(upbeat music) - Welcome to, "You Oughta Know."

I'm Shirley Min.

Grab a pad and pencil because today's show is packed full of entertaining ideas.

They're unconventional artists and some say their talent is extraordinary.

- [Victor] Art done by self-taught artists.

- [Shirley] We enter the realm of fantasy, sci-fi and more.

- [Brandon] It's a place for people who love this hobby.

- [Shirley] Plus, if you've always wanted to be part of a glee club, here's your chance.

- [Brian] I had this idea of doing a community choir.

(upbeat music) - If you sing along to every song on the radio or can't help but belt out a few lines in the shower, you may be Fishtown Choir material.

♪ I made a lot of mistakes ♪ ♪ I made a lot of mistakes ♪ - Exactly.

It sounds so beautiful when we all sing it together, but we only all sing it together the first time.

So everybody sings that.

♪ I made a lot of mistakes ♪ And then if you're... - I had this idea of doing a community choir.

I asked my good friend, Melissa Shepherds, if she would do it with me.

We do this every few weeks, every month or so, where we just go to different venues and bars in the city, teach people songs and then perform them.

(people chattering) Hey, everybody!

(audience greeting) - Welcome to Fishtown Choir.

(audience cheering) - Thanks for coming.

- And a lot of people have come and been like, "Where's the choir?"

And they don't realize that they're the choir so it's really fun when we have people come and some know that they're gonna be singing and some don't.

And it just ends in a really like nice community night of song.

(people chattering) - [Brian] The first one we did, we had 80 or 90 people that just showed up not knowing what they were getting into.

We didn't tell 'em what songs they were singing.

When someone walks into here, sometimes they don't know what to expect.

- [Melissa] They mingle, come to the bar, get a drink, and then usually like half an hour later or an hour later, we'll start.

Sometimes we do a warmup.

- [Brian] But there's no sheet music.

We hand them a lyric sheet at the door.

First, say 45 minutes, Melissa will teach them all the parts, the three part harmonies, the arrangements.

(guitar music) (Melissa and audience vocalizing) (Melissa and audience continue vocalizing) - [Melissa] What songs already have existing harmony, so then it's easier for people to like sing that because you know, they learn in their, it's familiar to them 'cause they've heard it in the song already.

- Some people are professional singers that come, but a lot of people that sang in choir in high school.

And there's people like me that were never allowed to be in choir.

And by the end, everybody's singing, and for the most part they all sound pretty good.

- [Melissa] Tonight is Sufjan Stevens, so that's really popular to some people.

(crowd singing in unison) - [Melissa] It's all popular music.

We don't do anything, you know, obscure.

♪ Everywhere I'm lookin' now ♪ ♪ I'm surrounded by your embrace ♪ ♪ Baby, I can see your halo ♪ - [Brian] We did a fundraiser for them at Lutheran Settlement House, which is a great organization in the Fishtown neighborhood where we did Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah."

And that was really nice and lot of crying at the end of that one.

- [Melissa] Yeah, yeah.

- [Brian] So.

♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelu oh oh oh ♪ ♪ Jah ♪ - [Melissa] It's always fun when Brian and I share suggestions 'cause I'm 27 and he's- - [Brian] 44.

- [Melissa] 44.

(laughing) - [Brian] It's a fun dynamic.

We're like, "We should do this."

She goes, "I don't know who that is."

(Melissa laughing) - So we're gonna start with a warmup, actually, that's on the second side.

I'm a music teacher here in the Philly school district.

We're gonna start at the part where...

I love that this gives me an outlet to like just connection right away.

You know, sometimes when you teach music it's like, it's like months and months and then everything leads up to one concert.

And the beautiful thing about this is like, you know, every month is the concert and everyone who's here wants to be here and is making beautiful community together.

(gentle guitar music) (audience cheering) - [Melissa] You did it!

- The comedy "Holy Grail of Memphis" playing at the Arden Theater is getting a lot of attention, so much so the show has been extended a second time to March 9th.

Here now is the playwright, Michael Hollinger, to talk about it.

Michael, welcome to "You Oughta Know."

- Thanks, Shirley.

Great to be here.

- Congratulations on this second extension.

Did you know going in that the play would be such a hit?

- No, you don't know anything going in.

With a new play, it's completely unpredictable.

You hope you've built it well.

You've rehearse it well.

You try to make it as good as possible, but how it will be received by an audience tells you everything about what you've made.

And it's very heartening that it's been extended again.

- The "Holy Grail of Memphis", I'm intrigued by the title.

Gimme an overview of what it's about.

- Sure, so not surprisingly it takes place in Memphis, Tennessee.

