Live from the Oakdale Mall

So..for about 1+ years now, I have been following Newschannel 34 in Binghamton's "Live from the Oakdale Mall" series. Now, I don't have any sort of geographic or personal ties to binghamton...but, the videos have provided me incredible entertainment. For those of you not in the know (which, lets be honest here, is everyone except for me)...in lieu of doing reporting at an actual news station...Newschannel 34 in Binghamton likes to broadcast live from the local mall, and invite acts to come on and play. I think there is actually NO oversight or screening of the acts who appear on the show. Ex: there was once a middle school acapella group comprised of 5 extremely awkward 12/13 yr old boys, who sang their own rendition of "My Girl." There was also once a man who ran around in a circle making bubbles out of coat hangers while big band music played in the background. Most recently though...I have been following the career of one Mr. Rich Wilson.

Rich Wilson is a combination of a singer/hypnotist. He appears to not write his own music...instead only performing along with karaoke accompaniment. His 'repertoire' only consists of music which is at least 40 years old. He also travels along with an "entourage" who appear to be lost older people who don't know where they are or how they got there. Yet miraculously...there they are...at every Rich Wilson "show" in the mall. Please see around minute 2:22 of the video for an example of his entourage gettin' down with their bad selves.

Rich Wilson also advertises himself on his website as a "hypnotist" and has a photos of his handy work:


A couple of points:
1) Not so sure how the parents of those teenage boys would feel about their sons being featured so prominently without shirts on a middle aged man's "hypnotism" website
2) His entourage..just generally.
3) Rich Wilson seems to have quite a bit of confidence and swagger for a man clearly on the brink of a mid-life crisis who is sings at a mall and has to kidnap his "fans" from their nursing homes to attend his shows.
4) I wonder if he has a single son my age...