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Laura Ainsworth
Laura Ainsworth was born in Hollywood, but her family soon moved to the thriving entertainment megalopolis of Grand Prairie, Texas. Her father, a former member of the Tommy Dorsey and Freddy Martin Orchestras, worked for CRC, TM Productions, PAMS, and other Dallas jingle producers, playing and singing on countless classic commercials of the 1960s and '70s. Growing up, Laura watched her dad play lead sax in the famed Fairmont Hotel Venetian Room Orchestra, backing such idols of hers as Ella Fitzgerald and Tony Bennett.  She received an honors degree from the University of Texas in Radio/TV/Film and is a true triple threat: an acclaimed singer, writer and actress/comedian, who has starred in stage productions ranging from Susan Sontag dramas to "The King & I" and "Swingin' With The Big Band," and whose topical humor, news commentary and parody songs have been heard on top radio shows worldwide.  Her serious albums, Keep It To Yourself and Necessary Evil, have enjoyed rave reviews and worldwide airplay.  Necessary Evil has been chosen for national rerelease by Grammy-winning producer Jack Kreisberg, founder of the legendary Half Note jazz label, for his current label, American Showplace Music.  He will also oversee production and distribution of her third album, tentatively titled New Vintage. 
 

Laura wrote and began performing her own one-woman satirical musical show lampooning her pet peeve: the pressure society puts on everyone to keep looking young and beautiful or else.  Teaming with pianist extraordinaire Brian Piper (Jerry Jeff Walker, Cab Calloway, and many, many others), she launched "My Ship Has Sailed."  The show played top music clubs and theaters around Texas, appeared on the main stage of  the prestigious Out-Of-The-Loop Theatre Festival, and been spotlighted at the Dallas and Las Vegas Comedy Festivals.  Laura has performed excerpts from it on Q TV's "Jack E. Jett Show" and her own special on Dallas Comcast Cable.  It was called "a musical 'Defending the Caveman' for women" by fans  and dubbed "a potential cult phenomenon" by the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram's StarTime magazine.   

Laura created another hit show when she teamed with the fantastic singer/pianist/recording artist Michael Gott in the sophisticated revue, "Cole Porter: Elegance & Decadence."   Its debut became the first show ever to sell out the new Stone Street Theater in downtown Dallas.  BroadwayWorld.com pronounced the show "Dazzling," "Sublime" and "Truly magnificent entertainment."  Laura was hailed as "a gifted comedienne," " a vivid personality with a wonderful stage presence," and "a fine singer with an outstanding range and genuine wit."  After two performances at the Arkansas Governor's Mansion, Gov. Mike Huckabee declared Laura and Michael "terrific," and said that if he becomes president, "they for sure get the White House gig." 

Laura's eclectic writer's resume includes published books, corporate shows and videos, radio news and humor, hundreds of commercial jingles and comedy radio ads, and lyrics for both commercial songs and production music, including a pre-"Space Jam" children's extravaganza entitled "Bugs Bunny In Outer Space."  Her video training programs won her the ITVA Golden Reel Award in worldwide competition. She is also a consultant and lecturer on historic home restoration and decor, an active member in several Dallas historic organizations and zoning committees, an expert on bird care who writes the popular "Welcome to the Birdhouse" column for Companion Parrot Quarterly magazine, a cartoonist, and a serious artist who paints photo-realistic portraits of exotic birds. She's almost too talented!
 

Pat Reeder, on the other hand, was born in Dallas, and his parents soon moved him to the middle of nowhere. Growing up in rural Texas on the lonely shores of Lake Whitney, he developed an annoying habit of talking to himself, which naturally led to a career in radio. He worked his way through college by holding down a number of seven-day-a-week DJ shifts at 250-watt radio stations, doing every job from gathering and writing news to washing the coffee pot to playing Ray Stevens records on request. To everyone's amazement, he managed to graduate Magna Cum Laude from North Texas State with a degree in Radio/TV/Film.
 

