He will mark the second anniversary of his residency at North Hollywood\u2019s El Portal Theatre Sunday by performing his one-man show \u201cUnassisted Living<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis show is about all the relatable stuff that people go through when they reach a certain age,\u201d Coleman, 77, said recently inside the Monroe Forum auditorium where he performs. <\/p>\n The monthly matinee (\u201cThe show starts at 3 p.m. so the baby boomers don\u2019t have to drive home in the dark\u201d) is a full-circle moment for the former weatherman, returning him to his stand-up roots. He had little knowledge of weather when he was first hired by the station to do weather reports as a fill-in. What started as a temporary job eventually turned into a full-time stint, and although he\u2019s not on storm watch anymore, \u201cUnassisted Living\u201d is Coleman\u2019s response to a different kind of storm.<\/p>\n \u201cThe beauty of this show is that there are no politics, and people appreciate that so much,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t remind people of the darkness outside the building. I just talk about the things that bring us together as an aging population. Some have described it as a baby boomer support group. If you have a Medicare card, you need to come see this show.\u201d<\/p>\n Among his observations are the shock of discovery, particularly when it comes to the body. \u201cYou know you\u2019re getting old when various parts of your body decide to make changes without notifying you ahead of time,\u201d Coleman said. He also riffs on sex in the golden years. \u201cMen in the audience love it. The women are embarrassed but they also love it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe beauty of this show is that there are no politics, and people appreciate that so much,\u201d said Fritz Coleman about his one-man show titled \u201cUnassisted Living.\u201d \u201cI don\u2019t remind people of the darkness outside the building.\u201d<\/p>\n (Jason Armond \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n He also welcomes younger audiences: \u201cI say 40- to 50-year-old people will laugh just as hard. They can use this show as a cautionary tale. If you make it to a certain age, this is what you will experience.\u201d<\/p>\n Sitting at one of the theater\u2019s small tables, Coleman, with his slim build, silver hair and round glasses, looked much the same as he did when he said farewell in 2020. Because of the pandemic, he had spent much of the year doing his reports from his Toluca Lake home instead of NBC4\u2019s Burbank studio.<\/p>\n Although he loved his job and his connection to viewers, he was ready to say goodbye: \u201cEven if you love what you do, 40 years is long enough.\u201d<\/p>\n Before his retirement, Coleman had what he called a \u201ccouple of minor scares\u201d \u2014 none of them life-threatening. <\/p>\n \u201cI have grandchildren, and I want to be healthy enough to do all the other things in life I want to do,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m on the board of three nonprofits. And I can spend more time writing and performing.\u201d<\/p>\n Coleman finds continual inspiration for his comedy, and he feels fortunate that he \u201cfound this niche totally by accident \u2014 the common experience of getting old. People appreciate that rather than talk about what separates us, which is the topical and current events comedy of the day, like the Bill Mahers and others.<\/p>\n \u201cI love them. They\u2019re so bright at what they do,\u201d he added. \u201cBut it\u2019s a separationist sort of act \u2014 us and them. Mine is not about that.\u201d<\/p>\n Coleman said his monologue is continually updated.\u201cI spend about an hour or two each day writing, and with every show I\u2019m adding new material. I sit on my couch with a legal pad and pencil and just put down my thoughts. In my living room, I\u2019m hysterical.\u201d<\/p>\n The new focus leaves Coleman with little time to be nostalgic about his former days as a top TV weatherman and working alongside co-anchors Colleen Williams and Chuck Henry<\/a>, and sports anchor Fred Roggin<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t miss the job,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I miss the people. We had a great news team \u2014 we were like the longest-running news team in town.\u201d<\/p>\n Fritz Coleman, left, Chuck Henry and Colleen Williams in the NBC4 studio.<\/p>\n (Fernando Torres \/ KNBC-TV )<\/p>\n Since Coleman\u2019s departure, Henry and Roggin have also left NBC4, leaving only Williams, who still anchors evening newscasts.<\/p>\n With his schedule, Coleman does not often tune in to local news. \u201cI watch it very little, unless there is something of consequence,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n But he has watched enough to see a shift in how stations cover the news.<\/p>\n \u201cI was hired for my personality, but that has all changed,\u201d Coleman said. \u201cBefore, the evening newscasts were like what the morning news is now, informal and more casual. Viewers related to the anchors, and everyone was like family. I would get five minutes to do the weather. I described my job as being a palette cleanser between \u2018the world is going to end\u2019 and \u2018here\u2019s what the Dodgers did today.\u2019 <\/p>\n \u201cThe business is so different now,\u201d he added. \u201cThere are up to eight newscasts all running simultaneously. There\u2019s so much more competition now. And there\u2019s also America\u2019s short attention span.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition, Coleman is acutely aware that he would not be able to skirt qualifications for a TV weatherman job as he had previously when former NBC4 news director Steve Antonetti hired him, impressed by his demeanor after seeing him perform at Santa Monica\u2019s Horn nightclub. Coleman\u2019s routine included a block about doing weather reports for Armed Forces Radio when he served in the Navy.<\/p>\n \u201cI would not get that job today till I had the American Meteorological Society seal or a degree in meteorology or atmospheric sciences,\u201d Coleman said. \u201cIt\u2019s a big deal. I could not get by being Mr. Fun Guy everyday.\u201d<\/p>\n While retirement has not dulled the inviting warmth that Coleman displayed in his daily reports, he became more irritated when asked about the Trump administration\u2019s continual attacks on climate change, calling it a hoax. <\/p>\n \u201cDenying that climate change is real is an irresponsible ploy,\u201d he said. \u201cEvery scientist worth his or her salt on the planet understands it is real, and it\u2019s inhumane to call it a hoax. It affects me because it\u2019s the one part of the big lie that I\u2019ve experienced in my career.\u201d<\/p>\n He feels fortunate that he has his comedy stint to focus on, and he hopes it will continue long into the future.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve never been happier in my life than I am right now, and as long as we sell tickets, we will keep the show going,\u201d Coleman said. \u201cOr we\u2019ll keep it going until I have to stop the show twice for pee breaks.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t tell Fritz Coleman it\u2019s no fun getting old. Coleman spent almost four decades as NBC4\u2019s whimsical weatherman,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19321,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[10800,16085,217,16084,16081,4194,48,52,51,47,50,49,16083,16082,592,6050,61,315,16086,19,72],"class_list":{"0":"post-19320","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-change","9":"tag-chuck-henry","10":"tag-day","11":"tag-evening-newscast","12":"tag-fritz-coleman","13":"tag-job","14":"tag-la","15":"tag-la-headlines","16":"tag-la-news","17":"tag-los-angeles","18":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","19":"tag-los-angeles-news","20":"tag-nbc4","21":"tag-one-man-show","22":"tag-people","23":"tag-residency","24":"tag-storm","25":"tag-time","26":"tag-top-tv-weatherman","27":"tag-weather","28":"tag-year"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} <\/p>\n
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