ve been afraid of. And I think it’s so important that people recognize that the audiences want you to succeed anyway.
 
Bill Johnson ** 24:17
That’s so true. And you kind of touched on a quote I remember one of the books from Bob hopes. He said how he approaches it. He said, I consider the audience as my best friends, and who doesn’t want to spend time with your best friend, right?
 
Michael Hingson ** 24:34
And I and I believe that when I speak, I don’t talk to an audience. I talk with the audience, and I will try to do some things to get them to react, and a lot of it is when I’m telling a story. I’ve learned to know how well I’m connecting by how the audience reacts, whether there’s intakes of breath or or they’re just very silent or whatever. And I think that’s so important, but he’s. Absolutely right. Who wouldn’t want to spend time with your best friend? Yes, amen. Did you ever get to meet Bob? Hope
 
Bill Johnson ** 25:07
you know I never did, although I at one point in my when I was living in Los Angeles, a friend of mine and I, we were in the over the San Fernando Valley, and they said, Hey, I think there’s some stars homes near here. Let’s see if we can find them. And we said, I think Bob Hope lives on this street. So we went down Moor Park Avenue in Toluca Lake, and we finally saw this home with a giant H on the gate. And it’s like, Oh, I wonder. This has got to be it. Well, all of a sudden these gates began to open. And we, kind of, my friend and I were like, and here, here, Hope came driving home. He was, he arrived home in a very nicely appointed Chrysler Cordoba, remember those? And he had one, he just was just scowling at us, like, what are you doing in my life? You know, and they drove it. So that’s as close as I got to the real guy. But I wish I could have had the pleasure of seeing him in person, but never, never was fortunate enough.
 
Michael Hingson ** 26:18
Well, one of the things that’s interesting is like with the World Trade Center, and I’ve realized over the past few years, we’re in a world with a whole generation that has absolutely no direct Memory of the World Trade Center because they weren’t born or they were too young to remember. And that goes even further back for Bob Hope. How does that work? Do you find that you’re able to connect with younger audiences? Do they talk with you know? Do they do they react? Do they love it? How
 
Bill Johnson ** 26:52
does that go? Well, interestingly enough, a lot of times, if there are younger people at shows, they’re usually dragged there by their parents and I have found that they will start chuckling and giggling and laughing in spite of themselves, because that old humor of hopes that, granted, it is corny, but there’s some great material there, if presented in the proper context. Yeah. I was funny story. I was doing a show at the National World War Two Museum in New Orleans. They were dedicating a new theater or something, and the color guard was a group of local leaf Marines that were serving in a local base, and they were standing there right before they went on, and this young man kept looking at me, and finally he said, very respectfully, says, I’m sorry, sir, but who are you? So I said, luckily, there was a picture of Bob Hope on the wall. And I said, Well, I’m trying to be that guy. And I said, Hang around a little bit. You’ll hear some of the material so, but that’s the thing I that you did bring up. An interesting point is how to keep your audience, I guess, interested, even though the humor is 4056, 70 years old, I call it like all my approach history with humor. The first time I did the Bob Hope, as in the national natural progression of things, I went to an open call, eventually here in Vegas to do they were looking for impersonators for an afternoon show at the Riviera in a place called Penny town. It was just a place for Penny slots. And they had, and they hired me. They said you can do your Bob Hope impression there. And so they had a stage that was on a one foot riser. You had a microphone and a speaker and a sound man, and you had to do a 10 Minute monolog six times a day every Yeah, do 10 minutes. You’d have about a 40 minute break. Do 10 more. And I didn’t do it every day, but you would be scheduled. Maybe they’d have, you know, have a Reba McEntire one day. They’d have an Elvis one day. Well, so I would it was a great place to try your ad, because, and that’s what turned me on to the whole idea of history with humor. Because when I started, I was just doing some of his material I’d found in a hope joke book that I thought were funny. Well, once in a while, people would be playing the slots. Granted, they were looking at the machines. Nobody was looking at me. And once, when I’d have somebody who. Ah, you know, crank the arm, one arm banded against and then, or I make the sound man laugh. And that was my goal. Well, there was a snack bar right in front of us with a rail that people. They weren’t tables, but you could go, lean against the rail and eat your I think it was called Moon doggies hot dog stand so you could eat your hot dog and watch Bob. Hope so if I could make the moon doggy people hot dog folks choke on their hot dog while they were laughing. That was like a home run. Yeah. But to keep them interested, tell them something that they will know. For instance, Hope’s first show for the troops was May 6, 1941 down in March field in Riverside California. And you start giving dates and specifics that i i can see the people in the audience go, oh yeah, in their mind’s eye, they if they were around, then they will go back to that day. What was I doing then? Okay, and so you kind of make the world relevant for them. So that’s how I approach World War Two, Korea and Vietnam. Is give dates and places, which you got to be accurate, because the veterans
 
