By Bruce Klauber
Mention the words “open mic night” to any aspiring singer in this area and chances are the immediate response will be, “Is it Bob Egan’s open mic?”
Pianist, talent scout, booking agent and raconteur, Bob Egan is a one-man open mic industry. He’s been running these musical confabs for decades, at locations that include Bowman’s and the River House at Odette’s in New Hope, Pa.; Moonstruck and The Asbury Hotel in Asbury Park, the Nassau Club in Princeton, and every month at The VUE on the 23rd floor of Atlantic City’s Claridge Hotel. Egan has been performing at The Claridge for some 10 years and his next date there is Dec. 4.
When he’s not playing piano and inviting talent of all ages up to the microphone, he heads a full-service talent agency which provides all kinds of musical entertainment for corporate galas and private affairs.
In addition to all that, for those who might not be able to get to Asbury Park or Atlantic City, Egan runs regular Zoom open mic events, which he calls a “virtual piano bar,” many with specific themes related to composers, movies and Broadway. These are incredibly popular and entertaining, just like the host. His fans and his followers are legion. In fact, one of these virtual piano bar sessions has been viewed well over 1,000 times on YouTube.
The genial, perennially youthful Egan has been doing all of this with a great deal of enthusiasm and success for more than three decades. His formal musical education, at Bucks County Community College, and at the Philadelphia College of Performing Arts (now the University of the Arts), may have helped prepare him for a career as a pianist, but his passion for the Great American Songbook, for entertaining and for nurturing new talent didn’t come from a school, but directly from his heart.
“Part of it is that I’ve never been a singer,” Egan told me recently. “But I’ve always appreciated singers and I’ve wanted to help them become better singers. I don’t judge, I just try to help.”
Eddie Bruce, the acclaimed vocal artist and bandleader, has long appreciated what Bob Egan does.
“Bob is what I would call a musical nurturer,” Bruce explains. “A piano bar pianist often plays for people who are not professional, but singing with a great pianist in a piano bar is a really important thing that they so look forward to. It means a lot to them. Bob takes so much care to make sure they have the right key, the right song and a good tempo. He is always trying to be sure they have a great showing. He cares. It’s one of the reasons he is so loved.”
There’s virtually no one out there in this area today who does what Bob Egan does. Egan emphasizes, “This is one level up from karaoke and I couldn’t be happier; and my customers couldn’t be happier. When a singer, in the course of a year or so, has gotten so much better. I see it and they see it. I guess my satisfaction in all this comes from knowing I’ve made a difference.”
Egan’s involvement with nationally known cabaret performers came some seasons back by way of his association with the famed Cabaret at Odette’s in New Hope, Pa., which ran for an astounding 19 years. Egan served as founder/producer and entertainment director of Odette’s, where he presented cabaret stars like Margaret Whiting, Carol Lawrence, Andrea McArdle, Lainie Kazan, Maureen McGovern and Kenny Rankin. He also headed the piano bar end of things at Odette’s, which lasted for 21 years.
“I actually spent one third of my life at Odette’s,” Egan told John Millman Dwyer, host of a “New Hope Celebrates History” podcast. “The first thing I did at Odette’s was to start a piano bar. Then we started the cabaret, which was a real challenge for the first two years. I didn’t know any stars at that point.
“Then we had a stroke of luck. One of my friends in New York asked me if I wanted to meet Margaret Whiting (of ‘Moonlight in Vermont’ fame). We had lunch and our musical love affair began. She said she would come down and perform. It was a huge it. All of a sudden everyone knew who we were.”
These open mic sessions can often be hit-or-miss affairs. Pianist Tom Adams headed an iconic series at D’Angelo’s Restaurant in Center City Philadelphia for eight years. The following was so strong and the evenings were so popular that The Philadelphia Inquirer ran two feature stories about the famed Tuesday-night get togethers. Like Bob Egan, in the course of a night, Tom Adams had to back a semi-pro vocalist while sight-reading a complex, Broadway score; then accompany a first-timer who could barely reproduce a listenable tune.
I ran a similar affair, open to singers and instrumentalists of all ages and at every skill level, at the long-gone 23rd Street Café’ in Center City Philadelphia. I did this for about eight years and I can unequivocally report that it takes a sunny disposition and patience of a saint to pull it off.
Being positive and patient comes naturally to Bob Egan and it shows in the end product. What he does in the course of the evening can loosely be described as “performance art.” Whether his session takes place in New Hope or in Atlantic City, and whether the talent in the course of an evening is great, near-great, or not-so-great, it’s Bob Egan’s show and his job is to entertain the customers.
To say he has succeeded is to put it mildly. He’s the best in his field and likely one of the only ones in his field. But the customers know best and here’s what two of them say:
“If you haven’t caught Bob Egan at one of his area performances, you are missing the best live entertainment around. His open mic sessions are legendary; like a Broadway revue every night with every type of music represented.” – James F.X. Mcllhinney
“Bob is the consummate performer for any venue. He is an enormously talented pianist who can play anything ever written. He literally has thousands and thousands of songs right at his fingertips.” – Lou Ruvolo
The customers have spoken. And the customer is always right.