- [Shirley] No?

(laughing) - In an old recording studio.

And the studio is being turned into a museum by the founder's grandson who is trying to renovate it and turning it into a kind of legacy of his grandfather's work as a producer, and particularly honoring his work, elevating Black blues musicians.

How well that grandfather actually did that, how equitably he treated his musicians is one of the inquiries in the play.

And the "Holy Grail" in the title is referring to these long lost tapes that have just been discovered by a legendary, fictional, but legendary blues musician named Alfred Mason.

So they have never yet been played.

- Wow.

- So the question of what's on these tapes and you know, will this be wonderful or what will we find on them as part of the play?

- So you're a Philly guy.

- [Michael] Yes.

- And as a Philly guy, what led you to create this production that is centered around the blues, and in Memphis?

- Yeah, well, I'm a musician.

I actually studied viola as my undergraduate degree and then I picked up guitar and bass guitar and piano and played in rock bands and things.

So music has always been very central to my life and shows up in many of my plays.

This play really came out of, was inspired by an article I read in the New York Times in 2022 about these lost tapes of the country singer, George Jones, that had been discovered and nobody knew what was on them and they were so old that they didn't know if they played them, they might be destroyed.

So that's what perked up my ears, the notion that something precious has been found, but maybe we can't even access it to know what's on it.

Also, as a playwright, I'm always looking, I'm always intrigued by other locations and other time periods.

So my plays are set, you know, in the 19 teens, or the early forties in St. Louis or in France in the Middle Ages because I'm always tickled and inspired by those connections.

- What do you think that folks who are seeing the play, what do you think is resonating with them?

You know, what is it that's making it such a hit?

- Well, I think as I've listened to audiences listening to the play, I can hear them connecting with and identifying with different characters.

It's an incredibly interesting and diverse cast across all different demographics.

And people see themselves and follow, I think different characters as they go through the play.

There's a lot of questions about legacy, obviously the grandson of the producer, but also a young woman who turns up who's interested in the legacy of her family and this guy, Alfred Mason.

And I think questions about family and our connections to family, our responsibilities to our family legacy resonate with a lot of people.

- The play is playing at the Arden and the Arden has a special place in your heart.

Why is this your choice venue?

- Well, this is now 30 years since I've been working at the Arden.

My first play, "An Empty Plate in the Café du Grand Boeuf" was produced and directed by Terry Nolan, who directed "Holy Grail of Memphis".

I think over the years, I found a real connection with Arden audiences, partly because the Arden's mission is to celebrate great storytelling and great storytellers, and I'm very story focused in my plays.

I feel like a playwright's first job is to take the audience on a really good journey and to hold their attention well for a couple of hours.

And the audiences over time have also really become attuned to my work.

So I actually feel like I'm in conversation with the Arden audiences.

People will come up to me and say, "Oh, I saw this one and this one and this one, but I really loved this one and I'm looking forward to the next one."

And that's great because it feels then that you're not writing in a vacuum, but you're actually writing for a very specific set of listeners.

- What's next for you, Michael?

- I always have several things on the stovetop at any one time.

(Shirley laughs) You know, plays take me three, four, 10 years sometimes to come- - [Shirley] Oh my gosh.

- From first idea to to production so they all cook at a different rate.

So I have several things on the stovetop.

I'm stirring at different speeds, including a musical with my friend and collaborator, Robert Maggio, that is gonna take some years till it's ready.

I've got a one man show I've been working on for about 10 years now.

- Oh my goodness.

- Resolved to complete.

And I've been working on an adaptation of Charles Dickens' novel "Bleak House" for years too, so sometimes these things take a while.

- [Shirley] Oh my gosh.

- But they come to fruition eventually.

- So just a little bit busy.

That's it.

- Well, yeah.

- A tiny busy.

- I'm teaching full time and yeah.

- Well, Michael Hollinger, congratulations on your success with "Holy Grail of Memphis" and thank you so much for being here on "You Oughta Know."

- [Michael] Great to be here.

Thanks so much.

(pensive music) - A local collector of outsider art is educating the public and making them aware of his incredible collection.

(poignant reflective music) - Outsider art is about artists who for one reason or another make art outside the mainstream of contemporary art.

- To me, it's been fascinating from day one, the variety of stories behind these artists is so different and so interesting.

(poignant reflective music) I had virtually no interest in art for some period of time and I ended up meeting a fellow who's now become one of my closest friends, Frank Mariska, who was just starting a gallery having to do with what we call outsider art, which is what my collection is.

Art done by self-taught artists, artists that for the most part did not make their art for anyone else, sometimes made their art and hid it from people.

