<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div>Courtesy of today's (February 9, 2016) Spokesman-Review.</div><div><br></div><div>---------------------------------</div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><cci:dropcap class="macro" displayname="dropcap" name="dropcap" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"></cci:dropcap></p><h1 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 48px; margin: 5px 0px 20px; font-family: 'Chronicle Display A', 'Chronicle Display B', serif; line-height: 1; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); -webkit-font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'dlig' 1; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">Doug Clark: Keyboard Cat has shelter buds’ backs</h1><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><cci:dropcap class="macro" displayname="dropcap" name="dropcap" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The “true story” of Bento, a hopeless Spokane waif who gains global fame after being adopted, is coming to a TV, computer, radio and billboard near you.</cci:dropcap></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Cue that jaunty earworm:</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“Doot-doot-doot doo …”</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Bento, of course, is the feline Internet sensation Keyboard Cat.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The orange tabby is featured in <a href="http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/keyboard-cat-and-other-real-life-shelter-pets-star-these-adorable-adoption-ads-169315" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted;">“Start A Story. Adopt,” </a>a new public service advertising campaign designed to promote animal shelters as the go-to place for getting a pet.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It’s a wonderful cause.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But as a heartwarming bonus, the video filmed for the PSA gives Charlie Schmidt, the mastermind behind the improbable pianist, some well-deserved and overdue recognition. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“It’s a sincere validation,” said Charlie, as he’s known to friends and fans. “Totally special.”</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I’m biased on this subject.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Charlie’s been one of my best pals for decades.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I’ve tagged along with him to destinations like Tokyo and Istanbul, where he performed his singular “dancing nose” routine before wildly enthusiastic TV audiences. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Charlie played drums in my band. If that’s not enough, my son, Ben, is the agent who brokers all the deals for Keyboard Cat, like toys, endorsements and public appearances.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But setting aside the personal stuff, Charlie is an extraordinary talent who sadly is more appreciated outside Spokane than within the city limits.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I could fill three columns dissecting the Charlie Schmidt resume, how he’s performed all over the planet, appeared twice on the “Tonight Show” and even starred in a long-running British candy bar commercial.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">And that’s all thanks to his rubbery nose.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In the bit, he manipulates his malleable schnozzola in rhythmic time against a clean sheet of glass while miming “It’s Not Unusual” a la Tom Jones.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The glass is invisible on TV. So it looks like Charlie’s nose is twirling and gyrating due to supernatural forces.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Silly and simple as it may be, the dancing nose has made this man hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Ah, but nothing lasts forever except cockroaches and Spokane potholes.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Charlie noted that his showbiz career “had taken a nosedive” until Keyboard Cat blew up.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Charlie videotaped his cat, Fatso, playing a portable keyboard way back in the 1980s. As with his glass trick, you never see Charlie gently manipulating the paws of his sweater-clad cat.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Nothing came of this until 2009, when an Internet surfer snatched it off YouTube and placed it at the end of a stupid video that he posted.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It wasn’t too long until just about every World Wide Webber – from Ashton Kutcher to the band Green Day – began doing the same.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Keyboard Cat meme was born.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The other day I dropped in on Charlie. He showed me that his original cat video had amassed 49 million plays. Several of his Keyboard Cat sequels had passed the million-play mark as well.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">And now Spokane’s furry star will reveal his cage-to-stage past in the PSA campaign.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We’re talking about Keyboard Cat 2.0, of course. Fatso, the original, went on to Catnip Glory long ago.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">When my son started bringing in offers for TV commercials, Charlie asked what he should do.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“Get another cat,” advised Ben.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Charlie did just that, prowling the animal shelters until he found a lookalike with an easygoing attitude.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“Must’ve looked at a hundred shelter cats before I found the right one,” he said. “Ben told me to get a cat, he didn’t say where I should get one.”</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">As an acknowledgment, Charlie graciously named him after my kid.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">He laughed. Learning Bento’s a shelter cat “is like finding out that Mick Jagger was adopted.”</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The new PSA is a joint venture of Maddie’s Fund, The Humane Society of the United States and the Ad Council.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Keyboard Cat shares the spotlight with two Instagram faves: Hamilton Pug and Toast, a spaniel with a dangling boa-sized tongue.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“Millions of healthy, adoptable dogs and cats enter shelters across America each year and are just waiting for a special home,” said Wayne Pacelle, the Humane Society’s president and CEO.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“Unfortunately, many of those animals never find one. We hope Toast, Keyboard Cat and Hamilton Pug inspire people to support their local animal shelters and start their own stories by adopting a pet in need of a home.”</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In the Keyboard Cat spot, Charlie is shown padding through the halls at home and making art with Bento right by his side.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“I adopted Bento in 2010 from a shelter – as it turns out we have very similar personalities,” Charlie says in the video.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“And this cat makes me make art because he’s always motivating me to take pictures of him, to draw pictures of him. He just is motivating artistically, it’s just that simple.”</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The best moment comes when Charlie gives Bento an affectionate kiss.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“Well, he’s my best friend and a lot of people know him as Keyboard Cat.”</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">How cute is that?</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“It’s come full circle,” said Charlie, calling the PSA the most important “thing we’ve ever done.”</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Plus it shows that “Keyboard Cat is one of the Good Guys,” he added. “That’s what people will say.”</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">--------------------</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Dan Schmidt's Keyboard Cat</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="http://www.tomandrodna.com/Photos/Cats/Keyboard_Cat_SR_020916.jpg">http://www.TomandRodna.com/Photos/Cats/Keyboard_Cat_SR_020916.jpg</a></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">--------------------</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;">Shelter Pet Adoption (video)</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="http://youtu.be/hDZ9CY0iwYE">http://youtu.be/hDZ9CY0iwYE</a></span></p></div><div>---------------------------------<br><br><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Moscow Cares"</span></div><div><a href="http://www.moscowcares.com/" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://www.MoscowCares.com</font></a></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></div><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div><div> </div></div></div></div></body></html>