Dec 6, 2016 4 min read

Randy Riggle has been a comedian for 35 years. His one-guy Nostalgia Show is clever but never off color, filled with impersonations and complemented by guitar and song.

He has been touring for 20 years, hitting college campuses and other venues – never clubs – while visiting 46 states. Maine, in the spring, will be 47, leaving North Dakota, Rhode Island and Vermont on his to-perform list.

Wielding a comedic needle, though, is not this Lone Pine resident’s sole objective as a professional. Riggle’s Nostalgia Show always includes a salute to the military, and always ends with him reading the poem, “This Hat I Hold.” His self-written composition began as a heartrending tribute to his late father, Earl, a World War II Navy man, but extends to everyone who has served or is serving.

“I knew when I wrote the show that it was an appropriate way to end it,” Riggle said.

Although he isn’t sure of his role, Riggle may very well read “This Hat I Hold” today on the largest stage yet. The U.S. Navy invited him to Hawaii to participate in the 75th commemoration of Pearl Harbor, exactly three-quarters of a century after – as President Franklin D. Roosevelt so grimly designated at the time – “a date which will live in infamy.”

Today’s events are part of an 11-day salute to the 2,403 who died and 1,178 wounded in the Japanese air attack, which drew the United States into World War II, as well as the U.S. military and its five branches.

Riggle, 55, is a military loyalist because of his father, who left Trinity High School at 16 to enlist. Earl Riggle would end up being a longtime Washington Steel employee, but two harrowing experiences nearly kept him from the mill. Once, a kamikaze pilot targeted his ship, the USS Bearss, but dealt it only a glancing blow. Another time, a shell exploded near him.

“There were no scars,” Randy said, “but he wouldn’t hear out of one ear again.”

Randy knows little else about his father’s war experiences because, like many veterans, Earl Riggle was reluctant to speak about them.

Attendance at today’s anniversary ceremonies is by invitation only, and will include Pearl Harbor survivors, two of whom have continued to live on the island of Oahu. This will be Riggle’s second performance this week. He followed actor Gary Sinise and the Lt. Dan Band onto the stage Monday at the Beach Theatre in Waikiki, where he read the poem as a tribute to his father.

He was supposed to perform Sunday, on Navy Night, but that was rained out,

Riggle is proud of “This Hat I Hold,” which he wrote in 2004, and said it has been well received.

“A general walked up to me recently after I read the poem,” Riggle said. “He couldn’t speak and had tears in his eyes. I had tears in my eyes. We shook hands, and he saluted me.”

Comedy, the saying goes, isn’t pretty, and Riggle’s initial pursuit of that endeavor was hideous. His first appearance on stage was on Groundhog Day 1982, and he saw nothing but a large shadow of doubt.

“It was at the Pittsburgh Comedy Club,” he said, ruefully recalling the long-shuttered facility in the Beechview section of Pittsburgh, the preferred destination for would-be comics at the time. “I blew it. But I went back two weeks later and did well, and got to host amateurs night the following night.”

Since then, he has appeared on network TV, written for Jay Leno and made a living through his shows, arranged through his independent production company, Riggle Productions. His 90-minute Nostalgia Show includes impersonations of Elvis Presley, Willie Nelson and his comedic inspiration, the late Red Skelton.

“Red was my hero,” Riggle said of the comedic legend. “I had a chance to know and talk to him (in the 1990s).”

Riggle’s schedule is packed, with appearances at festivals, hotels, colleges, retirement communities and other venues. He was at Wrestlemania XXXII in April.

On Dec. 22, three days before Christmas, Riggle will be at Trinity High School for a holiday-related show. He will assist with the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life fundraiser at his alma mater.

Today, he is sharing in a solemn program on a solemn anniversary – and, likely, sharing his signature poem.