 Yes,
there’s no place like Holmes’ for the holidays.
And no matter how far away you roam to end up in Las Vegas,
you’ll be glad that you stopped by the Suncoast December
7-9 to see Clint and friends as they serve up great musical
entertainment and some good old-fashioned “ham.”
The
dynamic entertainer will be setting the stage for the holidays
as he and new wife, entertainer Kelly Clinton; his 92-year-old
mom, Audrey, a former opera singer; his singer sister, Gayle
Steele, and his best pal and longtime musical conductor/arranger
Bill Fayne, along with the popular group Fayne also performs
in and founded, The Las Vegas Tenors, join in to make the
evening a ho-ho-ho lot of warmth and fun.
 “When
I was performing at Harrah’s Las Vegas, every holiday
season we’d put together special holiday pieces,”
Holmes, who last year finished up a six-and-a-half year contract
at that property, notes. “This show will be half holiday
songs and half other selections, including original music
from my musical play, ‘JAM-Just Another Man.’”
Although
he continues to perform at various places around the county
(he will be at Harrah’s Atlantic City Feb. 3-22),“JAM,”
which Holmes reveals is scheduled to open in a theater in
New York City in April, has been taking up the bulk of his
professional life as of late. With all original music composed
by himself and Fayne and the book written by himself, Fayne
and producer Larry Moss, the play is an autobiographical account
of Holmes’ life and journey to find his identity, having
been born to a white British opera singer and her black jazz
singer husband during a time when interracial relationships
were taboo. Holmes previewed the show at UNLV this past summer
and has spent the time until now making whatever revisions
he felt were needed.
 “Once
we get a firm date, we’ll go into a two- or three-month
rehearsal period,” Holmes explains. “But so much
of the cast is from Las Vegas that we’ll probably rehearse
here until the last month. From the moment I got the idea
to do it, my goal was to ultimately get it to Broadway. I
want this to be a couple of years of my life. That’s
the dream. I’m not a Pollyanna; I know the risks –
four years of work could end in one night with one bad review.
But that just makes me work harder and I’m very excited
as opposed to having trepidations.”
<TOP>
“If
things work out in New York, Kelly and I will always keep
a home in Las Vegas and go back and forth,” he adds.
“Once this gets going, she will probably be with me
and doing her own thing in New York, too. Wouldn’t it
be great to be doing my show in one theater while she’s
doing her one-woman show in another theater and then we meet
for cocktails at Joe Allen’s afterwards?”
Clinton,
in fact, is a busy lady herself currently. Besides being the
entertainment director of the Stirling Club at Turnberry Place,
where she also sings on weekends; booking the Bootlegger,
and having recently started her own production company, she
will be bringing her one-woman show to the Suncoast every
Wednesday in December, starting this Wednesday December 5.
Will hubby be part of the show?
“I
might be forced to get up there,” Holmes laughs. “You’ll
probably need a hook to get me off. But we’ll do a duet
– and I may do one or two more songs.”
It’s
his and Clinton’s offstage duet that has caused the
biggest change in the dynamics of Holmes’ life. They
got married in Las Vegas on November 11, 2007 and while he
jokes with his typical good sense of humor that they’re
still married and that it’s “so far, so good,”
in reality, he has learned how simple it can be to be happy.
“We’re
like old married people already,” he laughs. “We
could have gone to a concert last night but instead we decided
to go to the grocery store, pick up a bag of arugula and go
home and make a salad. That is the most pleasurable way to
spend an evening. We have a great time just doing nothing.
And right now we’re taking the peaceful times while
we can – there is a busy time ahead for both of us.”
Having
started out being friends more than three years ago, the couple
says that what makes their relationship work is the fact that
they are still very good friends – they are very open
to each other and are good listeners and supportive of each
other. Plus, they make each other laugh. Add to that the fact
that they believe in the same things, laugh at the same things,
and both are interested in growing and trying new things and
it is a relationship that jives both personally and professionally.
<TOP>
“We’re
sounding boards and support for each other and where our work
is concerned, I give Kelly feedback and visa versa,”
Holmes says. “She is very smart and intuitive but she’s
not overbearing – she gives me her thoughts without
my hearing the next sentence as ‘do that.’ Where
our game plan for the future is concerned, i.e. if I end up
in New York with the show, we’ll take things as they
come and make our decisions as things unfold.”
“I
believe that the most important thing in life is to grow personally,
professionally and creatively,” he continues. “I’m
not interested in doing the same thing over and over. I’m
most interested in challenging myself. The best thing for
me is when I sit at the piano and hear something that in days
or weeks or a month becomes a whole new song. Then, I decide
that I’d like to put it into my act, then people hear
it and respond to it and then I think that maybe I should
record it and so on. Four years ago, ‘JAM’ was
just a few ideas on a yellow pad and look at it now. And Martin
Nievera heard a song from it that I sang in my Harrah’s
show called ‘I Sing” and put it on his 20th anniversary
CD called ‘Milestones.’ Now I have a big hit in
the Philippines.”
Holmes
admits that his versatility and ability to sing any style
of music has been both a curse and blessing. The curse, of
course, is that no one has ever known what category to put
him in where recording is concerned. The blessing is that
he has been able to sustain a 30-year career because of his
eclectic bent.
“A
lot of artists have no hit records so they have no career,”
Holmes admits. “They’ve already peaked. With me,
it’s been the opposite. I’m still growing and
I haven’t hit my peak yet.”
“I
like the journey,” he sums up.
And
no matter how far away he roams, he’s learned that there’s
no place like Holmes’ for the holidays or any other
time of the year.
ADDITIONAL
ARTICLES
BY
BOBBIE KATZ
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COVER
STORY:
