At the end of the night last Friday, as the comedian was finishing his set, Laffs Comedy Caffe owner Gary Bynum walked out of the showroom and went looking for his right-hand man Gary Hood.
He didn't think the comic was very good and he wanted Hood's reaction. In the 28 years that they had worked together at Laffs and Bynum's comedy club in New Mexico, he had come to value Hood's opinion.
"I came out of the showroom Friday and looked around for Hoodie," Bynum said. "Then I realized, he's not there."
Gary "Hoodie" Hood died Friday morning at home of apparent natural causes after years of battling diabetes. He was 67.
Bynum's assistant Kimmy Gabany discovered Hood at his home after he failed to show up for his regular Friday morning radio gig with The Frank Show on 96.1 KLPX, Bynum said.
Hood was the face and voice of Laffs since 2008, when he came to work for Bynum. But Hood's relationship with Tucson went back to the 1980s, when he moved here from Los Angeles to work the regional comedy circuit that included Laffs and Bynum's club in New Mexico.
He left Tucson in 1996 to manage a comedy club out of state, but returned when Bynum took back Laffs from a previous owner. Hoodie would emcee shows and sometimes do sets during open mic nights. In 2011, he co-headlined a show with national touring comic Matt Golightly — his first headlining gig in decades, he said in a Star interview.
Bynum said Hood developed an audience outside of Laffs with his weekly appearance on the popular Frank Show. But he developed lasting friendship with the stable of Tucson comedians that he mentored.
Hood held weekly comedy classes for a handful of would-be comedians, teaching them the art of timing, how to write jokes and encouraging them along the way. For a stretch of time a few years ago, he invited his students to his home for a weekly home-cooked meal that was heavy on vegetables and fiber-rich foods like wheat pasta.
"These boys eat so much fiber," Hood said at a dinner in 2013. "I tell these guys, 'You're eating like a 63-year-old diabetic'."
Henry Barajas attended Hood's classes and the dinners and forged a deep friendship with his mentor. When Barajas moved to Los Angeles last year, Hood would call him on Sundays "to talk about life, comedy, politics, and comic books," Barajas said.
Barajas last saw Hood on June 4, when they played a show together at Laffs. Barajas went on first and had to introduce Hood at the end of his set.
"I told the packed crowd, 'Your next comic is the godfather of Tucson comedy, and he's my mentor and friend ... please give it up for Gary Hood'," Barajas recalled. "The crowd goes wild. He walks up to the stage, shakes my hand, pulls me in for a hug, and said, 'I love you, boy'."
Tucson comic Josiah Osego described his relationship with Hood as being similar to father and son, and as such "we grew together, bumped heads with each other yet all that fell to the wayside whenever one of us needed help," Osego said.
"In that way I believe that Hoodie not only helped to make better comics but I know for a few of us he helped us be better people."
Tucson comedian Nancy Stanley recalled how Hood was especially hard on her during her first open mic shows. At one of her early shows in 2011, Hood lectured her "on the evils of exceeding one’s stage time, which I then promptly did," she said.
A few months later when she was hanging out at the club, Hood surprised her with an offer for a guest set that night.
"Do you think I'm ready," she asked him.
“No,” he told her, “you’re not. But I don’t like this crowd very much, so you’ll be fine for them.”
Stanley has since become a regular at the club on mic nights and other events.
"You’d walk offstage and into the booth and then you would know, from the look on (Hood's) face or the first words from his mouth if you had done a good job," she said. "It’s going to be a long walk off the stage and past the booth. In a very real sense, I won’t know what kind of comic I am without him."
Arizona Daily Star cartoonist and standup comedian David Fitzsimmons shared the marquee with Hood over the years, mostly at charity events. He said Hood was always quick to accept the invitations, using the occasions to try out new material.
"He would bring his notes and if (the joke) didn't work, he'd toss it on the ground and the audience would laugh," Fitzsimmons said, recalling that Hood always spun a good tale with the other comedians.
"I think I believe none of his stories; they can't be true," he said, laughing as he recalled one story that Hood told about having kids. "I don't think he had any kids."
Bynum said Hood had undergone several surgeries over the past year or more to deal with diabetes-related issues in his feet. Eight months ago he had to have the toes removed on one foot and spent time in a nursing home to rehabilitate.
Services have not been announced, but Bynum said a memorial event will be held at Laffs at 6 p.m. June 26 — a day that Hood had penciled in to hold a memorial for the late and beloved Tucson comedian Walt Maxam, who died in 2014,
"He was going to do a memorial for Walt that day, and now we're going to do a memorial for Hood," Bynum said.
The Frank Show is expected to pay tribute to Hood on the show this morning on 96.1 KLPX.
