LIVE FROM JACKSONVILLE! with Amadeus
99.9 Gator Country morning show host Amadeus shares stories that did not make it on the air, and he takes a deeper dive into those that did make the cut. Fans of Your Hometown Morning Show will enjoy a more behind the scenes look at what goes into the making of a country radio morning show. Listen daily for this PG-13 version of the top stories making pop culture headlines, artist interviews, and much , much more.
LIVE FROM JACKSONVILLE! with Amadeus
Jacksonville's May Concerts plus guests Marlon Wayans and Gary Mullen
The Jacksonville entertainment scene is absolutely buzzing this May with an incredible lineup of must-see performances across our premier venues. From legendary rock stars to cutting-edge comedians, this episode delivers your comprehensive guide to everything happening live in The River City.
We kick things off with a complete rundown of the jam-packed calendar at St. Augustine Amphitheater. Meanwhile, the Florida Theater hosts an equally impressive slate including Kenny G, Brit Floyd, and the legendary Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.
The heart of this episode features two fascinating, candid conversations with performers heading to Jacksonville. First, comedy powerhouse Marlon Wayans opens up about his creative process, revealing how personal tragedy transformed his approach to comedy. "I write from a place of pain and then I bring the humor," he shares. "That's when my humor got more relatable." Wayans also teases his upcoming role in a Jordan Peele production and confirms a new Scary Movie installment filming this summer.
Then, Gary Mullen takes us behind the scenes of his acclaimed tribute show "One Night of Queen," discussing his unwavering commitment to honoring Freddie Mercury's legacy. "You've got to do it with full commitment and be true to the music and true to the energy of the band," Mullen explains, offering fascinating insights into Queen's musical diversity and multi-generational appeal.
Whether you're a rock enthusiast, comedy fan, or theater lover, Jacksonville's May calendar has something special waiting for you. Subscribe to our podcast for regular updates on all the amazing live entertainment coming to our city, and never miss another unforgettable performance!
Welcome to another episode of Live from Jacksonville. I'm your host, amadeus. I'm here to let you know what's happening live in Jacksonville. I'm talking about concerts, comedians, broadway shows, anything that's going on that I can find out about. I want to pass it along to you so you don't miss out on all the things that makes Jacksonville great. We have a couple of great interviews coming up one with Marlon Wayans, who's coming to the Florida Theater in just a week or so, and also Gary Mullen, star of One Night of Queen, also coming to the Florida Theater. That show's on May 6th.
Speaker 1:But first let's talk about how busy the St Augustine Amphitheater is in the month of May. They're kicking things off on May 1st with Pat Benatar and her husband Neil Giraldo. They put on a great show. Michael Fronte and Spearhead will be at the AM St Augustine on May 15th. Country music singer Dylan Scott on Saturday, may 17th. Rick Springfield's I Want my 80s Tour with John Waite, wang Chung and John Cafferty, and all four artists are doing full sets. This show starts around 6.30 in the evening and I think it should be a solid four hours. So just so you know it's going to be a long night, but of great music and rising country music star, sam Barber, will be at the AM St Augustine on Friday, may 30th. Construction is still going on at the Jaguar Stadium of the Future and will be for the next couple of years, so things are a little slow around Daly's Place, but they do have Teddy Swims there on Saturday May 10th. There are just a few seats left for this show at daly'splacecom.
Speaker 1:Coming up at Vice Star Veterans Memorial Arena, greg Gutfield from Fox News will be here on Sunday, may 18th. Country singer Tyler Childers on Thursday May 29th. But that is pretty much a complete sellout. I don't think there's one seat left for that show. The Alhambra Dinner Theater has my Fair Lady kicking off its six-week run on Thursday May 15th Alhambrajackscom for details and tickets.
