Expect a good time, but don't forget to clap

Comedic "acoustic singer/songwriter' Vance Gilbert doesn't really care how he's labeled.

By CAROL LOVE, Times Correspondent

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 28, 2000

Vance Gilbert loves to build and launch "free flight" model airplanes. These scale models are launched by rubber bands and set their own trajectory once aloft. The 41-year-old singer/songwriter's hobby is the perfect metaphor for his soaring tenor voice and his kinetic stage presence.

Gilbert cites musician Shawn Colvin and actor Robin Williams as major influences and somehow he manages a seamless blend of both in his torch songs, ditties and comedy routines during his shows.

Gilbert recently spoke to the Times by phone from his home outside Boston.

Q: How does a comedic, jazz-based African American guy end up in folk music?

A: It's a big open plate out there . . . You strap on an acoustic guitar . . . and try to sing to people (then) it's eventually going to be said that you're doing folk. It pretty much doesn't matter what comes out of your mouth."

Q: Do you agree with the label?

A: I'm probably more apt to say "acoustic singer/songwriter" or whatever. But . . . I've passed Pete Seeger at a concert and I've sung choruses of Turn, Turn, Turn with other people -- so yeah, I'm folk.

Q: One of things that struck me at your show (at Ruth Eckerd Hall in 1995) was when you first took the stage and said, "I seem to be the only chocolate chip in this cookie."

A: It's a statement of the truth. . . . I like to give people the opportunity to react to something that obviously they're already thinking about anyway. I don't mean to be like Nostradamus and act like I know what they're thinking, but, of course, they're a little bit like, "Who is this? What's going to happen? Why does this comic black guy have a guitar strapped around his neck?"

Q: Now, when you make a remark like that there are people who are going to laugh and there are people who are going to be a little bit uncomfortable.

A: Let 'em be uncomfortable. They're probably the same people who are going to be a little uncomfortable when I pass them on a dark street. . . . I'm not up there to be safe. (But) as you go through the show you realize you'll be safe. I'll take care of you. . . . I'll move you in one way or another. But folk music is about moving your heart a little bit. And if that makes you squirm just one second, then maybe you've learned something. 'Cause I'm squirming a little bit, too.

Q: You're a real interesting blend of soulful troubadour and comedian -- how did you develop that stage presence?

A: I think so much of it came naturally to me. If there's anything that I do that was like falling off a log, it's being in front of people and telling a certain amount of the truth.

Q: What would you tell someone to expect at one of your shows?

A: I would tell them to expect to laugh, expect to cry and I expect them to really just have a good time listening to a guy with a guitar. I often hear from people who come to my shows, "It's a guy who sings with a guitar, let's hope for the best." And you get the best.

Q: What is the best thing about your job?

A: The best thing about my job is that every time I finish my job people clap. How many people's jobs are like that?

At a glance

Vance Gilbert, with opener Pamela Clark-King, tonight at 8 p.m. at the Octagon Arts Center (Unitarian Universalist Church of Clearwater) 2470 Nursery Rd., Clearwater. Tickets are $13. Call (727) 531-7704. Vance will also be at the Borders books store on Tyrone Boulevard in St. Petersburg today at 12:30 p.m.