ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
Those looking for a fun and funny activity for their children will soon have just that opportunity next week thanks to Liberal Memorial Library.
The comedy duo of Jay & Leslie will be bringing their act to Liberal Memorial Library Thursday, June 6, with the show set to start at 2 p.m. The duo has been together for multiple decades of fun.
“This spring marked our 40th wedding anniversary, and we've been doing shows longer than that. We'd both joined a performing company in Kansas City, and we were the two rookies at that point, and then the company unfortunately ended up dissolving,” Jay said.
“And we've been doing a lot of traveling around and performing at libraries and similar places for about the past 20 years or so. We really enjoy traveling from place to place and seeing different communities and visiting different libraries and how they connect with each other and all of that,” Leslie added. “We're really happy to get out to the Southwest Kansas area because we live on the east side of the state – we've done some shows in Hays, but Liberal's much farther south and much farther west than we've visited yet, so it should be fun.”
The pair also admitted they rather drifted into show business.
“I'd learned to juggle and was in a mime company in college and then when I finished college, I was working in a field that ultimately didn't interest me,” Jay said. “Then, I started doing some street performing and someone who had seen me one day said 'You should come perform at our school,' and I agreed to that, and there was someone else who had said 'We're having a festival soon, you should be part of that,' and it all rather snowballed from there for me.”
“And I'd gotten a degree in theatre from Emporia State University and was working at a dinner theatre place in Kansas City, and since I had Mondays off, I used those days to take more classes, including juggling, mime, and some others, and that's when I met Jay,” Leslie added. “Like he said, we were the rookies at that time in the company, and we started working together, and we just kept going from there. With libraries, we got more into those performances because one summer, the theme was 'Laugh It Up at Your Library' or something along those lines, and all of the Kansas districts hired us to come in and perform and do presentations and all of that. And I'll say, it was GREAT – I'd actually worked in a library when I was in high school and always loved libraries, and we just started performing at more and more libraries. It's great because we get to travel all throughout the state, we get to meet a bunch of new people and see multiple new communities. We'd been at a lot of county fairs and other such events, but libraries are a lot more fun since they have air conditioning in these hot Kansas summers.”
This will be the act’s first time in Liberal, and the pair said they are very excited to make their way to the southwest part of the state.
“A big thing for us is how we get to visit a new community we haven't performed in, which is always great for us, so we'll be able to do a lot of new tricks and stuff for everyone,” Leslie said. “We'll do some juggling, tell some jokes, tell stories, and we'll end by telling a story poem. There'll also be some audience participation, so it should all be really fun for everyone.”
“Lately, we've been doing more fables and fairy tales, but we can adapt pretty well and we can be flexible with how we stage the show. We won't give away too much, but I'll say the children and their parents will have a good time,” Jay added.
Both Jay and Leslie said they very much enjoy performing during the summer reading program, and added their upcoming show should be a good time for everyone.
“With the summer reading performances, it's always great to see the range of ages that come. When we perform at schools, we're typically just performing for one grade level, but with these summer reading performances, we see the whole family, and there have been so many adults who have laughed right alongside their children,” Jay said. “Programs like ours are a great way to bring people to the library, which is great, because we're the type of people who think you can never spend too much time in the library. Also, the audience will be seeing a pair of people who turned a passion into a successful business venture. It's a very lively show, and there will be something in the show that will appeal to all ages, and we'll be doing some cool tricks you might not have seen before.”
“And we have enough material that we can make some updates or changes if we need to, but like Jay said, we see a much wider range of ages in the audience with our summer reading performances, and it's great seeing the reactions of everyone and seeing everyone have fun,” Leslie added. “Libraries are such a great resource for communities, and there's just so much people can use the library for. It's also great having that personal connection with local librarians and knowing what resources are available, and visiting the library helps with literacy skills, especially for little ones who are just starting to learn to read. Reading is a skill that benefits everyone for their entire lives, and there aren't too many things you can say that about – reading is a skill people will use their entire lives, and it's just such a joy. Libraries are just such a great, nurturing resource when it comes to that. For me, I love to hear the laughter from the audience, especially the children, because it's good to know we're helping create that spirit of fun for them while we're entertaining them. I love those interactions with the audience and how we're all experiencing that together for that brief time. That energy exchange, so to speak, is really powerful.”
