Arts Entertainment
up an advice booth — kind of like
in New York's
Lucy from Peanuts
SoHo district.
"We had three folding chairs, a
magazine rack for a table and a sign
that read: 'Free advice from a panel '
of experts, presented by the Advice
Ladies.' We offered advice on love,
dating and getting rid of your jerk.
We thought nobody would sit down,
ALICE BURDICK SCHWEIGER
Special to the Jewish News
—
hen Amy Alkon gave
advice to a lovesick
waiter in a New York
City diner, she had no
idea it would lead to a blossoming
career as a syndicated advice colum-
nist. But it did.
wanted to have a good time. And we
never thought about being noticed
by the press."
But around 1992; the group was
thrown into the spotlight. "A writer
from the New York Times came by
and said we were so funny and gave
such great advice that he wanted to
write a piece about us for the Style
Section," Alkon explains.
a column in the New York Daily
News and other publications.
"At first I was rejected by'every
major syndicate," says Alkon. "All
the papers said I was wonderful, but
that Ann Landers and Dear Abby
[had] cornered the market and
another column would be too many.
"They didn't think I would go
very far on my own and I wanted to
When Detroit area native Amy Alkon dishes out advice in her nationally
syndicated column, she draws on humor — and her Jewish values.
,
"I was with a couple of friends
eating at a diner and our waiter was
sad," recalls Alkon, a California resi-
dent who hails from Farmington
Hills. "We asked him to sit down
and tell us his problems, and we gave
him advice. He said we were great
and should do [it] for a living.
"So as a joke, [the three of us] set
4!4'
2/4
2000
84
Alice Burdick Schweiger is a New
York-based freelance writer.
but to our amazement, people lined
up.
Alkon says she and her friends, all
employed during the week by an
advertising agency, continued to
offer advice from 1988 through the
early 1990s — every Saturday in nice
weather from 2:30-5 p.m. "We didn't
charge a fee or ask for donations
because we didn't want anyone to
feel obligated," she says.
"We didn't have an angle, we just
"After the piece ran, NPR called
to have us go on the air. From there,
we were on the Maury Povich Show,
and wound up with a book deal [for
Free Advice — The Advice Ladies on.
Love, Dating, Sex and Relationships,
published by Bantam Doubleday]."
Around that time, Alkon's part-
ners were ready to leave the advise-
ment business — but not Alkon.
Instead, she pursued a syndicated
writing position on her own, landing
prove them wrong. Gladly, I did, and
got into 70 papers by myself." (In
the Detroit area, Alkon's column,
"Ask the Advice Goddess," runs
weekly in the Metro Times.)
Although she doesn't have any for-
mal training in psychology or psy-
chotherapy, Alkon maintains that she
is nevertheless qualified to give
advice.
"I may not have studied psycholo-
gy, but I have good sensible ideas