Al Isaacs Family Secrets and the Miracle Reunion with His Mom

Wendy & Rich 0:01
Coming to you from the Freedom Federal Credit Union Studios, Hartford County living presents, Conversations with Rich Bennett. 

Rich Bennett 0:30
50 years, you discovered that the story of your life wasn't actually the story you thought it was. Imagine learning at age 52 that you were adopted, and that nearly every one of your family had known except for you. Then imagine finding out that the answers you've spent a lifetime searching for may never come up from the people who raised you because dementia has already begun stealing their memories. That just exactly would happen to today's guest, Al Isaacs. What followed was an incredible journey through DNA testing, g research, hidden family secrets, and an unexpected connection to music that ultimately led into his birth mother, a woman named Mary Smith, a folk singer who once captured national attention on a televised singing competition decades before shows like American Idol ever existed. His memoir, "Finding Mary Smith" is more than a story about adoption. It's about identity, belonging, forgiveness, family, and the realization that it's never too late to discover who you really are. How's it going, 

Al Isaacs 1:49
man? Hey Rich, thanks for having me on, man. 

Rich Bennett 1:51
Oh, my pleasure. I am really looking forward to this. Those of you listening, so Al and I have been talking in a green room. Oh my God, for almost a half hour. 

Al Isaacs 2:01
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 2:01
Apparently, 

there's a lot of things that both of us like, so we got a lot of comments, but I really want to talk about history in this book, because I think it's amazing. So I want to go back to that moment when your mother's oncologist said something he assumed you already knew. 

Al Isaacs 2:22
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 2:23
Can you, and then when you learned that you were adopted, right? Yeah. Take us into that room and tells us exactly when we went through your mind, in 

Al Isaacs 2:33
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 2:33
those first few moments. 

Al Isaacs 2:35
so to give a little context, it was towards the end of COVID, everyone was just kind of getting back to work and whatever. And both my parents had dementia at this point, 

Rich Bennett 2:49
Yeah, 

Al Isaacs 2:50
and hidden them two completely different ways. With my mom, I kind of discovered it. My dad was in the hospital for a shoulder injury, and I was driving her every night to go see him. And then the other night, we would pass by the same house or tree or store, and every night that same house tree or store would trigger the exact same story. 

Rich Bennett 3:15
Wow. 

Al Isaacs 3:16
Except every night the story would have a different ending. I'd get the directors cut every night. So one night she'd tell me about this neighbor across the street who, "Oh, yeah, that guy, he was cheating on his wife, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah." 

And the first couple times I would try to correct her and she'd get angry with me. So 

Rich Bennett 3:41
Right. 

Al Isaacs 3:41
I would just go, "All right, I'll let it ride and see." And, in the United States, it's like, "Okay, something is really wrong." 

So that was kind of when we discovered dementia with her. It was that with my dad. It was like he couldn't form short-term memory, like something would happen. And if he asked him about it a minute later, it was gone. So I was dealing with that. And my mom had her fifth or sixth bout with cancer. 

Rich Bennett 4:13
"What?" 

Al Isaacs 4:13
And it was, Yeah, so she, I mean, she's had parts of her lung removed. Both of them lifelong smokers. 

Rich Bennett 4:21
"Wow." 

Al Isaacs 4:21
Press cancer, lymph node, what not. So she was going through another bout with cancer. So this is why I'm back at work during COVID, in addition to I was a professional comedian, and I taught comedy. And, you know, with COVID, that went away. So I was designing websites. And I get a call from my mom's oncologist saying that, you know, she's trying to get in touch with my mom to get family medical history. Would you wish here on Long Island? you know Ashkenazi Jews and and cancer long history so 

Rich Bennett 4:58
Right. 

Al Isaacs 4:58
she she was trying to get family medical history so I said all right listen I had a 24/7 nurse living with both my folks I said you know call her up and she can be the intermediary get her on the phone ask her the questions she'll ask my mom and you'll be good 10 minutes later oncologist calls her back your mom keeps intercepting calls I can't I can't she keeps hanging up on me 

Rich Bennett 5:23
oh wow 

Al Isaacs 5:24
I said okay I thought well let me see if I can help you out I'll be happy to you you family medical history I'll try to give you what I know and she literally said to me she's oh no no not you I need your mom or dad's medical history since you know you're adopted and that was the first time anyone ever said those words to me before but you 

Rich Bennett 5:45
have wow 

Al Isaacs 5:46
but you have to understand with the dementia mom had been telling a lot of doctors a lot of different things 

Rich Bennett 5:56
right 

Al Isaacs 5:57
so one doctor she'd give this list of surgeries that she never had 

