(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Top Comments: Meeting Harry Belafonte Edition [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-05-02 I have written about the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp I attended as a teenager which was founded by Paul Newman. Every September while I was a camper, they would hold a gala fundraiser variety show at the camp where they would bring up around 25 campers to perform with celebrities to raise money for the following year. Back when I was a camper, the galas would bring in roughly 80-90% of the operating cost for a year of camp. One of the fun things about going to the camp is we would sing songs throughout most of the day. We would sing after meals, at bonfires, in the theatre, before going to sleep, etc. Many of the songs in out song book were well known songs written or recorded by famous artists. We had “You’ve Got a Friend” by Carole King, “Give Yourself to Love” written by Kate Wolf but I knew the version recorded by Kathy Mattea, “Grandma’s Feather Bed” by John Denver, etc. One song we would sing quite a lot was Harry Belafonte’s, “Turn the World Around.” The second year I was invited to perform, Harry Belafonte was one of the celebs that came to perform with us. One of the parts of the show featured him singing “Turn the World Around” with some of the camper attendees. Unfortunately for me, that wasn’t one of the acts I was scheduled to perform. Too say I was unhappy about it was a massive understatement. Considering how manipulative I could be as a child, I decided I would attempt to weasel my way into the performance. I went over to introduce myself to Harry and told him how sad I was not be able to perform a song I loved singing during each of my years attending camp. Being the nice man he was, he said we should go over and speak to the director to add me. Unfortunately, I knew at that point my plan was going to crumble. We went over to the director and Harry asked why I wasn’t a part of his performance. She said, looking at me with disdain, “he is already in half the skits.” which was true. I had to apologize to Harry for lying and slunk away in embarrassment. Still it almost worked. Tonight’s question: Have you ever had the chance to try and manipulate a famous person for your own benefit? Diarist reserves all rights to his original writing only. Community material is not covered by this © Now a word from out sponsor and onto the Tops! Here at Top Comments we welcome longtime as well as brand new Daily Kos readers to join us at 10pm Eastern. We strive to nourish community by rounding up some of the site's best, funniest, most mojo'd & most informative commentary, and we depend on your help!! If you see a comment by another Kossack that deserves wider recognition, please send it either to topcomments at gmail or to the Top Comments group mailbox by 9:30pm Eastern. Please please please include a few words about why you sent it in as well as your user name (even if you think we know it already :-)), so we can credit you with the find! Top Comments for may 2, 2023 TOP MOJO May 1, 2023 First comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary on FAQing Top Mojo. TOP PICTURES May 1, 2023 Click any picture to be taken to the full comment or picture. Thank you to the wonderful dKos staff who made it possible to continue this feature in memory of jotter! [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/5/2/2167216/-Top-Comments-Meeting-Harry-Belafonte-Edition Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/