Samples

Doug Dieken with cast on his broken right arm

Tape It Up and Play: Doug Dieken

If you listen to Doug Dieken, you begin to think his entire career could be summed up with these words: “Better to be lucky than good.” This self-effacing man has a relentless spirit. Part of his career is due to a willingness to show up consistently with a good attitude. And it’s a willingness to adapt to change without much complaining …

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I Want to Hold Your Hand

It was Christmas break, 1963, and I sat in the kitchen trying to stay awake while writing a homework essay. Homework during break just wasn’t fair, but it had to be done. I turned on the large portable orange and white radio that was my lifeline to the outer world, pointed the telescoping chrome antenna toward the window, and turned the dial to 1420 WHK.

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Paul Orlousky during hotel prostitution sting, from the book "Punched, Kicked, Spat On, and Sometimes Thanked: Memoirs of a Cleveland TV News Reporter," by Paul Orlousky

What Have I Gotten Myself Into?

“You owe me $240, and if you don’t pay, I’m gonna kick your ass!” There I was, in a downtown Cleveland hotel room with two prostitutes and their pimp, and the pimp was angry. Very angry

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William Shakespeare holding a Magic 8 Ball, cover art from the book "All the World's a Stage Fright" by Bob Abelman

All the World’s a Stage Fright – Chapter One

Whenever I look through the press releases sent to me by the city’s professional playhouses that announce their roster of new season productions, the former actor in me gets the itch to perform in one of them. That feeling always fades, like a phantom ache where a surgically removed limb used to be, when I remember that my name pays the bills better when in the byline of a show’s review than in its playbill.

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