Rich Bennett 6:01
oh 

Al Isaacs 6:02
and another doctor would ask her about surgeries she actually had and she'd say I never had those and and so there was all this so when the oncologist told me that I kind of went no I'm not and the oncologist said well maybe it's a brother of yours I said no no I'm I'm an only child but I assure you I'm not adopted and I literally went back into my office and had a good laugh about 

Rich Bennett 6:26
right 

Al Isaacs 6:26
it and went home and I messaged an ant of mine on Facebook because with covid a lot of family had not seen my parents live and in person for a couple of years and my folks were not on social media and you know if you had as my doctor told me if you had a conversation with my mom for five minutes you'd never know anything was wrong she had her act down she had her she had her in in comedy terms her crowdwork her pattern was solid and she in dad would cover for one another so my family my family had no idea so I was I was texting this and I was messaging her not to say oh my god I'm adopted it was like you're not gonna believe what mom said now 

Rich Bennett 7:21
believe 

Al Isaacs 7:21
you're not gonna 

Rich Bennett 7:22
right 

Al Isaacs 7:22
the 

Rich Bennett 7:22
yeah 

Al Isaacs 7:23
dementia has put in her brain so I I messaged and there was radio and my wife was say my wife said well you know the woman my she my my aunt was 90 

Rich Bennett 7:36
style 

Al Isaacs 7:36
okay 

Rich Bennett 7:37
okay 

Al Isaacs 7:37
Staten Island so my wife's like you gotta give her a second and I was like 

Rich Bennett 7:40
right 

Al Isaacs 7:41
okay and I I I go on my computer maybe the following morning and I have a message back that began with I always wanted to tell you 

Rich Bennett 7:52
no 

Al Isaacs 7:54
and yeah and I literally had to kind of press print screen and bring like I couldn't speak I had to bring it down to my wife and show her it was like wait what um wow yeah so you know I I I went to my mom about it I said you know so I'm I'm adopted and who told that well your doctor and and Ellie confirmed it oh yeah you're adopted you know this nurse is driving me crazy you immediately pivots and that was the end of the conversation right and then a week later when I brought it up again she totally denied it they're lying 

Rich Bennett 8:35
wow 

Al Isaacs 8:35
it's like so I wasn't getting any information there 

Rich Bennett 8:38
and that's hard to watch somebody go through that too dementia 

Al Isaacs 8:43
that's where when 

Rich Bennett 8:44
people because 

Al Isaacs 8:44
when 

Rich Bennett 8:44
everybody's different 

Al Isaacs 8:46
yeah and people as we agreed mad at them and it's like I was too busy you know being sad that I was losing my parents 

Rich Bennett 8:53
yeah 

Al Isaacs 8:53
I you know they were you know the people that I knew were going away and I mean it turns out they weren't the people I thought I knew to begin with but like my dad like a few days after I found out he went to hospice and I lost him maybe two weeks after I found I never told him that I knew because I was like okay you kept this for me for 

Rich Bennett 9:14
you know 

Al Isaacs 9:14
50 

Rich Bennett 9:14
we're breaking 

Al Isaacs 9:15
years 

Rich Bennett 9:15
his heart 

Al Isaacs 9:16
yeah 

Rich Bennett 9:16
yeah 

Al Isaacs 9:16
there's no reason to 

Rich Bennett 9:18
it and he was still 

Al Isaacs 9:19
drama exactly exactly this changed nothing 

Rich Bennett 9:22
dead 

Al Isaacs 9:22
that 

Rich Bennett 9:22
yeah 

Al Isaacs 9:22
you know it's like you had your reasons and I'm not going to find out what they 

Rich Bennett 9:26
but 

Al Isaacs 9:26
were 

Rich Bennett 9:26
right 

Al Isaacs 9:27
okay you know 

Rich Bennett 9:29
man 

Al Isaacs 9:30
yeah 

Rich Bennett 9:30
I'm sorry I could go off there we're 

Al Isaacs 9:31
good no no no no you know it was it was a lot it was there was there was so much going on 

Rich Bennett 9:41
yeah 

Al Isaacs 9:42
at the moment so to ask me like what was that like you know it would have been different if all that stuff wasn't going on it would have been different if I found out 20 years earlier, but it's like that's when I found out and it was kind of a shock like you were saying. Not just that I was adopted, but that my whole family knew and nobody 

Rich Bennett 10:04
But 

Al Isaacs 10:04
told 

Rich Bennett 10:04
nobody 

Al Isaacs 10:04
me. 

Rich Bennett 10:05
told you. 

