The public’s reaction to the song earned a spot on the “People’s Choice Awards,” where young Provow had a backstage meeting with John Wayne, the Duke himself.
They appeared on seven national television shows, and met some of the most popular personalities of the day, including Merv Griffin, Mike Douglas, Dinah Shore and Dick Clark. Provow built the duck, which he named Disco, and he performed the character around the country with Dees. “Disco Duck” had a beat people could dance to, as well as a Donald Duck-esqe voice those same people could laugh at. One day, Dees asked Provow, “Can you make a duck?” In defense of his dad and Dees, it was the 1970s.īesides, it was a crucial step toward Topo Gigio. There were no nude puppets, though the language was crude and the situations were adult. “I asked my father, and he said, ‘I don’t see what it would hurt,’” Provow said.
The two knew they had something, and Dees came up with a plan to take the act to Memphis nightclubs, even though Provow was a teenager. “I was supposed to meet him at a pizza place,” he said. He made up a comedy routine on the spot and sent the recording home with Provow. It was a cold call, I guess you could say.”ĭees agreed to meet and was intrigued. “I took the puppets, put them in a trunk and went to WMPS on a bus. “I played hooky from school,” said Provow, who was about 16 at the time. With practice came enough confidence to take a chance. Provow decided to make puppets to go with each of the voices, and he played around with Dees’ routines. “It sounded like he had a multitude of characters in the room with him, but, really, he was doing all the voices.” “He had Rick Dees and His Cast of Idiots,” Provow said. In addition to songs, he was inspired by comedy routines from a DJ on WMPS. He listened to the radio and lip-synced his puppets to the vocals. “I was taking stuffed animals apart and turning them into puppets.” “I was making puppets out of socks,” he said. He picked up what he could from books at the library, and he did little shows for his church. Mental health professionals sometimes use puppets to get children to open up about their abuse, but Provow’s puppetry was self-directed. He said he tried to talk to his father about it, but the conversation was shut down before it really started. “My sister saw I had issues and stayed in my room all the time. “As a child, I was sexually abused,” he said. Provow, 59, was born in Memphis, and that’s also where he was molested by a neighbor over the course of about 6 years. Through divine will, destiny or dumb luck, Provow’s fascination with puppets combined with disco music to take him to Topo Gigio’s front door. That mouse, or his mother’s memory of it, was telling the truth. “‘He said I’m going to meet him one day.’”
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