It's been a very busy year for Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band. Not only did they release the Spanish-language album Fantastico! earlier this year, they've got a second album, Lishy Lou and Lucky Too , set for release next week.
Oh, did I mention that the album is the aural, radio show analogue to a hoped-for Lishy Lou and Lucky Too TV show?
Like I said, very busy.
But although it's all coming out now, Alisha Gaddis -- AKA "Lishy Lou" -- says that she and Lucky "were quietly and crazily working on all this for over a year."
Although Gaddis that she does most of the funny writing in the family ("Lucky is always the head of songwriting and all things musical"), they had some help for the new album. In addition to having Michael Farkas help Gaddis and Diaz out with songs for the album, writer Chris McGowan wrote the Laugh-In bits for the album. McGowan and write Rebecca Leib also wrote a lot of writing for their other project (the TV show).
As for the TV show, Gaddis says they "really want to expose kids to the classic live action television that we grew up with - I Love Lucy, Pee Wee's Playhouse, The Monkees - but with a modern twist." (The fantastical characters in the picture above are all introduced on the Lishy Lou and Lucky Too website.) One reason for the TV show, she says, is that "We want to entertain the kids in the Midwest or the far Pacific Northwest (and all those places in between) that we don't get to see face to face otherwise."
Asked whether it's easier or harder to write comedy for children, Gaddis says:
I think it is just as difficult to write comedy for children as it is for adults. You must always play to an audience's strengths, integrity and intelligence (at least that is what we believe). Kids are clever sponges who deserve the best. That is what we really try to give them.
So here, then, is the world premiere of the video for the Lishy Lou and Lucky Too TV show.
