Jimmy "Spoons" Kaplan

Jimmy has always been interested in music. By the time he was four, he could count down each weeks top 20 songs from WABC, the megawatt AM station in NYC. While the rest of his brothers banged on the family's Steinway grand piano, Jimmy taught himself to play it. From his mother and father, Jimmy learned to appreciate musical theater, listening to soundtrack albums such as Fiddler on The Roof and A little Night Music. From his brothers, he learned different kinds of musical works. Often heard around the Kaplan house were works such as Tommy by the Who, early Monkees records, Beggars Banquet by the Rolling Stones, Sergeant Pepper, Ziggy Stardust, by David Bowie, Waiting for Everyman, Jacskon Browne, Lust for Life by Iggy Pop.

While working at Uncle Ralph's Stereo in Berkeley CA, Jimmy met Fred Alley, who was wisely trying to make a few extra bucks in California while waiting for the Wisconsin winter to pass. Fred has long been a featured performer (and now artist-in-residence for the American Folklore Theater. Fred and Jimmy wrote their first musical, Fishing For the Moon, which AFT presented the next summer.

It has been a prolific and fruitful relationship: Fred and Jimmy have written Guys on Ice, Lumberjacks in Love, Belgians In Heaven (with Doc Heide), Bone Dance, The Passage and other AFT hits which are presented each summer in Peninsula State Park in Door County Wisconsin. Jimmy has also created many of AFT's fall shows including Good Night Irene and Old Friends. Recently, the duos shows have been presented in Milwaukee at the Milwaukee Rep. By our estimation, Fred and Jimmy's shows have sold close to $2 million, placing the pair in the top 1% of their profession.

Did I tell you he's my brother, too?