Speaker 1:And finally, the Florida Theater has Marlon Wayans this Friday, may 2nd. I'll be chatting with Marlon on the podcast here in just a few minutes. I'll also be chatting with Gary Mullen, star of One Night of Queen, that's coming to the Florida Theater on Tuesday May 6th. Kenny G will be at the Florida Theater on May 7th, matt Kearney on Tuesday, may 13th. Brit Floyd's Wish you Were here, 50th Anniversary World Tour is Tuesday May 20th. And Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons on May 25th, floridatheatrecom for all of those shows. We spoke with Marlon Wayans way back when he was first kicking off his Good Grief Tour and then that show got canceled because of a hurricane. So the makeup show is this Friday, may 2nd, and I got a chance to reconnect with Marlon just a few days ago. I got to start off by saying I just watched the trailer for him a couple of days ago and I am so dang excited.
Speaker 2:Thank you. It's a great. I know what I feel. I know there's a great movie in the can and I know Justin Tipping, who is a visionary behind this, is going to make sure that this movie is everything. I can't wait for people to see it. I think it's going to be twisted, dark, crazy, scary, great acting and a little humor.
Speaker 1:It looks like all those things you said, and I know that Jordan's movies, kind of like M Night, they always seem to have a little twist and there's nothing you can tell me, is there?
Speaker 2:No, unfortunately. You trying to get free stuff. You're trying to get free stuff and you're going to have to pay, just like everybody else. I can't give you that. I haven't even seen it yet.
Speaker 1:Well, thank goodness I'm an AMC Stubs Plus member, so I will definitely be checking that out and reviewing it on the radio.
Speaker 2:Ah, beautiful, go on, look at you flossing. I'm an AMC Stubs, go hey you know what?
Speaker 1:I'm already up to 35 movies this year in my goal to see 100. Wow.
Speaker 2:I'm not at one yet. I got to go see I'm about to go see Sinners tonight.
Speaker 1:You know what's funny? When you said I'm not at one yet, I was going to say you have to see Sinners. I'm going to see that for a second time this weekend and I rarely see anything twice. That is the best movie of the year so far.
Speaker 2:I'm going to go check it out. I'm very proud of those brothers, and so I want to make sure I go support.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, it's Kugler and Michael B man, I'm telling you something this movie, to me, could win Best Picture of the Year. Well, I haven't seen him yet, but as of right now, It'd be great if both of them was nominated.
Speaker 2:That, to me, is a win.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, absolutely. And I also saw that Scary movie. New scary movies on the way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we'll be filming that this summer, getting the script together right now. We plan on bringing the world a nice big juicy comedy next summer.
Speaker 1:Man, so looking forward to that. I love that franchise.
Speaker 2:It's going to be great to put that Wayne Slater back on it.
Speaker 1:How is it back being on the road with your comedy?
Speaker 2:I love it. I think it keeps you sharp. You just stand on a stage and always thinking funny and you know, I think it helps me when I go write with everybody. I just know where the jokes are. It's always about continuously challenging myself as a writer and as a comedian to bring in your life.
Speaker 1:You don't remember this specifically, but the last time we talked I had just seen you on the Kelly Clarkson show talking about getting ready and your mom had passed and then your dad had passed and how that touched me and how it touches you in writing your comedy.
Speaker 2:You know I write from a place of pain and then I bring the humor. I feel like that's healing for everybody. If I could talk about the things that hurt me, you'd be surprised how many people could identify with that. Good Grief is probably my best special. That's when I found myself to be a real live comedian, when I started talking about tragic stuff and going here's what's funny about it. And then, instead of putting the magnifying glass on the world, I put the mirror on myself and really started to explore my own feelings, and I think that's when my humor got more relatable.
Speaker 1:I'm with you and a lot of us in radio, especially in the building I work in, are the same way. We recently had a morning show host that had been here for 30 years pass and we went on the air and just told great funny stories about him and it was a great way for us all to heal together.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean it's funny because that's what people after my show. People hug me and just tell me thank you so much for what you've given me and thank you for that. I needed that laugh. You know, I lost my parents too or whatever, and it feels good and I like talking about things. I don't care if it's breakup, I don't care if it's divorce, I don't care Whatever it is. I think you've got to find humor in the tragedy, because that's life.
