Piano man Bob Egan of Asbury Park performs
By ED SALVAS
Planning a special occasion or corporate event and want to liven it up with entertainment? Call Bob Egan.
As the owner of Bob Egan Entertainment, a company he founded 21 years ago in New Hope, Pa., Egan has been booking speciality acts for all types of events and has a Rolodex filled with the names of singers, pianists, violin players, bagpipers, a harpist and even an Elvis Impersonator. His clients work throughout New Jersey, as well as in the New York area and Philadelphia.
Since 2004, Egan has owned a condo in Asbury Park and now divides his time between the city and his headquarters in New Hope.
 Asbury Park resident Bob Egan is well known at Moonstruck in Asbury Park where he performs regularly. He also performs at Tim McLoones Supper Club on the boardwalk. |
Since 2005 he’s been playing the piano and hosting a Sunday open mic show twice a month at Moonstruck in Asbury Park. He recently signed on to handle bookings and host a monthly “Cabaret Night” at Tim McLoone’s Supper Club on the boardwalk.
Egan, a native of Bucks County, Pa., was playing the piano at clubs in that area and was frequently asked to recommend someone for a special event, wedding or party. He soon realized that people were making money thanks to his referral, so he decided to cut himself in and founded Bob Egan Entertainment.
“I find them and Rolodex them,” is how he describes the business.
In 1987, Egan started what would become a fixture in the tri-state area, the Cabaret at Odette’s, a restaurant and club in New Hope. His regular Cabaret shows at Odette’s soon attracted a large following among both the public and Cabaret performers. Odette’s closed its doors for good in June of 2006 after being flooded by the Delaware River for the third time in 20 months. Egan says plans are underway to resurrect Odette’s at a new, higher location in New Hope, and he hopes it will reopen in 2010.
During its nearly 20-year run, Odette’s featured many of the top Cabaret performers in the country, according to Egan. The list of performers appearing at Odette’s reads like a “who’s who” of Cabaret.
“Nancy LaMott, Carol Lawrence, Rosalyn Kind, Sam Harris, Morgana King, Hildegarde, Maureen McGovern, Karen Akers, Margaret Whiting, Ann Hampton Callaway and Liz Callaway,” Egan says. “It was such a great time. I had all the best and favorites of mine there. If I could have added Barbara Cook to the list, I could die and go to heaven, but that one was always a dream.”
Egan is hoping to continue the tradition at Tim McLoone’s Supper Club which recently opened on the boardwalk in Asbury Park in the space above the former Howard Johnson’s. After buying his Asbury Park condo in 2004, Egan says he would frequently walk the boardwalk and point to the HoJo’s and say “that’s the perfect place for a cabaret.”
His real estate agent, Susan McCarthy of the Conover Agency, heard about McLoone’s plans and suggested the two men meet.
Egan says when he and McLoone finally did meet, McLoone told him that many people in the business had told him to “talk to Bob Egan.”
The cabaret as an entertainment form has been around for decades and is typically a variety show featuring a mix of Broadway show tunes, popular standards, jazz, classical and even opera.
A recent cabaret night at McLoone’s featured entertainers from throughout central New Jersey and Philadelphia, and some local artists, including Amanda Conn-Levin of Tinton Falls, Tom Chiola, whose family lives in Neptune, and 22 year old jazz singer Chelsea Palermo of Rumson. Three talented members of the club’s wait staff formed an act called the “Supper Club Serenaders.” Julie Stanford, Jenny McDowell and Reuben Nagy, opened the show and also performed individually during the evening.
Bob Egan has recorded three solo piano CD’s. “On My Own,” and “Circle of Friends” feature Broadway show tunes, songs from the movies and popular standards, and “12/25,” is an album of Holiday favorites. He says the Supper Club Cabaret as been very well received and he’s excited about the city’s future now that redevelopment is well underway, and says there’s room for all types of entertainment. He notes that on a recent Saturday night, there was a cabaret show at the Supper Club, a performance of the opera “Carmen” by the Metro Lyric Opera at the Paramount Theater, and a group performing Beatles songs on the beach. For non-music lovers, there was also Roller Derby at Convention Hall.
In addition to his Asbury Park shows, Egan can be found every Monday at the Stockton Inn in Stockton, at the Bernards Inn in Bernardsville on Wednesday, and at Bowman’s Tavern in New Hope, Pa. on Friday.
Read more about your town by picking up The Coaster at your local newsstand or subscribe today.
Published every Thursday.
