265 - Korla Pandit in the Bardo

Korla Pandit was the undisputed king of making lemonade when life gave him lemons.

Born in St Louis as John Roland Redd, he realized early in his career that his blackness was always going to be an impediment to his career, so he assumed a variety of persona’s eventually landing upon the turban wearing Korla Pandit, a French-Indian musician from New Delhi, India according to the story he fabricated.

His schtick was performing somewhat exotic arrangements of standards on the organ or piano, with the occasional original composition, while gazing into the camera mesmerizing housewives with his dreamy eyes, because, yes he had his own television show for many years.

He pretty much single handedly created the genre of exotica and, to his credit, he was able to maintain his deception throughout most of his career.

Here he can be seen in one of his final appearances in the Tim Burton movie “Ed Wood”:

He was grateful to Burton for giving him this cameo as it really gave his career a late but well needed boost.