Michael Hingson ** 31:27
will set you straight. Oh yeah, because they do remember. Oh yes, they were there.
 
Bill Johnson ** 31:33
So some of them and but it’s, it’s amazing, as you say, you can tell if the audience is engaged by if they inhale or if they make some complimentary noises during the show. Sometimes I’ll get fellas who will sit there and ponder just looking at me, and then they’ll come up afterwards and say, Man, I hadn’t thought about that in years.
 
Michael Hingson ** 32:04
Yeah, thank you. And you know you’re connecting, yeah, yeah.
 
Bill Johnson ** 32:09
And because hope represented, I think, a good memory in a kind of a rough time for a
 
Michael Hingson ** 32:16
lot of folks. Well, he did. He did so much for the troops with the military. And as you said, May 6, 1941, and it went from there. And of course, during the whole war, he was all over and entertaining people and and he was also very active in radio as part of all that.
 
Bill Johnson ** 32:38
Oh my goodness, I don’t know how the man found time to sleep, because if he were alive today, he would love social media and podcasts and things, because he was always trying to get his name in the paper or get some publicity, but he never forgot about his audience. He would want to do a show for the troops, no matter where they were stationed or he said I couldn’t look at myself in the mirror if I didn’t try.
 
Michael Hingson ** 33:10
Yeah, well, you do a lot with veterans and so on. So you’ve kind of kept up that tradition, haven’t you?
 
Bill Johnson ** 33:19
Yes, I have been fortunate enough to play a lot of reunions and some, maybe some uso themed shows, because that first show he did, hope did, in May of 1941 was they just was a radio show that his, one of his writers had a brother stationed it in Riverside, California, and the war hadn’t started, so they had nothing to do, right? These guys were bored, and so he said, Let’s take our show down there and hope. So hope didn’t want to leave the comfort of his NBC studio. It’s like, you know, what’s the idea? And they said, how big is the crowd? And they said, Well, I don’t know, maybe 1000 and of course, you know 1000 people. And you know, in Hope’s mind, he says, I’d give my arm and a leg to hear 10 people laugh. 100 people is like a symphony, but 1000 people, yeah, sheer fantasy. So he said, Oh, wait a minute, are you 1000 people? Are you sure? And this guy, Al capstaff, said, Well, maybe two. So that was it. And they went down. And when the audience, of course, they were just hungry for anything, the response was just so great that hope said, well, where has this been? And he said, shortly after that, we teamed up with the USO and been going steady. Ever since, yeah,
 
Michael Hingson ** 35:02
and that’s so cool. And again, you’ve, you’ve kept a lot of that going to now, we’ve talked on this show with Walden about reps and the showcase and so on. Are you going to be up at the recreation in Washington in September?
 
Bill Johnson ** 35:18
Yes, I am. I’ll be there, and we’re, I believe we’re doing a one of the cavalcade of America shows that sort of incorporates a lot of his initial, well, one of his initial tours over in World War Two. But it’s because a cavalcade is a recreation. A lot of it’s drama, dramatized, but it’s, it’s and it’s encapsulated you go bang, bang, bang across a big section of World War Two and Hope’s experience in Europe. But it’s, to me, as a fan of that genre, it’s fascinating, so I just looking forward to it. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun.
 
Michael Hingson ** 36:04
Well, we ought to, one of these days, we need to just do a Bob Hope radio show or something like that, and get you to come on and get an audience and and, and just do a show.
 
