Not really nutty

Jeff Kino celebrates his CD "Half Nuts,"
a dream come true, at Esprit

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By Jason Genegabus
jason@starbulletin.com

IF THERE'S a silver lining to the dark cloud that is a life-threatening illness, leave it to Jeff Kino to find it. The title for his CD "Half Nuts" was born just moments after Kino emerged from an operating room following testicular cancer treatment.

"I had just finished my cancer surgery and was being moved from the gurney to a hospital bed," he said. "And I said to the nurse, 'I'm not crazy ... I'm just half nuts.'"

Even though the entertainer was cracking jokes from his hospital bed, his brush with cancer was no laughing matter. "It was a very fast-spreading cancer," he said. "I put it off about a week, and in that week ... the cancer cells were spreading.

"If I had waited a month, I may have died."

Jeff Kino CD Release Party Where: Esprit Nightclub in the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel, 2255 Kalakaua Ave. When: 7 p.m. tomorrow Tickets: $5 for 21 and over after 8:30 p.m. Call: 735-0292 or 686-4411

KINO GOT HIS start in entertainment in 1982, a few years after graduating from Hawaii Baptist Academy. He had participated in a student-run radio station and interned with Kimo Kahoano at KSSK before landing a job at Kailua station KLEI. "I did every shift," he said.

The following two decades would see Kino follow the route of many local radio personalities, bouncing from station to station and even to the neighbor islands. His latest gig was doing morning drive at KQMQ before the station fired him in April, something that still affects him to this day.

"I didn't leave radio -- radio was taken from me," he said. "It wasn't my choice."

IN THE SEVEN months since, Kino has "been working on projects" and taking a closer look at what he wants to do in the future. "I've done comedy, I've done emcee work, I've done radio, I've done voice-overs for TV," he said. "(This) album is just something I've always wanted to do.

"There were several times I thought we'd be ready to go with this project, but one thing led to another and it just wasn't right. This break from radio motivated me to finish the CD."

And what's happening this week is a dream come true for Kino; "Half Nuts" can be found at all Tower Records and Borders Music locations on Oahu, and he'll get a chance to celebrate tomorrow night with friends at the Sheraton-Waikiki's Esprit nightclub.

"I've thought about doing (a CD) for over 20 years ... even before I got into radio," he said. "It'll have parodies, a couple of songs here and there ... (and) several different characters on the CD."

TOMORROW NIGHT'S party will also feature entertainment by former Krush lead singer Jesse Gamiao, Tino and the Rhythm Klub, the Star Angels, Johnny Helm and Hawaii Performing Artists Academy owner William Daquiaog and some of his students. Kimo Kahoano will emcee. Tickets are $5, and all ages are welcome until 8:30 p.m., something Kino was insistent on during the event's planning stages.

"That was something important to me," he said. "One way to revitalize Waikiki is to not just make it adult-friendly; it should be family-friendly, too."

Now that doesn't sound like too nuts of an idea, does it?

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