ENTERTAINMENT

West Coast Live radio show packs Stage Door

Tony D'Souza

Lucky audience members including Mount Shasta’s Penn Martin and Tom Barr and Dunsmuir’s Jessica Bishop activate the “Biospherical Digital-Optical Aquaphone,” one of the show’s trademarked features. Center stage, host Sedge Thompson banters with his pianist Tom Greensill as Jim Gilmore and other members of Kazango Jazz look on.

The Berkeley-based variety show “West Coast Live” came to the Stage Door in downtown Mount Shasta Monday night for a taping and packed the house with local fans of the eclectic, two-hour show noted for its dry humor and in-depth interviews with literary authors.

The program for the night included local poets Mary Elena Fernandez and Sandra Ama Libby, and Stuart Archer Cohen, author of the novel, “The Army of the Republic.”

Penn Martin said the show, to be broadcast on Jefferson Public Radio, “...was wildly entertaining and very, very fun.”

Sedge Thompson is well-known for wearing red shoes during the show, and is himself a fan of the area, once calling Dunsmuir, “One of my favorites towns in California.”

West Coast Live is broadcast locally on Jefferson Public Radio, 88.1, on Saturdays from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., and the show’s website is www.wcl.org.