The real Dean Martin will stand up during the upcoming Flin Flon Arts Council and Community Choir Christmas show.
This year’s Christmas show is entitled “The Dean Martin Christmas Special” and has been curated by Martin, the Creighton-based musician, using some influence from Martin, the famous member of the Rat Pack. Promotional materials for the show have made use of Martin’s name, showing Rat Packers Peter Lawford, Sammy Davis Jr. and Frank Sinatra next to Dean Martin’s face - the local musician, whose bearded visage sits in place of old Dino’s face in the group.
Martin is a long-time fan of Christmas music and hopes to take his enthusiasm for the form into something interesting with the full concert setting.
“Last year, I showed a lot of excitement and exuberance about participating in a Christmas show. I love Christmas music. I listen to a lot of Christmas records. My wife and I listen to a lot of Christmas music on vinyl,” he said.
“I can't remember exactly - I don't think it would have been me, but we were just talking about, ‘Wouldn’t it would be really funny if we just called it the Dean Martin Christmas Show?’ And I'm like, ‘Oh yeah, that’d be totally hilarious.’”
That was the spark Kolt and Martin needed. From there, Martin came up with a laundry list of traditional Christmas songs using a band, choir and drums. He described the theme as ‘70s and ‘80s, saying the time period produced holiday tunes “that are really fun and easy to listen to.”
The show will not be the first Christmas-related dual meaning title used at Flin Flon’s largest annual holiday show. Last year’s concert featured a Rat Pack tribute with Lane Laderoute and Rob Mote assuming the roles of Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra. The idea of performing the song came from Martin himself.
“At last year's Christmas show, I had offered up three or four songs for last year's Christmas show and one of them was a Dean Martin song - ‘It's a Marshmallow World,’ from one of Dean Martin’s Christmas specials from the ‘60s where he and Frank Sinatra were doing it as a duet. I thought it would be really funny to have Lane dress up in a nice suit and play the role and have Rob play Frank Sinatra,” said Martin.
“They did that duet and they had a little crazy banter between each other, Lane was sporting a fake cigarette and a drink the whole time. It went over so well. That might have been the genesis of moving forward with this crazy idea.”
Laderoute and Mote may be reprising their roles in this year’s performance. In addition to the community choir, other members will join the band, including Danny Lyons and Jacob Harvie. CC Trubiak, Natalie Milligan, Jenn McLean, Pandora Furniss, Kevin Imrie, John Bettger, Derek Kemp, Lara Smith and the École McIsaac School glee club will also factor into the show.
This year’s concert will take place Nov. 30 at 7:30 p.m. at the R.H. Channing Auditorium. Tickets for the show are $25 and can be purchased at Northern Rainbow’s End.
