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Charlene’s Corner Featured on Late Night Television
By: David Deschesne
Fort Fairfield Journal, December 5, 2018
The Fort Fairfield Journal’s special op-ed, “Charlene’s Corner” was featured on The Nite Show with Danny Cashman in the late Fall of last year. A compilation of clips of that feature was posted to YouTube in December, 2017. Like most new things in Northern Maine, it took a while to get noticed here in the County, but when it did late last month, it “went viral” through the community.
Charlene Argraves, who is the “Charlene” in Charlene’s Corner is a cashier at Hillside IGA in Fort Fairfield. Her column, now in its tenth year, features notes and quips gleaned from conversations with her by this writer. Nothing in her column is scripted or pre-planned, it is all spontaneous and, many times, unexpected.
It was that fresh spontaneity that captured the attention of Cashman during one of his television programs where he featured an interpretive reading of selected quips from the newspaper column.
“I thought it was funny and Oscar was happy his name also got mentioned on TV,” Charlene told the Fort Fairfield Journal. “Some people thought they were making fun of us but I didn’t see that. I thought they were just having fun. Besides, I can take a joke.”
According to the show’s website, www.theniteshowmaine.com, The Nite Show is the only local, late night talk show in Maine. “The show is based on the formats made famous by Johnny Carson, David Letterman, and Conan O’ Brien. The show originates from Husson University's Gracie Theatre in Bangor, and - just like national late night talk shows - is produced before a live studio audience.”
Host Dan Cashman, an Old Town native, is joined by announcer Joe Kennedy, known to sports fans as the voice of the University of Maine Black Bear hockey team. The show includes an all-star house band led by trumpteer Brian Nadeau. Nadeau & The Nite Show Band is made up of some of Bangor’s most well-known jazz musicians - Nadeau, Mike Borja (drums), Bob Roman (bass), David Clarke (guitar) and Lincoln Blake (keyboard).
The Nite Show is a weekly, half-hour late night talk show that airs Saturday nights at 11:30 on WABI TV5/Bangor; Saturday nights after college football and the FOX23 News at Ten on FOX23/Portland; Saturday nights at midnight on WAGM FOX8/Presque Isle; and late night Saturdays at 1 a.m. on CBS 13/Portland.
After being on YouTube for a year, Charlene’s Corner has received no network television offers and Charlene didn’t even know she was famous until a little over two weeks ago.
This writer has been begging Charlene for several years to star in a locally produced reality TV show, but she continues to shy away from the idea.
To view the three minute video clip featurette of Charlene’s Corner, to to www.youtube.com and type Charlene’s Corner in the search bar and click the magnifying glass icon to search (the pop up suggestions will default to a similar sounding Charlie’s Corner but this is not that). After the search feature has been initiated, the Charlene’s Corner video will be at the top of the list of suggestions.
At the last count the video clip had received a little over 600 views.