Speaker 1:That's a real talent too, and I, as someone who loves comedy, really appreciate what you do. It's a gift, Thank you brother Marlon Wayans.
Speaker 2:That's the only way I can find funny and horror movies. But twisted humor and argument. It's a twisted human argument. You sit there and go. It's funny about this person that got their head cut off.
Speaker 1:It's like what that's true? All right, Marlon Wayans, the Wild Child Tour hits the Florida Theater on Friday, May 2nd. There's some select seats still available at floridatheatercom. I know you have other radio stations to chat with. I so appreciate your time. I cannot wait to see you live. I've been looking forward to this for a long time.
Speaker 2:Oh, thank you man. Well, come backstage and say what's up when you're there.
Speaker 1:I'd love to man. I look forward to meeting you. Thank you, Peace. I'm in there. There are a few seats left for Marlon Wayans, this Friday at the Florida Theater and next Tuesday at the Florida theater. One Night of Queen, performed by Gary Mullen and the Works. Here's a little bit of the chat I had with Gary about the show.
Speaker 3:Right now I am in Seabrook, new Hampshire, near Hampton Beach, where we have a show tomorrow night. Oh, very cool. How's the weather up there? Cloudy. It potentially may rain, but I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that it doesn't. Because we've had some sun the last couple of days, because we've been up in, like Maine and stuff, but, um, the weather on the tour so far has been terrible, so we're just praying for some sunshine let me tell you something when you get the Jacksonville Florida, your prayers are going to come true oh yeah, I mean, I know, every time we hit Florida the sunshine's great and we, you know, we try and work on our tans before we go home so we're super excited to have you here.
Speaker 1:I know know you've been here before, but I personally haven't seen the show yet, so I'm looking forward to it. Cool, I'm a big fan of tribute shows, especially for artists that are no longer with us, like Freddie Mercury, and of all the videos I've seen, it looks like you nailed this.
Speaker 3:Well, I enjoy it. I'm a big fan, you know, and if you're going to do a tribute, you've got to do it right. You a tribute, you've got to do it right. You've got to do it with full commitment and be true to the music and true to the energy of the band. You can't just walk out on the stage and kind of go hello and play the songs. You've got to really sell it. You've really got to give the energy, because that's what Queen and Freddie were all about.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I saw Queen with Adam Lambert. That was the only time I've seen the band live, and there's so many iconic and amazing songs that you're just sitting there in awe of this band that's the thing.
Speaker 3:We get people coming to the show and they go. Oh my god, I forgot that was a queen song and it's like they're so, I suppose, now stitched in the fabric of just day-to-day life. You know, you turn on a commercial and there's a high chance you're going to hear a queen song in the background. Or you go to a sporting event you'll be, will rock you. You hear where the champions you know um. You turn on a radio station, you're guaranteed to hear at least one queen song. You know in the first couple of hours that you're listening.
Speaker 1:So it's just a song such as there, but just just fantastic yeah, their music is so amazing and I love how many other people they influence. Like there's a country artist named dwight yokum you probably know know of, I do yep, and he covered Crazy Little Thing Called Love and you don't think about that as a country song, but when you hear it played that way, you see really how diverse Brian May and Freddie Mercury were.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean it was. The great thing about Queen was and this is unusual for a band because usually it's like, you know, leonard and McCartney or Plant and Page, you've usually got maybe two songwriters in a band All the guys in Queen wrote a top 20 hit, so you had the full and very schizophrenic you know. You'd have like a vaudeville kind of almost musical number one minute and then like a heavy metal riff, like stone cold, crazy the next and then baby rhapsody, this crazy operatic song. So they've just brought so much. There's such a wide palette, you know, for queen music and when people say to me you know which which songs, which albums you'll listen to, I put them on the things like night of the opera or queen too, which is just Queen at their most schizophrenic.
