“Final Curtain”

The following ruminative obituaries are those I’ve written over the course of my time working with the variety and novelty business. And for those coming to the business from outside it, the “Final Curtain” applies to those who have left the way we all leave, all must. An old friend of mine, writer John Strausbaugh, once told me that such obits were my metier; I prefer to think that whatever power there might be in these pieces lies with those who’ve taken that “Final Curtain.” Here’s to their memories, that they never fade.

— James Taylor

Kathleen Kotcher, 1970 – 2012

More Power Than She Knew

There comes a time in every writer’s career when, regardless what others tell you about what you do, you have to face what you can do, what you want to do, what you find nearly impossible to do, what’s almost too painful to do, what you never expected to have to do. And this is that time. This past Saturday morning, June 23, I got a call from Brighton, England, from Ivan Kotcher that his wife, Kathleen, co-creator of Shocked and Amazed!, had died in her sleep that morning. She was 41.
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