Audy Kimura, for nearly 30 years the dinnertime serenader at Hy’s Steak House, has just been named entertainment director for the Kuhio Avenue dining spot.
Kimura, who performs Tuesdays through Saturdays, just signed two other musicians:
>> Ian O’Sullivan, a master classical guitarist who teaches guitar at the University of Hawaii, will perform Sundays.
>> Vernon Sakata, an acoustic and classical guitarist from the 1970s group Schnazz, will perform Mondays.
The new hires coincide with Hy’s upcoming 40th anniversary celebration Nov. 11.
“When people ask me how I’ve lasted this long in one venue, I tell them, ‘It’s the great customers, friends and co-workers who have kept me going,’” said Kimura, best known for his Na Hoku Hanohano Award-winning signature, “Lovers and Friends.”
He now is Waikiki’s longest-running entertainer at the same club, and his name has become synonymous with Hy’s. Acts such as the late Don Ho and the Society of Seven, plus Tihati Productions’ Polynesian spectacles, have surpassed a 30-plus-year reign but not in the same showcase. …
KIM CHEER: “Hawaii Five-0” actor Daniel Dae Kim will co-produce three new television projects on three networks that will bring diversity and variety to the small screen.
Through his Los Angeles-based 3AD banner anchored at CBS, Kim, a native of South Korea who portrays Chin Ho Kelly on the filmed-in-Hawaii procedural, will produce:
>> “Exhibit A,” a legal drama based on a popular Korean series, “My Lawyer, Mr. Jo.” It’s about a disgraced Korean-American prosecutor who finds redemption as a defense lawyer when he teams up with a young, idealistic Los Angeles attorney. It’s in development at CBS, pairing Kim with Alexi Hawley, a co-showrunner for ABC’s “Castle,” and “Jane the Virgin” producer Ben Silverman.
>> “The Good Doctor,” a medical drama with a Korean format, is about a brilliant young surgeon with savant syndrome and dubious bedside manners. The show was written and exec-produced by David Shore, creator of “House,” and was inspired by a Korean TV series written by Park Jae-bum in 2013.
>> “Re Jane,” a comedy adapted from Patricia Park’s novel of the same name, is the story of a mixed-race Korean-American “outsider” who was fired from her first Wall Street job and is trapped by Korean principles, including the traditional manners, hierarchy and obligation that have defined her life. The TV Land series will look at the collision of two cultures as Jane, lacking clout in the settings of Flushing, Queens and Brooklyn, takes on a job as an au pair to the adopted Chinese daughter of a couple of Brooklyn intellectuals. Maria Maggenti of “Finding Carter” will script the series and exec-produce, along with Kim, via his 3AD, and his head of development, Lindsay Goffman.
Kim, traveling with his family, told NBC News in an online video post, “As a creator, you can create an entire universe and create diversity you want to see.” In an Instagram message, he said, “#diversity is more than just a buzzword to me. It’s my life. #ThoseWhoCanMustDo.”
Kim’s foray into production of TV series with Korean-American leads could raise the bar for diversity and bring awareness to Asian-American issues, themes and faces. If the new shows materialize, Kim will become an integral player in narrowing the minority gap notably at his CBS home base, which has only himself and Grace Park on “Five-0” and Lucy Liu on the Eye network’s “Elementary” as Asian leads. The shows also signal a smooth transition for Kim, from on-camera to behind-the-scenes, if “Five-0” concludes its current seventh season run. …
COUNTRY ROADS: Country music legends Garth Brooks and his wife, Trisha Yearwood (also a Food Network star), will give a pair of acoustic concerts at 6:30 and 10 p.m. Dec. 10 at Blaisdell Arena. The shows coincide with the 75th Commemoration of the attack on Pearl Harbor, with tickets ($69, plus service fee) available via ticketmaster.com beginning Saturday. Brooks and Yearwood are dispersing 100 percent of net proceeds to Pacific Historic Parks to preserve the legacy of the war memorials, aviation museum and battleships at Pearl Harbor. A genuinely grand gesture, from these generous country superstars. …
And that’s “Show Biz.” …
