Karon's background, experience and contributions as a professional performer, writer and producer in the entertainment industry are so vast they read like a book, so she wrote one. Having led such a rich and varied life, she is a walking encyclopedia of cultural knowledge.
Her upcoming book is loaded with first hand evocative, comical and insightful observations of her experiences with the celebrated and notorious people who have come into her life leaving an impression or a spark having lotsa' fun amidst the fast wild world around her. As a young girl, she explores her own humanity, and the humanity of those she has known in the midst of an uneven playing field of fame and wealth without values, and her discoveries send her running as far away as possible from the core of the entitled, questioning the sources of good and evil. We travel within the realm of the glitterati, in Hollywood and New York City in the 1960's,1970's and 80's, thru a world that is so airbrushed and so guarded, so luxurious and so empty, so beautiful and so tragic, so seductive and so shocking, so privileged and so cruel, so lonely and so Godless that only a select few are tough enough to endure it. Karon Bihari was born in Hollywood. She grew up in California and New York, and has also lived in Brazil, France and London. Karon's life revolved around music from a very early age, her influences were mostly classical, Stan Getz/Tom Jobim and Sammy Davis Jr. records her parents would play; and as a small child she sang and danced in the living room to Sammy Davis Jr. on the stereo trying her best to emulate his smooth style dressing up in her mom's silk stockings, garters, lipstick and high heels. You see she started quite young! With dreams of becoming a ballerina, she studied ballet starting at the age of six in New York, which she adored. Her family broke up by the time she was ten during multiplication which left her with no math skills, and upon moving back, reluctantly, to California, you could find little Karon captivated watching her comedy idols and The British Invasion on TV when she should have been doing her homework. She graduated from Beverly Hills High School, continued studying ballet and Afro-Cuban jazz, performed in summer theater, all the while awaiting her shot to dance at The Whisky A Go-Go on the famed Sunset Strip. It was the seventies and as a young teen, Karon was cast in "Tommy", The Who's Rock Opera, at the Aquarius Theater in Hollywood. Karon thrived on the creative freedom and total happiness she found with her talented new friends that she didn't find at school. A chance meeting, also on Sunset, with the gorgeous Jim Rado and Gerry Ragni, (creators of the revolutionary rock musical "HAIR") soon to become lifelong friends, solidified her dream to move back to New York to be in showbiz. Soon after "Tommy" closed, Karon got on a plane to New York as a new-found runaway, and apart from navigating the practicalities of life which seemed to fall into place easily with great friends, she was immediately involved in and performed in several extraordinary theatrical productions including: Jim Rado's "Rainbow", "My Fair Lady" directed by the great Jerry Adler and "National Lampoon's Lemmings" with John Belushi, Chevy Chase and Christopher Guest for starters, making more wonderful friends. |
A group of Karon's hilarious friends soon lured her away to put a comedy act together, calling themselves "The Royale Canadienne Fromage," creating, writing and developing the comedic genre known as "Cheese!" They wowed audiences up and down the Eastern Seaboard.
After a great run, Karon ventured out on her own. Being a natural, within months she wrote and produced her feisty one-woman rock 'n' roll shows filled with singing, dancing, talking, tears and laughter. She opened to sold-out crowds everywhere, beginning her reign as the 'one to watch.' Her first show called “Reel, Too Real” expressed some of her innermost feelings about the world, the biz, friendship, life and love. This led to successful engagements all over the East Coast, including Reno Sweeney, Trudie Heller's, Trax, TLA, The Bijou, The Academy of Music, The Bottom Line, Hurrah, and many more, garnering her "It Girl" status, as she continued to fill venues to over capacity every night. During this time she started working and performing with the likes of Peter Allen, John Mellencamp, David Johansen, Ellie Greenwich, Bernie Taupin, Rick Derringer, Todd Rundgren, and many others, establishing herself on the music scene. Frank Zappa was such a big fan he asked her to go on the road with him. Before she could bat an eyelash her original comedy material, concepts and looks were nicked by Bette Midler, her landlady at the time, and also Bill Murray from Saturday Night Live, who sat up close in the audience, brazenly conspicuous, taking notes. She considers this comedy kleptomania a form of flattery really. For a change, Karon traveled, first to France, singing in clubs and hotels from Paris to St. Tropez, to St. Barths. Upon her return to New York, samba sets in hand and Robert Aaron as her MD, she performed at Club 40 Worth (where she was also the MC and director of talent), Nell's, AREA, Danceteria, The Pyramid, Club 57 (starring as Barbie in "Livin' Dolls"), Limelight, Chapiteau, Palladium, The Ritz, and The Beat Cocktail Lounge; continuing her "It Girl" status. Making a loft in SoHo her home in the eighties, along with singing, telling jokes and running a nightclub in the evenings, by day she designed costume jewelry and James Bond 007 martini glasses, and also taught underprivileged children at The Boys Clubs of New York's after school programs. Karon lived a madcap life there among movie stars, pop stars, sports stars and graffiti artists, that sometimes included cops. She took a break from center stage after another peripheral friend blatantly used her image, likeness, dresses, life stories and quotes, for a book and film entitled "Slaves of New York," one of Karon's signature phrases. Over the years Karon continued writing, cataloging her life, her thoughts, and her adventures happily keeping her anonymity and her distance from the evanescence of fame and fortune. She now invites us in to read her stories that are most dear and sometimes most daunting. Hold on tight ... |