Bill Johnson ** 36:15
Oh, that would be great. I would love. That would be fun. That would be great, you know. And if there’s any naysayers, you just say they said, Why do you want to do radio? Say, well, as hope would say, radio is just TV without the eye strain,
 
Michael Hingson ** 36:30
yeah, and the reality, you know, I’m one of my favorite characters, and one of my favorite shows is Richard diamond private detective, and I was originally going to actually be at the showcase doing Richard diamond, but I’ve got a speaking engagement, so I won’t be able to be there this time, so we’ll do it another time. But I remember, you know, at the beginning of every show, the first thing that would happen is that the phone would ring and he would answer it and say something cute, and it was usually his girlfriend, Helen Asher, who is played by Virginia, or who is, yeah, played by Virginia. Greg and one of his shows started. The phone rang. He picked it up. Diamond detective agency, we can solve any crime except television. That’s great. I love that one. I love to use that.
 
Bill Johnson ** 37:20
I gotta remember that that’s a great line, yeah,
 
Michael Hingson ** 37:24
but it’s really fun. Well, so you classify yourself as a tribute artist. How do you really get started in doing that, and how do you keep that going?
 
Bill Johnson ** 37:38
Well, that’s, that’s a, that’s the million dollar question. Basically, I I found all the archival material I could find, and there’s a ton of information on Bob Hope on YouTube nowadays, and you need to decide, are you a tribute, or are you an impersonator? Because there is a slight difference.
 
Michael Hingson ** 38:04
What difference a tribute?
 
Bill Johnson ** 38:08
Well, first off, an impersonator is someone who resembles someone famous and dresses up in a manner as to portray them, and that can include a tribute artist who may not look identical to the person, but can capture a mannerism or a vocal vocal rhythm to suggest enough that the audience will accept it. I I do it. I am, I feel like I can capture a little bit of his face with some, you know, some of the expressions people have told me my eyes resemble his, as well as wear a hat or something from try to copy a costume from a picture that is very you feel like is iconic of this character. So if you can come out and present that, that’s the battle hope would always he began his radio shows, as you recall, by saying where he was and like, how do you do ladies and gentlemen, this is Bob live from Santa Ana Air Base, hope and and then do a two, two line rhyme about his sponsor, usually Pepsodent, just to get on to start the show with a laugh like Pepsodent on your brush and use plenty of traction and none of Your teeth. They’ll be missing in action.
 
39:39
Yeah.
 
Bill Johnson ** 39:42
Huge, but, but you to to pursue it. As I said, you’ve just got to, you’ve got to kind of forage out in the real world and see if see somebody’s looking for a show, and hopefully get someone to take a chance. Okay? Give you an opportunity. That’s why I went to that open call to do that show at the Riviera. It is difficult to tell jokes at people that are chewing at you, but it’s a good learning ground, plus doing the shows at the retirement homes made you prepared for anything because, but I found that I got the strongest response from veteran mentioned some of those history moments, historical moments. And so I thought maybe I’ll just focus on this, not to put together the other comedy. And the other experiences are very important too. But the things I have found people remember the most were those shows for the troops. Yeah, and basically, in a nutshell, and they don’t remember what did he What did he say? Do you remember a joke? Sometimes they’ll tell me a joke, but most, most times, they don’t remember what he said, but they remember how he made them feel,
 
Michael Hingson ** 41:06
yeah, and the fact that he said it, yes, yeah,
 
Bill Johnson ** 41:10
there’s a there’s a common joke I’d heard for years, and a friend of mine told me he was a 10 year old kid at Fort Levin fort, Leonard Wood, Missouri. And hope came out and told the joke. The guy goes into a bar. Oh, no, excuse me. Let me back up. A grasshopper goes into a bar. The bartender says, Hey, we got a drink named after you. The grasshopper says, you got a drink named Irving cute. And I’d heard that. Yeah, I guess hope told it and so you never know what what inspires your comedy, but there’s a lot of common things I heard growing up that I will find hope said. Hope said it at one point or another in his either his radio show or on one of his specials. So
 
Michael Hingson ** 41:58
do you think that a lot of what he did was ad lib, or do you think that it was mostly all written, and he just went from a script?
 
