JOHN DENVER'S HERE IN TOWN AND SO IS HIS PING-PONG TABLE by Bill Farmer St. Paul Dispatch St. Paul, MN 4-23-76 A ping-pong table and among other things, John Denver, has been air-freighted to our little river town for performances tonight in the St. Paul Civic Center arena. Denver and his wife Annie arrived from L.A. in a Lear jet Thursday afternoon to visit the home of his in-laws, Annie's from Edina. They rented a station wagon and hustled off immediately to St. Paul where rehearsals were in progress for a whole new show making its debut in two concerts here tonight. The sheer money of it all is entertaining. The Lear is but one of the aircraft and ground vehicles involved in assembling a suitable setting for John's light little voice that has to be one of the most popular set of vocal cords in the world. Greeting Him at the Civic Center were five sound men, five lighting men, a rigger who sets up the battery of equipment, two truck drivers and a stage manager. They and his production manager have been here a couple of days just getting ready for the moment. "The sound equipment is about $68,000 in raw materials" estimated Dan Fiala, the production manager. He was not boasting, but, upon request, itemizing this Barnumesque shopping list for a road show that surrounds John's voice. "Lighting, $35,000; revolving stage $7,000, and a ping pong table $78.98." An explanation, he was told, was in order. "We have a running ping-pong tournament on these tours. We set up backstage and everybody plays. Everyone brings his own paddle." Denver is "good, real good" at ping pong. So, while we in the audience out front think he is going through some emotional knothole backstage during intermission, he is not. He is probably playing ping pong. "It is the one vice of the tour," Fiala said. Other men and materials arrived Thursday too. A turbojet Electra and a DC3 have landed at MN-St. Paul Int'l. These two cargo carriers have been chartered because the trucks carrying the equipment to St. Paul cannot possibly get down to St. Louis in time to set up for the next on-night stand this weekend. Thus, the two aircraft are poised for the exodus, lights, camera, ping and pong and all. Another people plane has docked here, too. It is a small plane leased from Aspen Airways for the duration of the tour. It was carry the Starland vocal band of four entertainers which will share the stage with Denver tonight and throughout the tour of 15 cities. "There are 34 people with the show, including wives" fiala said. Thursday night's rehearsals, because the production is a John Denver production and because it is a new one, go beyond midnight and into Friday morning. Fiala does the faithful "I don't know how he does it" in his admiration of Denver's energy. He asked that we not publish the name of the hotel where Denver is staying. "We had trouble with that last year....several hundred people were waiting for him in the lobby." I promised I wouldn't tell. Security is, after all, a problem. That's why John travels with his friendly bodyguard, a hunk who swings more than a mean ping pong paddle. "He's personally a fan of the martial arts," meaning he can knock you sappy-eyed if you get too cute with John. "And he's teaching the martial arts to John." You try to envision bespectacled John clenching his teeth and flat handing a brick but give up in hopelessness. It is now show time. The first performance will seat 18,3000. The second show at 11PM will seat 17,500 admiring fans. Most paid $10 each for a seat, but with a little give and take the dollar figure can be placed at about $9 a head. The rental of the Civic Center will take about $20,000, although the citizens will devour $10,000 to $15,000 in goodies and shell out another three grand for parking, all of which goes to the Civic Center. At about l:30 AM on Saturday John and crew will pack up their sound and light and stage, fold up the ping pong table, grab Annie and split for St. Louis with $300,000.