Al Isaacs 10:06
Which, first of all, my folks, my parents could not keep a secret to save their lives. Okay, they, like, 

Rich Bennett 10:14
they 

Al Isaacs 10:14
if 

Rich Bennett 10:14
kept that one pretty good. 

Al Isaacs 10:15
Well, this is what I think. I think that this was so big it was taking up all the bandwidth and they couldn't 

Rich Bennett 10:22
Yeah. 

Al Isaacs 10:22
fit anything else. Because like, if you were watching Planet of the Yapes and you're dead my dad was walking by. Were you watching the Planet of the Yapes? Yeah, it's, it's, it's muck, muck, that's Earth. You know, like, oh, okay. Ruin everything. Like, yeah, so I don't know how we did for 50s. I don't know how we went to any family functions. I don't know how we went to weddings and like some drunk uncle at the end the night walk by and go, by the way, your mom and dad ate your mom and dad. Good night, you know. 

Rich Bennett 10:50
Right. 

Al Isaacs 10:51
It's amazing that it never, no, it never, never slept. And I did. Yeah, they all knew, but no one close enough to meet like I, I was an only child. I have brothers and sisters. 

Rich Bennett 11:03
Right. 

Al Isaacs 11:03
To kind of go, that's weird. You know, it's like something like there'd be a slip up or something. I was, I was not like my interest. We were talking before about wrestling and, and other stuff. My interests were not, not like my parents, my, my, my dad and me with wrestling is one 

Rich Bennett 11:23
right, 

Al Isaacs 11:23
thing, but like, I've been a musician since I'm six years old. I've been playing the drums. If you want to call out a musician, I know some people, you know, but whatever. 

What do you call it? What do you call a guy who hangs out with musicians? I drummer. Um, 

they didn't play music. They didn't have, what one would consider a sense of humor? 

Rich Bennett 11:50
right. 

Al Isaacs 11:50
They didn't, 

Rich Bennett 11:50
Oh, 

Al Isaacs 11:51
no, but 

Rich Bennett 11:52
they were complete opposites from, 

Al Isaacs 11:54
They were complete opposites, but I, I always chalked it up to a generational thing. 

Rich Bennett 11:58
right. 

Al Isaacs 11:58
It was never like, you know, clearly I not your child. It was, and, and, and they were meticulous. When I was growing up of every time I would, I don't like, like, like, you know, your eyes, you get that from your grandfather. Oh, your height. That's from this. Oh, you're drumming. Well, Aunt So-and-So played piano. So, that's where that's it. Like, they were, they were giving reasons for everything and I'd just be like, oh, okay. And most of the people they were referencing were all dead. So I couldn't follow up with anyone. 

Rich Bennett 12:30
God, 

Al Isaacs 12:30
I would just go, oh, all right. Uh, yeah. I always say the movie JFK when they give you that line, how do you know your dad is your daddy? Because your mom told you so? That's it. My parents told me good enough for me. Okay. Yeah. I just, okay. That's who I am. 

Rich Bennett 12:48
Wow. That, but at 50 years old, too. That's just amazing. And it's funny because you're finding out that a lot more people are finding that they have either, have either been adopted or even brothers and sisters that they never knew about. 

Al Isaacs 13:12
Yeah. Yeah. There's, I mean, A, there's no such thing as like a closed adoption anymore. 

Rich Bennett 13:16
Right. 

Al Isaacs 13:17
But well, I've been finding out, you know, since I dove into this pool was that, um, so many people went and got ancestry or 23 of me, you know, looking to see if they were related to Napoleon and turns out daddy, daddy. It's a lot of, a lot of shocking moments for a lot of people. Whoops. And sometimes they knew, you know, parents do and sometimes they did not know. So it's a lot of awkward thanksgiving's, um, for a lot of 

Rich Bennett 13:46
what do you other think, too? You gotta look, you gotta think about this. You know, are, paren back in the day and grandparents, you had the world wars, 

Al Isaacs 13:56
yeah, 

Rich Bennett 13:56
you know, all these different wars and they're going to all these different countries. 

Al Isaacs 14:04
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 14:05
Seeing all types of different women and everything. 

Al Isaacs 14:08
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 14:09
Yeah. Yeah. And yeah. 

Al Isaacs 14:10
And let's face it. The 70s were the 70s. 

Rich Bennett 14:13
Oh, yeah. 

Al Isaacs 14:14
Um, 

Rich Bennett 14:14
stark. I wonder how many kids came out of Woodstock? 

Al Isaacs 14:16
Yeah. Uh-huh. 

Rich Bennett 14:18
Oh, 

Al Isaacs 14:20
Oh. 

Rich Bennett 14:20
that was the 60s, baby. But still, I mean, it's great. 