Bill Johnson ** 42:07
That’s a good point. He was one of the first performers to use cue cards, okay? And a lot of it was was written, but from what I’ve read is that he was also very fast on his feet. That’s what I thought. Because if something happened, he would come in with a bang, with with another line to top it, yeah. Well, you know, like we were talking about that command performance, where with Lana Turner that he said, she said, Well, they’ve been looking at ham all night, and you’re still here. Ah, big laugh. Haha, yeah. And he said, Now I’m bacon with the double entendre, you know, like, yeah, you burn me, whatever. But that was, I thought that was
 
Michael Hingson ** 42:51
cute, yeah, and he, and he is, clearly there had to be a whole lot more to him than than writing. And so I absolutely am convinced that there was a lot of bad living. And there was just, he was fast, he was good at it and them, and the more he got comfortable, because of those big crowds that they got him started, the better he became
 
Bill Johnson ** 43:16
absolutely you can there’s a great book by, I know, do you know Bob mills? He was one, was one of Bob Hope’s writers wrote a right and he explains the formula behind a lot of their jokes situation, and then it would have a payoff, you know, like, I don’t know what happened, but now that you know this is set up in a setup and then the joke. Hope supposedly liked an economy of dialog. He didn’t like a lot of language going from point A to point B to tell his joke. That’s why the rapid fire delivery. And he had a lot of jokes in his shows. The radio shows had, at least, was it something like 10 jokes a minute?
 
Michael Hingson ** 44:08
Well, they were, they were very fast. And there were, we’ve got a few rehearsals of Bob Hope shows. And clearly some of the things that he did, because at first he wasn’t getting the reaction that he thought he was going to get, but he pulled it out. And again, it’s all because he was fast. He was good.
 
Bill Johnson ** 44:29
Yeah, I’ve got some blooper reels from some of the Christmas specials, and he’ll try and try and try. And then finally, he’ll say, take that card and tear it up, throw it away. And that’s funnier than the joke itself.
 
Michael Hingson ** 44:44
Yeah, than the joke itself. It’s really cute. So you obviously like performing. Does that run in your family?
 
Bill Johnson ** 44:55
Well, not necessarily, as I said, I’m kind of the black sheep of the. Family, because I was in the arts, they would rather have a more what do I want to say? A more safe career, a career choice as a you know, because entertaining, you’re always wondering, well, where’s my next job? Yeah, as opposed to something else, where you might have a better idea of what are your next paychecks coming? But I do have always had a day job, and this is sort of like my way to flex those creative muscles.
 
Michael Hingson ** 45:33
So what’s your day job today? My
 
Bill Johnson ** 45:35
day job is I still do technical support for the good folks at Eminem’s world on the script. Only they after covid happened, they closed the 3d movie that I was overseeing. And another fellow, when I do tech support, we just basically make sure the lights come on. And as well as I have a job at the College of Southern Nevada, on the support staff, trying to help folks who have English as a Second Language get a job. So I find those are both rewarding challenges.
 
Michael Hingson ** 46:15
It’s a good thing I don’t go to Eminem’s world because I don’t really care if the lights are on or not.
 
Bill Johnson ** 46:20
Oh, well, there you go. We need somebody here doing rim shots.
 
Michael Hingson ** 46:26
Yeah, you like dependent people are all alike. You know, you got to have all those lights. Yes, I don’t know that I’ve been to Eminem’s world. I’ve been to the Eminem store in New York City, but I don’t think I’ve been to the one in Las Vegas.
 
Bill Johnson ** 46:40
I was actually at the opening of that Eminem store in New York City. Funny story, they know they have people that put on the character suits, right? And when I was there to help them kind of get their get acclimated to wearing those suits and then peering in front of people. Well, the kids were doing around, say, two in the afternoon. Well, the New York Times showed up at noon, one pick they wanted a picture of and so I had to put on the I was yellow, the peanut, and this other person that was there put on the red suit, and we walked down on 46th Street and started walking on the street, wave and and carrying on. I thought, Here I am. I finally made it to Broadway. Yeah, and I’m and I’m dressed as a nut so,
 
Michael Hingson ** 47:30
and you had Hershey right across the street,
 
Bill Johnson ** 47:32
right across the street, so I don’t know. I imagine her, she’s still there, probably still going head to head, to this
 
Michael Hingson ** 47:40
day, the last time I heard they were so well, I don’t know, I don’t know whether anything really changed with covid, but the last I heard they were
 
Bill Johnson ** 47:49
well, more powerful, Yeah, funny story.
 