Speaker 3:It's like what is that? You know people hear the hits but there's so much more than that. You know they were a great album band as well. There was some incredible pieces of music that are on the deep cuts that people maybe have never heard. So we try and incorporate little snippets of things like that in the show as well. So when never heard, so we try and incorporate little snippets of things like that in the show as well. So the diehard fans come they go. Oh my god, we heard I'm in love with my car, or you know, whatever we've, you know bits of liar from the first album which we try, and you know, throw little segments in in medleys to give people the whole breadth of their back catalog yeah, I was in high school when the game came out and that became the album that was the soundtrack of my life at that time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and anytime I hear any cut from that album I go straight back to those years in high school and can remember like what I was driving and where I was going and everything.
Speaker 3:Yeah you know, we get first generation queen fans coming along and they bring their kids now and then sometimes it's grandkids, so you've got like a whole family of like queen t-shirts, but but they in descending age. You know a grand and granddad don't know what these little kids, but they know the songs as well as the grand and granddad who are first generation fans. And we get that. Since the movie came out in 2018, we've got a real sort of influx of younger guys and girls coming to the show and wanting to be part of that live experience, because maybe their grandparents or their parents saw Queen back in the heyday and were like hey, let's go watch this band and enjoy the music live.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's what's great about tribute shows or bands that tour as artists is that the music is what you're really there for. And seeing that respect and honoring of the music is really what it's all about, and re-experiencing that music with a whole new band, with that energy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's a moment where you know people talk about, you know, going to football games or going to baseball games, and there's a vibe but there's always a nuzz against them kind of you know mentality, whereas at a concert, everyone's there for one single reason and that's to have a great time and be immersed in the music and the show. And that's where music is, music really does. It's magical, you know and people think I'm crazy when I say this or very kind of happy that it does. It gets into people's souls. Like you said there, you remember the game, you know driving your car, you pass your test, you're in the car, you put the cassette in you.
Speaker 3:You pass your test, you're in the car, you put the cassette in, You're transported back to that moment. And that's what we're trying to do. We're trying to bring people back to a moment in time you'll never see again, which is Queen and Freddie and also the new generation of fans. Give them a taste of what it would be like to come to a Queen concert and have the lights and the costumes and the sound and the smoke and everything you know, and get them immersed in that.
Speaker 1:Gosh, just talking to you. I'm getting so excited for the performance.
Speaker 3:Well, we've played Jacksonville a lot over the years and it's a cool venue. And you guys in Florida get rock and roll. Some cities, the bigger cities, they can be a bit more sort of like New York. We've got Broadway entertainers. London we've got the West Ends. You really can have spoiled for multiple theatres and multiple shows when you go somewhere, and I know the Leonard Skinner connection with Jacksonville as well. So it's nice to go somewhere where rock and roll is actually a thing you know and the audience from the get-go they're invested in the show. The lights go down, the cheer goes up and then it's just two hours of fun.
Speaker 3:Speaking of which do you have any particular songs that you really enjoy performing or are they all the same for you? No, I mean again with yourself. You know there's different songs and still different memories in me, you know. But also the audience thing. Like Somebody you Love is quite an early on song in the show because there's only five of us on stage and the song's got, like, you know, 60 vocals. We say to the audience right, you guys can be the choir. Oh, we're going to make you sing like Aretha Franklin or the gospel. You know you're going to be part of this song and we encourage the audience to really start singing along with us. And that kind of breaks, the, I suppose the kind of theatre fourth wall or the concert fourth wall. It's not like you know. Sit there and listen to us perform the art. You guys are part of it. Sing along, sing along, and that's a great one.
Speaker 3:And another highlight is fat bottom girls. It's the only, it's the only time that a guy can point to his wife's backside and say, hey, man, she's got a big butt, and not get punched in the face, because any other time a guy says that to his wife, he's getting, he's getting basically a knuckles image, whereas it's like yeah, baby, I got a big butt and it makes me laugh because you're like at no other time in life would you be able to say that about your wife or your girlfriend and not get a punch. And that's again a big moment in the show where people just go crazy and it's fun because you feed off right energy, you know that's so funny.
Speaker 1:Do you do under pressure? Do you have a david bowie in the band?
