Show led by ex-Cabal bass guitarist Richard Hanson aka Larry Vega, who relates “my given name was Richard Hanson. I was known as Dick Hertz, also as Larry Vega. In my time on the road with various major acts, I was known as Sparkle. That name struck fear in the hearts of rookie roadies and local crew the world over. Since I began my gender transition, I had a legal name change to Robyn E. Lee Webb.”
“Larry Vega was a spontaneous performance piece in the form of a talk show parody that was first performed at the Galaxy Lounge, upstairs from the Marble in 1985. It arose from an ongoing riff Mark (Harp) and I did around our house when we were roommates. We had this old video camera, and it was basically always on. As our friends would come and go, they were basically guests on our little ongoing talk show. We took it to the club as a one-off Christmas special, creating this whole backstory about the Vega character and his sidekick, Corky Niedermayer, a former pro bowler turned entertainer played by Harp, and the band Mo Fine & his All Blind Orchestra played by Dave Sarfaty. It was a huge success, and everyone wanted to know when we would do it again. It turned into a monthly event that went on over five years. When the Congress Hotel shut down, Dick Gammerman insisted we bring it to Eight by Ten, which was the home of the Larry Vega Show for most of its existence.”
“What was unique about the Vega show was that pretty much everybody who was anybody in the original music and art scene appeared on the show in one way or other. The Mo Fine Orchestra featured players from all kinds of different bands, and developed a vast repertoire of swing classics, eventually actually going on to play weddings and lots of art events and club dates.”
“Regular guests on the show included Stoc Marcut of Fear of God, Ira Kessler of Elements of Design and Boy Meets Girl, Billy Bien of Fear of God and Infant lunch (he replaced me on bass)… Guests over the years included a who’s who of Baltimore music and art from John Fonda to Brian Morton. So many that it’s really hard to remember…”
“Because the Vega show contained members of so many different acts, followers of all these bands would turn out for Vega gigs. It was a club owner’s dream come true. We packed the Eight by Ten every time we played, and sold shitloads of beer for Dickie. Almost every show we did was videotaped, and the archives still exist somewhere. In retrospect, most of the jokes were really bad, but at least once per show, we did a gag that had them absolutely rolling. It was great fun.”
Webb along with John Fonda also produced the first three SoWeBo festivals, earning City Paper “Best Festival” awards each year. “After that” Webb recalls “I got my break in the arena circuit, earned my union card and worked concerts, theatrical events and corporate events all over the Balto/Wash area, and on numerous major tour east coast legs.”
In ‘00s Webb operates his own integration company dedicated to providing employment opportunities for qualified employment challenged transgender engineers and technicians. He serves on the Board of Directors for the International Foundation for Gender Education (oldest transgender advocacy group in the US, established in 1978), and produces the organization’s annual conferences.
