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Despite having been born in Los Angeles (okay, Burbank, if you must know), I was a New Yorker in my bones. I came to Manhattan the day after college graduation, arriving with only a nickel in my pocket (having quickly handed all my other cash to my mother just before we reached the bridge).
That very first day, I got a boost in my romantic effort to arrive penniless in the big city. Someone crashed through the skylight of my sublet and nicked my goods.
My first jobs in New York were unremarkable, writing newsletters and, eventually, waiting tables while I wrote unperformed plays.
 as the Lord Chancellor in Iolanthe
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I auditioned for the New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players. For six years, I pattered away in the comedian roles of Ko-Ko, the Major General, Sir Joseph Porter, the Lord Chancellor, the Learned Judge, and Reginald Bunthorne. More importantly, I met my wife, Claudia, in the troupe. Of course, she wasn't my wife then. She was a mezzo-soprano.
When not taking pratfalls and singing very quickly, I worked for the International Design Conference in Aspen (only the conference was in Aspen; I was in New York), and then spent three years in the Design Department at CBS Inc. at the right hand of Lou Dorfsman, which really impeded his mobility.
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