I used to book Wo Fat

“ You have been so helpful, Mr. Culler. It isn’t a paid engagement, but it looks to be quite close to where you are, and I wonder if you might attend. I will speak briefly after the play. It won’t be my usual talk, but perhaps we could meet afterwards, and attach faces to voices so to speak.”

In 1973 I was a college lecture circuit booking agent. In recent months, I’d had success selling engagements for Khigh Alx Dhiegh, the actor who played the villain Wo Fat on the CBS TV series Hawaii Five-O. Dr. Dhiegh was also the founder of the Taoist Sanctuary in Hollywood. I pitched the combination of villain and sage to several student and staff lecture chairmen and secured several dates in my northeast territory.

Dr. Dhiegh had a memorable recurring role as the Chinese intelligence officer and local gangster kingpin, the antagonist to Jack Lord’s Detective Captain Steve McGarrett. Wo Fat always slipped away while McGarrett arrested gang underlings, closing the show with his signature phrase, “Book ‘em Danno.”

Dr. Dhiegh also had a theology doctorate and only charged $1000 + expenses; that seemed to make everyone happy so I arranged seven or eight speaking engagements that year and Dr. Dhiegh was catching on in other agent’s territories as well.

A few weeks before Easter that year, Khigh Dhiegh called me out of the blue and I check to see that we didn’t owe him money before I called him back.

“I wrote a play called Redbeard. It is about the key role of Judas in the Christian story of the resurrection. Most Christians have learned tha Judas was the ultimate evil, but without him Jesus would never have been apprehended, nor crucified and there would have been no sacrifice for the souls of humanity.”

“Dr. Dhiegh, that’s fascinating, but you are applying an Eastern viewpoint to Western Theology.” I blurted out.

“Yes. It is what I do” I could almost hear him smile.

“A graduate school colleague teaches comparative religions at Boston College (BC), which I believe is near you. Father Paul has staged Redbeard for a single performance in two weeks and I am hoping that you might come to see it.”

Boston College was close to where I worked, but about thirty-five miles from my home and I didn’t relish staying in town for a 7:00 p.m. play with lecture following, but I also didn’t feel I could decline the invitation. Dr. Dhiegh offered as many tickets as I wanted for my wife or the other agents at the agency. Everyone demurred.

On performance night, I ate at the McDonald’s near the BC campus, found a parking place for my old red Volvo 122 and walked on the campus, slightly aghast at the handbills on lampposts “Wo Fat ToNite!”

Redbeard, the play

I remember the theatre, a chapel, was small,  but full and the show began on time. I was surprised at that, but later thought “BC is a Jesuit school.” A priest with a slight Irish accent welcomed everyone.

“Hello I’m Father Paul Paor that’s pronounced like “power of the gospel” but spelled with the old Gaelic spelling P-A-O-R, but you can call me Father P as most students do. I am so pleased to see so many here tonight, including my entire comparative religion class, but, of course, it’s required for them. The rest of you lot are probably Hawaii Five-O fans. Rest assured the playwright Dr. Dhiegh or Wo Fat as you think of him will speak after the play. But without further delay Redbeard.”

I don’t remember too much about the production. It was more of a rehearsed reading, street clothes and no beards on the all-male cast. There were some spotlights highlighting Jesus and Judas. It was quite talky. There was a Last Supper scene,  some soliloquies, and aa Garden of Gethsemane scene. What was clear was that Jesus and Judas were quite close and colluded on the “betrayal.” Judas was the most devoted disciple and believed that he was bringing on the kingdom of heaven for all mankind. The play ended when Judas understood that others did not see his role as he intended. The bag of washers (“thirty pieces of silver”) hit the floor, Judas looks pained and the lights went out.

I remember the audience (including me) being a little stunned. Applause was a little slow in starting but grew to a respectable level as the lights came up and Father P and Wo Fat walked on stage..

Q&A

Dr. P started to speak. “Khigh, Dr. Dhiegh, I have so many questions, but I wonder if you’d start by saying why you chose to portray the Easter story in this way?”

Dr. Dhiegh began.

“Aristotle confused Western thinking for all time when he created the idea of absolutes. Black and White, Good and Evil. If we look into nature there is the tooth and claw, survival of the fittest, but it is balanced by symbiosis, flying insects drink flower nectar and pollinate all that grows, and the oxpecker bird feeds on harmful insects on the water buffalo’s back.

“Judas was a man. I wondered at his intentions as a man. I wondered at the results of his actions. Christianity has lived on for almost two thousand years.

“Christians believe Jesus is God. How could an all knowing God not stop Judas’s action? So if Judas is balance, if Judas is a negative action that brings a positive result, isn’t that relationship symbiotic?”

Dr. Dhiegh went on about the play for a while more. Then he started a thread form his normal college talk. He described a famous Chinese painting “The Three Vinegar Tasters.” Today this part of the speech would be on PowerPoint with pictures of the painting as it was reproduced in many Asian Cultures. Dr. Dhiegh had no slides but from his words I could see the three tasters.

One taster has a sour expression on his face. ”Life is sour  Confucius believed. Everything decays and rules are needed to slow the degeneration of man. The second taster is Buddha who wears a pained expression because life is pain and suffering, tests to be overcome on a path to Nirvana or enlightenment. The third taster is Lao Zi, a Taoist like me,  Lao Zi smiles because he tastes the sweetness in the world that balances the vinegar. We can choose which of these worldviews to hold or we can believe, as the artist might have, that life is all three.”

After talking Dr. Dhiegh took questions.

“Was Jack Lord really a control freak?” “Mr. Lord is the executive producer of Hawaii Five-o he has many details to be concerned with on top of his role. He has been instrumental in hiring native Hawaiian actors and has always treated me with respect.”

“Did you play Oddjob in Golfinger?” “No, that actor is a much younger man.”

“How do you reconcile playing villains with your religion?”   Here I would have lost it  “Really? Haven’t you been listening?”

Dr. Dhiegh just said “Without conflict, there is no story. The villain is instrumental.”

Dr Dhiegh’s advice to himself

After seeing the play I continued to book Dr. Dhiegh for a while as did other agents. He continued to do engagements to good reviews, but 1973 was his best year in my territory and we spoke less frequently. Much later, after his death in 1991, I learned that Khigh Alx Dhiegh, was born Kenneth Dickerson. In his later life he opened a Taoist sanctuary in Tempe Arizona  and promoted global citizenship.

After the silly questions about US Chinese relations (“I’m an American actor and don’t feel qualified to comment on that.”), Father P closed the questioning down with another question. “Dr. Dhiegh, what advice do you have for these young people?”

He smiled. “it is not for the old to advise the young. Our impatience comes from different sources. The advice I would give to myself is. . .

• Be slower to judge

• Strive for harmony and

• Appreciate balance, “

Good advice for any leader or follower, I think.