Speaker 3:No, we don't. I just, we just kind of do. Well, john the drummer does the kind of bits that Roger would do to kind of compensate the Billy thing when we're doing it live. So, but it's me singing the whole song as Freddie would live, and then John's doing the backing vocal stuff, you know, while I'm singing it which is a tough order for him, you know, because the drum fills in the middle are pretty intense, you know he's, you know, breathing heavily anyway, and he's like I'm like you sing along with me, you'll have no problem. So, no, so we just, we just he just doubles me up and does the kind of bowie bits as well, but it's more the live thing. I have done it. I've got a bowie friend in the uk that I've brought on stage with me a couple of times. We've done it as a duet, but it's it's predominantly like queen would do it, just for you. You know me as Freddie and John does it back in vocals.
Speaker 1:That's awesome, gary. I could talk to you for an hour. I'm having so much fun. I know you've got a lot of things to do. Quickly before I let you go. I was curious did you get to see Queen live?
Speaker 3:I never saw them with Freddie. I saw them with Paul Rogers in 2008, and I saw them with Adam. I was 13 when they did the final tour in Europe the Magic Tour and my buddy and I were doing newspaper deliveries and all sorts of stuff to get the money together for tickets. And again back to this generation. They're very spoiled because if you want to buy a ticket, you want Ticketmaster, you want Live Nation and you log on, whereas back in the old days you either went to your local record store and if they didn't have any tickets, you had to call a phone, a number or write away for tickets. So by the time we got all the money together, the tour was sold out. We had to sit and watch the Wembley concert on TV and what we did was we took my ghetto blaster and put it behind us so that it felt like we were at the concert while watching it on TV. You know.
Speaker 1:So I never got live. So it's my biggest regret is that we got the money and it was sold out. We couldn't go. I have been really blessed to see most of the bands that I want to see live. One of them I have not seen yet is Paul McCartney, and just last week at the Florida Theater there was a Paul McCartney tribute band that I went to and had that experience, so I had so much fun. Like you, I never got to see Freddie live. I did see them with Adam, which was amazing, but yeah, I would have loved to have seen Freddie for sure.
Speaker 3:Well, I say yes, it's my biggest regret. I mean, I met Brian. I went backstage after that show and met Brian. He was great. You know he's the most humble rock god you'll ever meet, which blew me away. You know he's like thanking me. Thank you for for coming to the show. And I'm just like you're, brian May, you're a rock star physicist, you know what I mean. It's like you're now a sir, a knight of the realm, and you're thanking me for the show. It was so cool.
Speaker 1:That is amazing. All right, we're talking with Gary Mullen. One Night of Queen will be at the Florida Theater on Tuesday, may 6th FloridaTheatercom for all the information and to purchase your tickets. Gosh, I'm so glad. I know this was very last minute, but I really appreciate your time. I really wanted to have you on the podcast on this episode before the concert hits Jacksonville.
Speaker 3:Well, listen, it's been a pleasure talking to you and you got me on a day off, which is great, because I'm just kind of like I usually go out and walk or I go to the gym or I just kind of hang out, you know so, and it's nice to just be able to chat to someone. Some some interviews can be a bit kind of like blah blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, thank you, but this has just been like two guys sitting in a bar having a chat, which is fantastic I appreciate that.
Speaker 1:That's what I want. I just started the podcast a few weeks ago because there's so many shows that come to jacksonville and so many people don't know and I want to have a platform for them to go to and go oh, that's coming, I want to go to that well I say you guys are a cool rock and roll town.
Speaker 3:Jacksonville has been on our tour schedule pretty much since we started in 2008, so we've played that theater a lot and we always have a great night. We have a great night and hopefully everyone that comes to the show has as much fun as we do when we're on stage well, you know what? When you come here, fuck you. That sounds like a good night then.
Speaker 1:Gary, thank you so much for your time, and we'll see you down in the Sunshine State soon.
Speaker 3:Thanks a lot, take care.
Speaker 1:And that's going to wrap up this episode. As you can see, we've got a pretty busy May. I'll drop another episode in a week or so with any new announcements and just to keep you abreast of what's happening live from Jacksonville.