Hey hey hey! Bill Cosby is set to play TPAC Sept. 27

It has been a while since we’ve seen Bill Cosby in town.

But he’s back, for two shows Sept. 27, a 4 p.m. matinee and an 8 p.m. show.

In case you were wondering, this pic is from Bill Cosby when he was a student at my alma mater, Temple University, which apparently cranks out graduates who achieve a WIDE range of success afterward.

Tix go on sale at 10 a.m. Sunday, and they’ll run ya $37-$60.

You can call 255-ARTS or go to any TicketMaster outlet.

Or you can check out TPAC.org to get more info on the show.

Drunk dude surprises comic Josh Blue his last time here

Youse guys remember Josh Blue, the comedian with cerebral palsy who won TV’s Last Comic Standing a year or so ago?

He’s in town for shows at Zanies all weekend, and he told me a funny story today about a drunk guy who came up to Josh the last time he was in Nashville.

“This guy comes up to me and he goes, ‘Isn’t you that actress from that show, Family Matters?’” Josh told me.

Check out that sentence again: “Isn’t you that actress from that show, Family Matters?”

Josh’s reaction?

“First of all, everything you said is wrong. ‘Isn’t you?’ No,” he said.

“‘That actress?’ I’m a man. And Family Matters? I believe that was an all-black cast. So I think he thought I was Urkel.”

Public memorial service slated for Jim Hager

Like Johnny Cash and several other country music notables, Jim Hager will have a public memorial service at the Ryman.

That happens 2-4 p.m. Tuesday, and it’s open to everyone.

The family is suggesting donations be made in Jim’s name to one of his favorite charities, The Elephant Sanctuary, Box 393, Hohenwald, Tenn., 38462.

Jim Hager’s death: A personal note

Like most folks, I had a really hard time telling apart Jim and Jon Hager. One of the reasons is that they were both so disarmingly friendly and funny that it was hard to tell their personalities apart, let alone their looks. (The Hagers did part their hair on different sides, but I never really caught on who had the left part and who had the right.)

I met them early on in my celebrity journalism career, and I, like most who meet them, couldn’t helped but be sucked into their silly vortex right off the bat. I’d see the Hager twins at nearly every charity event I covered this decade and last. Whether it was raising money to battle cancer, child abuse, hunger, even elephant abuse — all brought out the Hagers.

I brought my mother, a.k.a. Ma Schmitt in my old column, to one of these events during one of her visits here from Pittsburgh. When we were kids, my mother, a bit of a feminist, banned us from watching Hee Haw because she thought the Hee Haw Honeys were, uh, well, something she didn’t want her children to watch.

So Ma Schmitt didn’t know who the Hagers were when they approached and turned on the charm. First, they spent five minutes telling her what a wonderful son she had raised and what a good job she must’ve done as a parent. This, FYI, is an excellent opening move with any Jewish mother.

Then, the Hagers started in on, essentially, a private comedy show for my mother, who, after a couple of seconds of stunned silence, started roaring with laughter. Like, she was loud. So loud, I found myself trying to shush my mother. (That did not work, though she did stop laughing for a second to shoot me a look.)

The Hagers then quizzed my mother about herself, where she grew up, what she did for a living, what were her plans for the rest of her stay in Nashville.

The next morning, the Hagers showed up where we said we were going for breakfast, and they presented Ma Schmitt with a single red rose. She blushed, and it was only moments before she was roaring again. (I thought better of the shush that time.)

My mother kept the rose in water in her room for the rest of her stay.

“I know those two are full of crap. And they’re completely corny,” she declared.

“But I completely and totally love them.”

Me too.

Jim Hager of “Hee-Haw”’s Hager Twins passes away

Very sad news — Jim Hager of The Hager Twins collapsed outside a Nashville coffeeshop and was later pronounced dead at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Jim, 66, was in the parking lot of the Frothy Monkey on 12th Avenue South when he collapsed. His twin brother, Jon, was on the way to meet him.

Jon was by Jim’s side at the hospital when he was pronounced, shortly after 6 p.m.

The Hager Twins were original cast members of cornball comedy show Hee Haw, which launched in 1969 and aired briefly on CBS before going to national syndication.

“We got bashed by a lot of the critics. But American people proved them wrong,” Jon Hagar said recently for a 2006 Hee Haw Time Life boxed set.

“America loved it. Critics didn’t,” Jim added.

The Hager Twins grew up with classical music-loving adoptive parents outside Chicago. But a foster sister who loved country music soon joined the household, and she played nothing but the local country station in the family’s house.

In high school, the twins landed a spot on a weekly Saturday morning teen TV show on WGN in Chicago.

After college and a stint in the Army, the twins moved to California, and got their big break when Buck Owens saw them perform at Disneyland.

It wasn’t long before the twins were popping out of the Hee Haw cornfields, telling jokes and singing cover songs.

When the show ended, the Hager twins made Nashville home, and they appeared at hundreds of charity events and fund-raisers.

Jon Stewart set to do two Ryman shows May 9

Can you believe it?

Jon Stewart, star of Comedy Central’s Daily Show, occasional star of the Oscars awards show, is coming to lil’ ol’ Nashville.

Promoters apparently have been trying to get him to come here for years.

Looks like the price was finally right.

And that means it’s gonna cost you a little bit of scratch. Tickets will be $76, $66 and $56, and they go on sale at 10 a.m. April 11.

The shows start at 7:30 p.m. and 10 p.m., so you’ll have to TiVO the Daily Show if you go to the late show.