And some of these artists work was not even discovered till they died.

And yet, they all have very challenging and very different and fascinating backgrounds.

(poignant reflective music) - One has to understand that Victor Keen's collection is very idiosyncratic.

Not everyone's collection is going to have such a range of work, paintings and drawings and carvings, sculpture and the cattle and radios and the toasters, toys and banks, also very unusual and very eclectic.

This is the kind of work that really appealed to him and the things that he wants to collect.

- When you look at the art, you see different things at different times, but you never know what the artists really thought.

And some of these artists, they probably don't know because they were untrained and they didn't have any choice.

In any event, since I was the arbiter and curator of everything in this gallery, I started out really liking it, but I'm still seeing things in the art.

(bright music) One of the first things that I started collecting was Catalin or Bakelite radios, which I love.

And there are about 50 or 60 in the gallery and also in the collection are toasters.

And it was the marriage between things that have functionality and things that are beautiful.

We have about 300 vintage toys in this collection.

Some of these toys are very sophisticated.

It's not clear they were made for children.

I love the toys.

And there are other things in the gallery too that because of the height of these ceilings and the size of the space, we can actually accommodate the banners.

They're either from circuses or in one case, we're not sure.

It could be from a religious tent.

But the history of this building is that it was built by Quakers in 1869 to have in effect Sunday school for African American kids who didn't know how to read.

And they did that successfully from 1869 to 1935.

- Jeanne Ruddy is married to Victor Keen.

Jeanne and Victor, who had already renovated the building next door and turned it into the Performance Garage, they were able to purchase this property and then Jeanne dedicated herself to really bringing these spaces to be a real beacon of arts and culture in Philadelphia.

- I think the art should be seen and I want this collection to be seen.

To me, this seems like a perfect place for this art to be.

We invite people to come.

We have tours here.

One of my goals is to find somebody that will continue this collection in this space.

- It's open to the public by appointment.

We can do tours for one person or for a group of 20 people.

Really, we're just trying to get the word out.

And one of the ways is to work with other institutions.

We've got a one man show of Jim Bloom's work at the Woodmere Art Museum.

We've also got another exhibition at the McGuire Art Museum on Saint Joe's campus.

So it's just a joy to share, especially because the message is that art can come from remarkable places and this is my way of communicating with the world.

(pensive music) - Now to a Philly hub for craft artists where they can display their art, enhance their knowledge, and advance the future of mixed media arts.

(lively music) - The reason that craft now exists is to highlight the rich history and vibrant presence of craft in Philadelphia.

When CraftNow was founded 10 years ago, it was really to serve as connective tissue for the craft community.

We also try to fill in gaps where there might be needs in education or connection between different communities.

CraftNow is seeking to highlight Philadelphia's importance as an incubator for new craft and emerging craft artists.

The mission of CraftNow Philadelphia is to unite, celebrate, and support the craft community here in the city.

When we talk about the craft community, we talk about people, we talk about businesses, and we talk about institutions.

And within that group of people, we want to include artists and makers, but also curators, nonprofit workers, and the audience.

So people that look at craft, people who are learning craft and people who are purchasing craft.

We're here at one of our partner organizations here today, the Fabric Workshop, which is a free museum, that also has a strong educational arm.

So there are residencies for emerging artists.

There are also educational programs for young children and teens and young adults.

(bright music) We also work to bring differing craft communities together, so clay and wood and individual makers.

We want to be that force that connects a maker with a gallery.

Craft is a source of income, it's a source of expression, it's a source of healing in a lot of ways.

The act of putting your hands on clay or wood or fiber is so important to a lot of people who make this work.

International artists absolutely find their way here.

We have several partners in the city who have residencies that draw an international crowd.

There's so much collaboration in the craft community.

We want today's craft artists to be able to make a living, have their work sold.

So we host a program called Tools of the Trade, each March, that teaches business training to creatives, how to do your taxes, how to scale your product for production, how to photograph your work, soft skills like how to sell.

And it's also a really good connecting event because it gets young makers in a room together and they can learn from each other.

(bright music) - If you love role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons, there's a new shop in East Kensington where you can shut out the world in a space that's all your own.

(guitar music) Here on Frankfort Avenue sits Rune Hammer, a new shop where fantasy, sci-fi and games converge.

- [Brandon] Rune Hammer is mainly like my vision of like a clubhouse for people to play D&D.

I think it is a place for people who love this hobby and this hobby has many facets.

It has the war gaming side, it has like magic, the gathering side, it has the book side or the D&D role-playing side.

It's all of those things.

