Musician Richman won’t perform Saturday in Olympia after organizers scammed

Counterculture icon Jonathan Richman won’t be headlining LoveOly Summer Fest on Saturday, Aug. 28 — and this isn’t just another “musician has a change of plans” or even “musician has been exposed to COVID-19” story.

Rather, the Olympia Film Society, which books the concerts for the weekly festival, fell victim to a scam, a scam that was uncovered Friday, Aug. 27, when KAOS DJ Mark “Markly” Morrison contacted Richman’s publicist to request an interview.

As it turned out, neither publicist Debbie Gulyas nor Richman, who’s played in Olympia many times over the past 20 years, knew anything about the concert till they got Morrison’s email.

The film society had arranged the show after getting a call from someone pretending to be the singer-songwriter, best known for his appearance in “There’s Something About Mary,” where he played a musician sitting in a tree.

“We are all confused,” Gulyas wrote in an email to Morrison, host of the radio show/podcast Low Profile (https://www.lowprofilepodcast.com/).

“We are shocked,” Audrey Henley, executive director of the Olympia Film Society, said in a news release. “We’ve been booking bands for the past 30 years, and this is a first.”

Both Henley and Olympia Downtown Alliance executive director Todd Cutts apologized in the news release, which included a gracious response from Richman.

“I just heard of your wonderful festival, and (it) sounds like an ideal place for me to play someday,” the musician wrote. “Did the guy who called you up manage to imitate my voice pretty good? If he did, you’ve got to hand it to him. Most people can’t do it.”

The festival happens from noon to 6 p.m. Saturday at Fifth and Washington streets in Olympia.

Oh, Rose, which was the opening act, will now perform at 5 p.m. in place of Richman, and Victory Shoes is playing at 4 p.m.

Olympia police are investigating, according to the release.

Morrison, whose journalistic efforts uncovered the hoax, has a bit of a history with faux famous folks.

“This reminds me of the time when I was 11 and interviewed somebody on AOL Instant Messenger who claimed to be the Olsen Twins,” he wrote in a Facebook post. “I figured them out when they didn’t know the real name of the dog who played Comet on ‘Full House.’ ”

This story was originally published August 28, 2021 at 5:15 AM.