Michael Hingson ** 47:56
Well, so you will, you travel basically anywhere to do a show? Are there any limits?
 
Bill Johnson ** 48:03
Or no, I’ll go anywhere. My this tribute has taken me as far as Tokyo, Japan for the USO there. I’ve done shows in the Pacific and Guam I’m not too sure I want to travel internationally these days, but if somebody has an opportunity, I’ll think about it. Funny thing happened at that, that show I did in Tokyo, I was, it was, it was a gala for the local uso honor the the troops who were serving in that area. So they had that representative from each branch that was serving our Navy, Marines and the Japan, nation of Japan now has what they call, this, the Civil Defense Group. I believe that’s what they call because after World War Two, they signed that document saying they would not have an organized military. But right, they have their civil defense, and so we were honoring them, that there was a group, an Andrew sisters trio, performing, singing and dancing and and I was standing off off stage, just waiting to go on and finish the show. And this, this has been 20 years ago. Let me preface that this older Japanese gentleman came up to me, and he said, I would like to make a toast. And there was a lady in charge who, you know this was. There was some, some admirals there, and leaders of the Seventh Fleet were, were there. So everything had to be approved. Everything went according to schedule. The military events are just boom, boom, boom. And so I said, Well, okay, I need to ask Judy, when this Judy was in charge, when we can do this? And he just said, I want to make a tow. Toast. And I said, okay, but I have to clear it with Judy. Well, I finally got Judy and said that older Japanese man would like to make a toast. And she said, Yes, let him do whatever he wants. Turns out, he was an admiral in the Japanese Navy during during World War Two, and he was attending the event here, although these many years later, just as you know, everyone else was sure. So to bail myself out of it, I went back on said stage and said, And now, ladies and gentlemen, our honored guest would like to make a toast. And he, of course, I can’t remember the toast, but as I at the time, I thought that was very sweet and very eloquent. So it’s just these incredible little snippets of life you you go through. It’s like, how could I ever know, when I was a five year old kid in Kansas, that Monday I’d be chatting with a world war two Admiral from the Japanese Navy, right? Just, it’s just mind boggling.
 
Michael Hingson ** 51:06
So I’m curious. Bob Hope copyrighted a lot of his jokes. Are you able to still use them? Well, that’s a
 
Bill Johnson ** 51:13
good question. Yes, he did. He copyrighted his jokes and everything, however, and I have spoken to the lawyer for the hope estate. There are the, what do you call that? It just flew out of my head that the the laws surrounding
 
Michael Hingson ** 51:32
intellectual property, copyright laws and intellectual property and public domain, yeah, yeah.
 
Bill Johnson ** 51:38
The song, thanks for the memory is in public domain, and hope would always change the lyrics to where he went because he hated the song. Supposedly he had, how did I get hung with that old dog of a song?
 
Michael Hingson ** 51:52
Yeah, well, he kept using it every week, so I can’t believe it was too anti song. Yeah,
 
Bill Johnson ** 51:57
that’s true, but the hope is they did copyright his jokes, but as long as I don’t write a book and try to sell them as my jokes, I should be fine as well as I am. Allow you the those laws allow you to present impersonate someone, no matter who it is. You could impersonate your next door neighbor, even though he’s not famous, as long as you do not do something to harm them, yeah, or represent it in an unflattering way
 
Michael Hingson ** 52:28
well, and clearly, what you’re doing is pretty obvious to anyone who knows at all that it’s Bob Hope and that you’re trying to do a tribute to him. So I would think it would make sense that that would work
 
Bill Johnson ** 52:39
well it should and but the final caveat is that a reasonable person must come away from the show knowing full well they did not see the original. You must tell them. And Bob Hope’s been gone for
 
Michael Hingson ** 52:55
many years. Yeah, 22 years now.
 