(upbeat music) - [Shirley] For years, owner Brandon Gillum has shared his love of role-playing games online through his YouTube channel and through his books.

Well now, he can share with folks in person here at his shop.

- Technically, you can kind of do this hobby anywhere, you know, in your kitchen or whatever, but I think there's two pieces.

There's one, how awesome it can be, and in the right space with the right privacy and the right light and, you know, like a hobbit hole kind of mood, I think the whole hobby is elevated and feels like, "Man, yeah."

(laughs) - Here's the coolest part of the store.

This bookshelf.

It's not just a bookshelf, it's actually a door to a secret room.

(mysterious music) - So you're referring to the Octagon is what we call it.

And it's our sort of hidden D&D room.

Why do we have to do that?

It's another fantasy of people that are like me to just go through a hidden bookcase door and close out the world.

(dice clattering) - Check this out.

How cool is this?

This is the bathroom.

I just love the attention to detail.

And if you listen closely enough, you can hear a thunderstorm.

(rain pattering) (thunder booming) - Bathrooms are the most under thought out space in retail.

If you're playing a game in the Octagon, you're still in that mindset of like, I'm in the forest, I'm a little work guy.

And you can still feel in the zone by not and not feeling like you're back in real life.

(riveting piano music) - [Shirley] And then in the back of the shop are paint stations.

(riveting piano music) - A big part of the hobby is to just sit and paint your miniatures.

(riveting piano music) And that's a very meditative kind of very enjoyable thing for a lot of people who don't even necessarily play war games or role-playing games.

It's just fun to do.

- [Shirley] Rune Hammer is a magical getaway for role-playing hobbyists, many of whom were likely bullied and teased for being so invested in this kind of so-called nerd culture.

- So I do think that that history makes you want to have like a bunker, like a safe place to do it where you know you're among your kin folks.

You were just a huge dork for being into this stuff, you know what I mean?

And I don't want people to feel that way.

I want 'em to feel like it's cool.

- [Shirley] And people wanted this place.

Co-owner, Alyssa Gillum says she and Brandon were able to crowdsource all of the funding to make Rune Hammer a reality.

- Sight on scene, people were more than happy to donate to us and so we were able to do all of this without having to get any loans, having to do any of that.

So here we are.

(riveting piano music) There's people who believe in the product and already know the vision.

And so like by seeing that we're like, "We're not crazy."

Like we're not crazy for, you know, making this random thing because there is no blueprint for what we're doing.

- It's just about like, "Come on in here.

You will be among like your kin and we can talk about the dorkiest stuff imaginable and it will be totally groovy."

(riveting piano music) - You can rent the Octagon for the ultimate game session and Rune Hammer hosts lots of other events, as well.

Whether it's a sweet treat for your sweetie or a snack to satisfy that sweet tooth, Lore's Chocolates is perfect for any occasion.

- Welcome to Lore's Chocolates.

Let's go make some chocolates.

(upbeat electronic music) (upbeat electronic music continues) Lore's chocolates began manufacturing on Wyoming Avenue 17 years ago.

It's the original Goldenberg's Peanut Chews Factory where my father worked for 27 years, so we sort of went full circle.

(upbeat electronic music) The chocolate business is a great business to be in because there aren't many people that leave unhappy.

It's just a happy business.

The seasons change, so you've got your Thanksgiving, your Halloween, your Christmas, Valentine's Day and Easter.

You're always on to something different so it keeps it interesting.

(upbeat electronic music) We make a full line of chocolates, everything from caramel to buttercream to marshmallow to fudge, and then also seasonal items such as Easter eggs, molded Easter shapes.

We probably have the largest selection of hollow Easter molds to be found anywhere.

(upbeat electronic music) I think the most interesting thing people don't know about Lore's is you need to be hands-on for every piece of candy.

(upbeat music) We have products that take days, maybe even a week to manufacture.

It's a very time-consuming, labor intensive process, but fun.

(upbeat music) Our store downtown has been there for 50 years now.

It's a beautiful building.

(upbeat music) It's comfortable.

It's enjoyable.

You just don't have people leave unhappy.

They come in, they smell the chocolate, they just smile.

It's a great time.

- This is the best chocolate place.

(lively music) - [Tony] The basics are our bread and butter.

People love their traditional caramel, their traditional marshmallow, and that's what they come back for, week after week after week.

Business is sweet.

(laughing) (lively music) - Thanks for visiting us at Lore's Chocolates.

(lively music fades) - Alright, that is our show, but we would be remiss if we did not say, way to go to the Super Bowl champions, the Philadelphia Eagles.

Go, Birds!

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music fades)