Live 'Gong Show' Gives Break to Yodeling Goat-Milkers and Other Quirky Talents

David Moye - Showbiz is a hard career, but it's even more difficult if you're trying to make it big by singing "Silent Night" like a pigeon, yodeling while milking a cardboard goat or imitating Ralph Kramden doing Shakespeare.

But New York radio personality Leslie Gold is doing a sort of showbiz stimulus package for people whose talents are, shall we say, less easily marketable -- such as the 60-year-old who wears a pigeon suit and coos like a bird sitting on a telephone wire.And she's doing it by bringing back "The Gong Show" in a live setting on, appropriately enough, Halloween.

On Oct. 31, Gold will present "Gong Show Live" at B.B. King Blues Club & Grill in Times Square. It's a talent show modeled after the cheesy game show hosted by Chuck Barris in the late 1970s, where contestants compete for a measly sum $543.32, to be exact while trying to avoid being "gonged" by the three judges.

For Gold, who will be one of the judges, bringing back a TV show in a live setting is something of a demented dream come true.

"To me, this hits the entertainment sweet spot," she told AOL News. "The best parts of shows like 'American Idol' and 'America's Got Talent' are the bad acts. "Gold is a devoted fan of "The Gong Show" and got the idea to do her version after interviewing show creator Barris on radio.

"I'm an admirer of his. I think he's some kind of kooky genius," she said. "I wanted to do it as a live event." ...

via Live 'Gong Show' Gives Break to Yodeling Goat-Milkers and Other Quirky Talents.