While in college, Pat met fellow record collector and show biz history buff George Gimarc, and the two worked as a radio morning team, did scads of comedy commercials, and co-authored "Hollywood Hi-Fi: Over 100 of the Most Outrageous Celebrity Records Ever" (St. Martin's- Griffin), hailed by the Phoenix Sun as "the best weird book of 1996."  Excerpts appeared in "In Style" and "The Star," and Pat and George were interviewed on "Inside Edition," "Day & Date" and "Good Morning Texas," as well as many radio shows.  The two also co-produced the "Hollywood Hi-Fi" companion CD (Brunswick), featuring the inimitable song stylings of Bette Davis, Joe Pesci, Jerry Mathers, Jayne Mansfield and many other unlikely celebrity singers.  Pat and George recently launched a Hollywood Hi-Fi website complete with book excerpts, audio clips and scads of rare singing celebrity videos, including their own video record reviews.  An updated and expanded ebook edition is soon to be released.  They also perform a hilarious live presentation for corporate and civic groups


Pat has been a DJ, comedy voice talent, producer, commercial writer, and music and production director for a number of major market radio stations and syndication companies. His material has been distributed by such top radio syndicators as Stevens & Grdnic (All Star Radio), Dorsey & Donnelly, and the American Comedy Network, and performed by such stars as Jimmie "J.J." Walker, Tony Randall, Sandy Duncan and even Barney the Dinosaur (although God knows, he doesn't like to talk about that one). He was the editor and lead columnist for "Skeptical Briefs" and "The North Texas Skeptic" (visit the NTS website for his old columns and to see Laura's "Up A Tree" cartoons!)  And his political one-liners have been used by Gov. Mike Huckabee in speeches and presidential debates and quoted and praised by the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, London Telegraph and other major media outlets. Gov. Huckabee was so impressed with their work that when he signed to host his nationally-syndicated radio programs, "The Mike Huckabee Show," and "The Huckabee Report," the most popular short-form syndicated feature in radio, he insisted that Citadel/Cumulus hire Pat and Laura as contributing writers/researchers.  

 

Pat's latest project is an updated paperback and Kindle version of Nine Hallmarks of Highly Incompetent Losers, a book that combines his and Laura's comedy writing with their years of experience creating sales training programs, marketing materials and other in-house projects for such top corporations as GTE, Sylvania, Southwestern Bell and DLM Inc. The book uses over 200 outrageous-but-true Comedy Wire stories to illustrate nine easily-avoidable human errors that can bring down anyone from a high school dropout criminal to a CEO with a Harvard MBA.  Pat performs a humorous live presentation based on the book for corporate, civic and charitable groups, with previous audiences ranging from the Northrup-Grumman National Accountants Seminar to the State Convention of the Optimists' Clubs of Texas.  For more information, check out his SPEAKER'S PAGE.
 

Pat and Laura met while both were working at TM Productions. Pat later became head writer of the acclaimed radio prep service "The Morning Punch" and Laura was his top free-lance contributor. During their tenure, a national trade magazine poll named that service the Best Scripted Topical Prep Service in America.  Eventually, they struck out on their own, and The Comedy Wire was born.  It was used by top-rated morning shows and talk show hosts worldwide.  They reluctantly ceased publication in 2012 because their many other commitments were taking too much time.


Today, Comedy Wire Inc. is the umbrella company for all of Pat and Laura's projects, which encompass writing for radio, books and the Internet; CDs; live shows; corporate communications and entertainment; research and editing services; and more.   The husband-and-wife team work out of a restored fabulous '50s home in the DFW Metroplex that was once Laura's childhood home.  They share it with over a dozen lovable but loudly squawking parrots, mostly disabled or formerly homeless rescue birds who demand a lot of attention, so each day's work is a little miracle in itself.

 



All material © copyright 2005-2015 by Pat Reeder & Laura Ainsworth.