Bill Johnson ** 52:59
So that’s usually not a problem, but that’s how I finished my tribute as vice is, I usually wear a hat to complete the illusion, with the bill flecked up. I’ll take the hat off and say, now if I could break character and tell about how hope was named an honorary veteran, and at the age of 94 it was an amendment passed by Congress designated him as an honorary veteran, and it was received unanimous bipartisan support
 
Michael Hingson ** 53:30
as it should yes and
 
Bill Johnson ** 53:33
Hope went on to say, sort of all the awards I’ve received in my lifetime being now being listed among the men and women I admire the most. This is my greatest honor, so that’s a good way for me to wrap up my tributes whenever possible.
 
Michael Hingson ** 53:54
Do you have, oh, go ahead, no,
 
Bill Johnson ** 53:56
I was gonna say there’s another funny story. You know, hope lived to be 100 Yeah, and George Burns.
 
Michael Hingson ** 54:03
George Burns, lived to be 100
 
Bill Johnson ** 54:05
lived to be 100 Supposedly, the two of them had a bet as to who would live the longest. Now, the thing is, what were the stakes and how do you collect? Yeah, because some guy, you’re not going to be there. But in any event, George Burns was born in the 1890s and so he was older than hope. Hope was born in 1903 George Burns lived to be 100 years and 10 days old. Bob Hope lived to be 100 years and 59 days
 
54:41
Oh,
 
Bill Johnson ** 54:42
so hope. Well, the story goes that in his final, final months, he was just he was pretty much bedridden and slept and slept a lot. His wife, Dolores went to his bedside. He had that 100 years 10 day mark, and she said. Well, Bob, you won the bet. You have now lived longer than George Burns. And supposedly, even though he was fat, he was like they thought he was asleep, this huge smile just curled up his lips so he heard, that’s great.
 
Michael Hingson ** 55:18
That’s great. Well, if, if you have, do you have something that you could do for us, or do you have something that you could play or something that would give us just a little flavor?
 
Bill Johnson ** 55:28
Um, yeah, I Well, if you, I would tell your listeners that they want to catch a little bit more. They can go to my website, Bill Johnson entertainment.com, and there’s some video clips there, but I like to do is that hope would always, he would always joke about traveling to the event, and that’s how I like to begin my shows with him arriving. Since I just flew in on a wing of prayer. I was on the wing because as a soldier, I wouldn’t have a prayer nicely. My flight was very nice, but the plane was rather old. In fact, the pilot sat behind me wearing goggles and a scarf. This plane was so old that Lindbergh’s lunch was still on the seat. The fasten seat belt sign was in Latin. To get to the washroom, you had to crawl out on the wing. But I come on, folks, I said, to get to the washroom, you had to crawl out of the wing. But hey, I don’t know about you, but I have a fear of flying that dates back to my childhood. See, when I was a baby being delivered by the stork, that blasted bird dropped me from 400 feet. Yeah, he did that to stay out of the range my father’s shotgun. See, Dad already had my brothers, Eenie, Meenie and Miney. When I came along, he didn’t want
 
56:55
no moat. I get it just
 
Bill Johnson ** 57:00
it goes along in those words. Well, we are,
 
Michael Hingson ** 57:05
we are definitely going to have to just work out doing a radio show and getting you to to do a whole show, and we’ll have to get some other people to go along with it. We’ll figure it out. Oh, that sounds great. I would buy a lot of fun to do. Count me in. Well, I want to thank you for being here. This has been absolutely wonderful to be able to talk about Bob Hope and to talk about you. Even more important, I’m sure that Bob Hope is monitoring from somewhere, but by the same token, you’re here and we’re here, so we do get to talk about you, which is important to do as
 
Bill Johnson ** 57:41
well. Well, that’s very kind, Michael. I was hopeful that you would be at the rips.
 
