Randy Brooks' idea of a heaven

Theater, radio, rafting all in Moses Lake resident's blood

MOSES LAKE - It's shortly after New Year's Day, and the large array of decorative miniature Christmas houses Randy Brooks' wife has put up for the last 19 years are still out.

Brooks points to the highest house in the display in the Brooks' living room.

"That is heaven, that's it, man; forget reincarnation, if I go there, I'm not coming back," he says. "I've got my radio station. I'm on the air there. The guy kind of looks like me in there. My Mustang is parked right next to it. All we need is a bookstore and my life would be complete."

When the Brooks family first put the display out, which they call "Debbrook," for his wife Debbie Brooks, all their children's friends would come and pick out a house, saying, "That's my house."

"The next year they'd come in and say, 'Can I still have my house?'" Brooks said. "It was, 'Well, of course you can, or choose another one, you're the first one in the door.' And I had kids that would do that, they'd come in and say, 'Did I get here first? Because I want that one and so-and-so's had that one for the last three years.'"

Brooks has lived in Moses Lake since 1996. In 1969, he got out of the service and while in college, attended broadcasting school. His first job in radio was in Othello.

"There was very little in Othello at the time," Brooks recalled. "To get a pizza, you had to drive to Moses Lake or to go to a movie, you had to go to Moses Lake."

Brooks returned to Othello in 1975, and then the owner bought another station in Quincy, where he sent Brooks to be station manager. Brooks was there for a while, then left to work for the government for a while.

In 1996, he saw an ad in a broadcasting publication for a general manager's job in Central Washington and sent his resume, moving to town from North Dakota.

Today, Brooks is the account executive for three radio stations, including KULE-AM and FM in Ephrata and KAML Ke Buena.

"I've had job offers to go manage radio stations," he said. "I would kill to manage another radio station. But I've had the offers. But it meant moving. Don't want to do that, don't want to leave. Like it too much, too much involved with friends. Just, we like it. It's comfortable. Great people."

Brooks said he wasn't always interested in radio or even music. When he returned from the service, his mother suggested a broadcasting school because he had been in theater while growing up in the San Francisco Bay area.

Theater is another of Brooks' passions. He got involved on a dare from his fellow jocks in high school in the 1960s after an English teacher suggested he audition.

"First play I did, I said a couple of lines and the audience roared," Brooks said. "It was like hook, line and sinker. It was better than hitting a home run. Second best feeling I've ever had in my entire life. And all of a sudden I was doing plays, liking it and did community theater."

Brooks knew about Masquers Theater in the 1970s, but left the area just as it was getting started up.

When he first returned, Brooks went over to Masquers and has been acting in the Columbia Basin, from Quincy to Othello to Soap Lake to Moses Lake, ever since.

"When someone calls me and asks me, 'Gee, would you like to do this show?' it's like, OK, give me the script and I'll read it," he said. "I've gotten to the point now where most cases I don't audition for anything. They call me and say, 'Would you like to do …?' which is a nice feeling."

Brooks also directs, most recently putting on "Man of La Mancha" at Masquers.

"The worst production of that show we did was good," Brooks said. "Most nights it was great and we had about three or four performances which were truly exceptional, and got standing ovations on most nights. This cast just came together, they were just super. Let's put it this way: I will never do that play again, because I would always be comparing whatever cast I was working with what I had done, and I don't think I could do it."

In the past, he said, he probably would have selected acting as his love over directing, but more recently his affection has evened out between the two, to the degree he doesn't know which one he prefers.

"I'll do whatever is needed," he said. "We have an incredible amount of talented people in the (Columbia) Basin in the arts. Painting, sculpture, writing - there are truly some incredibly outstanding people that live in our community here. Acting-wise is my thing, so I can't really comment too much about the other arts, but as far as the quality of talent here, it's tremendous. Wonderful people to work with. I feel very lucky to be able to work with people like this."

In between radio work and theater, Brooks is married to Debbie and has six children and several grandchildren.

One of his favorite hobbies is whitewater rafting.

"I have whitewater rafted most of the nastiest rivers in the United States, and I love it," Brooks said. "Being outdoors, being totally away from anything and everything that has anything to do with my normal life. I love the scenery and I love the rush of doing a Class 4 or 5 river. People say I have a death wish. No, I don't. It's just fun, it's just this exhilarating feeling and when you're through the rapid, it's like, 'Wow. I did that. I didn't get tossed out.'"

Brooks believes he has lived in his Moses Lake residence longer than he's ever lived anywhere in his life. He attributed that to the people living in the community, there if you need them and willing to give one space if that's what's desired.

Brooks said he is happiest when he's reading, and he will read anything, from parapsychology and philosophy to history and baseball.

"I love to make people laugh and I know some of the shows we've done haven't made people laugh because they were serious shows, but at the same time I hope people enjoyed it," he said. "It's like the audience gives me two and a half hours of their life they will never, ever have again. I owe them to make sure that two and a half hours was well-spent, because they're never going to have it back. They chose to give it to me. I know there's a lot of other people on the stage or whatever, but I take it very personally."

Brooks' family has always been very supportive of his love of theater. Brooks' wife has even commented that her husband is so quiet, yet his hobby is going out on stage, doing crazy things and becoming different people.

"I'm very thankful I have the opportunity to indulge my addiction, because theater is very addicting," he said. "Once you do it, it gets in your blood and there's really no drying-out thing for that. There just isn't, and I don't know I would want there to be."