How (Huey) Long Career of Doing 1-Man Show Started in New Orleans Grad School

To some historians, Huey Long was a demagogue with a lust for power and aspirations for the presidency that ultimately led to his assassination in 1935. But to Michael Eugene Fairman, the U. S. senator from Louisiana was merely a “footnote in history.” At least, that’s what Fairman thought until he found himself in graduate school at the University of New Orleans in the mid-1970s.

“You can barely walk around the place without running into a Long this or a Long that,” Fairman said. “And, of course, practically everyone you meet is a Long expert.”

Soon, Fairman, 36, was a Long expert too . . . but not exactly by design. He was in a theater group that gave performances based on historical figures to various departments at the university. An actor would portray B. F. Skinner, for example, if the audience was a behavioral science class. For political science majors, Huey Long was the obvious choice.

“Somehow, I ended up being Long,” Fairman said.

“Then I was stupid enough to start telling people, ‘Hi, I’ve got a one-man show,’ and, well. . . .”

The rest is indeed history. Fairman has been performing as Long for 15 years.

“I just kept researching and researching. I think I’ve read everything that’s ever been written about the man and seen every piece of film that was shot,” said Fairman, who will perform his one-man show this weekend at Burbank’s Gypsy Playhouse. “Now I’ve got about four hours of material.”

The show is much shorter. Fairman addresses the audience as Long, providing commentary not only on past history but sometimes current events. “If something’s happened in the world that I think Huey would have championed, I talk about it,” Fairman said. The second half of the show is a “press conference” in which audience members can ask Long anything at all.

“Some people try to trick me up with Louisiana history,” Fairman said. “But I usually pull the right answer from somewhere in my head.”

It hasn’t always been easy for Fairman to be Huey Long--even though the show has won Fairman two Dramalogue awards for direction and writing. “At one point, after I’d been doing the show in ‘84, I felt I couldn’t do it anymore,” Fairman said. “I think every actor goes through that kind of thing, where you lose all your sense of perspective. Now I purposely stay away from it for two or three years at a time.”

Between Huey gigs, Fairman became an established soap opera director in New York and acted in various television and theater productions. Now living in Hollywood, he wants to produce and star in his own prime-time television show. He recently completed a pilot called “Bailey’s Harem,” which he is shopping around to the networks.

For the moment, however, Fairman is back to his Long roots. His one-man shows this weekend will benefit the Actor’s Company of Burbank, a group devoted to developing new plays and playwrights, of which Fairman is a founding member. “We’re losing our space,” said M’Lisa MacLaren, the Actor’s Company business manager. The company’s stage, the Gypsy Theater, is across the street from NBC and, according to MacLaren, is scheduled for redevelopment by the network. Fairman hopes that his Huey Long show will help raise money for a new space for the company.

It is also a catharsis of sorts.

“I don’t agree with a lot of Huey’s views,” Fairman said, “but doing the show lets me purge my fury about the world, even if it’s displaced.”

Michael Eugene Fairman’s one-man show, “Come and Hear Senator Huey P. Long,” runs at 8 p.m. today and Saturday and 7 p.m. Sunday at the Gypsy Playhouse, 3321 W. Olive Ave., Burbank. A $35 donation is asked for admission, which includes a Louisiana-style buffet after the show. Call (818) 954-9858.