Michael Hingson ** 57:47
I was planning on it because I wanted to, I want to really do the Richard diamond show. I’ll, I told you I’d send you the command performance that we talked about Dick Tracy and B flat, or, for goodness sakes, is he ever going to marry Tess true heart? Oh yes. And I’ll also send you the Richard diamond that we’re going to do the next time I’m able to be at the rep show. It’s, it’s
 
Bill Johnson ** 58:06
really hilarious. Oh, that sounds great.
 
Michael Hingson ** 58:09
But I want to thank you for being here once again. Tell us your website.
 
Bill Johnson ** 58:14
My website is, it’s my name and followed by entertain Bill Johnson, entertainment.com there’s there’s some video clips there, and some great pictures of some of the folks I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and performing with. I don’t want to name drop, but just to give the the act a little more credence, pictures with Les Brown Jr. Rest his soul. I did it floored. I was able to do a show with Lee Greenwood on the island of Maui Wow, as well as perform with Wayne Newton at Fort Hood, Texas. Wayne Newton actually took over for Bob Hope with the USO when Bob just got too old to travel. Yeah, so, so that’s just for a humble, humble guy. It’s some incredible stories
 
Michael Hingson ** 59:19
well, and you’re keeping some wonderful memories alive, and we’ll definitely have to do something with that. But I want to thank you for for being here and again. Bill Johnson, entertainment.com, so go check it out, folks and and there’s a lot of old radio out there online. We’ve talked about yesterday usa.com or yesterday usa.net they’re the same. You can listen. You can go to reps online, R, E, P, S online, and listen to a lot of radio programs there. There are a number of people we’ve had Carl Amari on who several years ago, did come. Complete redos of all of the Twilight zones, and he made them scripts for radio, which was a lot of fun. Have you ever heard any of those?
 
Bill Johnson ** 1:00:07
I’ve never heard. I was a big fan of the show when it was on TV, but I never heard any of the
 
Michael Hingson ** 1:00:12
radio. Stacy Keach Jr is is the Rod Serling character, but, oh yeah, Twilight radio,
 
Bill Johnson ** 1:00:19
that’s great. I will check it out,
 
Michael Hingson ** 1:00:22
or we’ll send you some that’s even better. But I want to thank you for being here, and thank you all for being here with us. I hope you had fun today. It’s a little bit different than some of the things that we’ve done on the podcast, but I think it makes it all the more fun. So thanks for being here. Please let us know what you think. Email me. I’d love to hear from you. Michael, H, I m, I C, H, A, E, L, H, I at accessibe, A, C, C, E, S, S, i, b, e.com, love to get your thoughts wherever you’re listening. Please give us a five star review. We appreciate those a lot. Tell other people about the podcast. We really would like to get as many people listening as we can, and we want to be sure to do the kinds of things you want on the podcast. So if you know anyone else who ought to be on the podcast, Bill, that goes for you as well, please introduce us. We’re always looking for more people to come on unstoppable mindset that we get a chance to chat with. So hope that you’ll all do that and again. Bill, I want to thank you one more time for being here. This has been fun.
 
Bill Johnson ** 1:01:21
This has been a blast. Michael, thank you so much for having me. I really enjoyed it.
 
Michael Hingson ** 1:01:32
You have been listening to the Unstoppable Mindset podcast. Thanks for dropping by. I hope that you’ll join us again next week, and in future weeks for upcoming episodes. To subscribe to our podcast and to learn about upcoming episodes, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com slash podcast. Michael Hingson is spelled m i c h a e l h i n g s o n. While you’re on the site., please use the form there to recommend people who we ought to interview in upcoming editions of the show. And also, we ask you and urge you to invite your friends to join us in the future. If you know of any one or any organization needing a speaker for an event, please email me at speaker at Michael hingson.com. I appreciate it very much. To learn more about the concept of blinded by fear, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com forward slash blinded by fear and while you’re there, feel free to pick up a copy of my free eBook entitled blinded by fear. The unstoppable mindset podcast is provided by access cast an initiative of accessiBe and is sponsored by accessiBe. Please visit www.accessibe.com . AccessiBe is spelled a c c e s s i b e. There you can learn all about how you can make your website inclusive for all persons with disabilities and how you can help make the internet fully inclusive by 2025. Thanks again for Listening. Please come back and visit us again next week.