Al Isaacs 14:24
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 14:25
We'll 

Al Isaacs 14:25
So, 

Rich Bennett 14:26
blame 

Al Isaacs 14:26
yeah. 

Rich Bennett 14:27
disco. 

Al Isaacs 14:27
That's all. That's it. I actually, I had a lot of help from a guy named John Bame, who had a great documentary called Filling in the Blanks and he had a similar situation to mine just in terms of both. guys New York, 

Rich Bennett 14:44
Mm-hmm. 

Al Isaacs 14:44
Jewish, you know, around same age, you know, early 50s. And he found out, I don't want to spoil his stuff, but it's a great documentary. His mom's mom, dad is not his dad, that they were having fertility issues and she went to a doctor. And back then, late 60s, they didn't have the fertility clinics like today where there were donors and you go through a catalog and pick, you know. This was like, you go see a doctor and the doctor had interns under him and he would be okay, Mrs. Schwartz is coming in at 1130. So at 1115, I need you in a cab dropping off your specimen to the front door. And so John found out that that was the case with him and he had like 14 half siblings out there, you know, this one intern, you know, had all these kids with all these other... So, but what I discovered from him was just that generation 

shame, pride, embarrassment, whatever. They held their cards close to their best and they weren't, you know, telling anyone, you know, like what I, we moved to Long Island when I was two and a half, three years old. So while my entire family knew I was adopted, none of our neighbors, none of my friends, no one around here knew. So while when I was born, when we were in Brooklyn before Long Island, when the neighbors would go, "Hey, you were pregnant yesterday and yet you have a baby." You know, that would be confusing and you would have to explain yourself. Here on Long Island, it's like, "Oh, okay, you're a couple with a baby, okay?" Yeah, No questions, 

Rich Bennett 16:33
no, no. Yeah, wow. 

Al Isaacs 16:33
no backstory needed. 

Rich Bennett 16:35
So now that you found out that you were adopted, how'd you go about finding out who your biological mother was? 

Al Isaacs 16:41
Yeah. 

That's where it starts getting fun. 

Rich Bennett 16:47
Okay. 

Al Isaacs 16:49
Because, 

well, first off, it was a closed adoption. Initially, that's what we thought, that's what we believed because a few weeks after my dad passed, we had to put my mom in two assisted living because the man she got to a point, she couldn't recognize when she was thirsty or hungry and even having a 24/7 nurse wasn't enough. 

Rich Bennett 17:15
Yeah. 

Al Isaacs 17:15
Yeah. So, we did what we had to do, which, for anyone going through it, no explanation needed. You know, it's like, "You're never ready. You never think you...but 

Rich Bennett 17:25
it." 

Al Isaacs 17:25
you 

Rich Bennett 17:25
You're 

Al Isaacs 17:25
gotta do 

Rich Bennett 17:25
not... yeah. 

Al Isaacs 17:27
So, I'm cleaning out their house and squirreled behind a bunch of sweaters on a shelf were my adoption papers, 

Rich Bennett 17:39
which 

Al Isaacs 17:40
to this day I'll say it right now. I say it in the book probably four times. The one question I have, why'd you keep them? If you weren't going to tell me, if you, two years on the planet, why didn't you burn them? Why didn't you shred them? Why didn't you throw them away? No 

Rich Bennett 17:56
It's a 

Al Isaacs 17:56
idea. 

Rich Bennett 17:56
good question. 

Al Isaacs 17:57
Yeah. And I had no one to give me that answer. But, there they were. And, So, I sent off my spit samples to everyone who would take one. I just, you know, if there was a cup laying around, I would spit in it and throw it in the mail. I just, 

Rich Bennett 18:13
right. 

Al Isaacs 18:13
Ann Sestre, 23, me. I'd say, "All right, they were going to...because I guess the dream for everyone in any situation like mine is like, you're going to send this off. And in six weeks, you're going to get a letter with the names of your parents. And you're going to live happily over after." And that's 

Rich Bennett 18:27
Yeah. 

Al Isaacs 18:28
kind, yeah, that's great. What you're praying for. So, that was the first part. The second part was, now I have these adoption papers. And, my aunt, the one who confirmed that was adopted, she told me what she knew, which was not a lot, but it was some hints. And the first hint was, she goes, "I know that your birth father passed away before you were born, and I know that birth mom was an entertainer in New York." Now 

Rich Bennett 19:03
an 

Al Isaacs 19:04
answer, 

Rich Bennett 19:04
no, it...exactly! 

Al Isaacs 19:07
1969 New York, that could mean a whole lot of--, 

Rich Bennett 19:10
and 

Al Isaacs 19:10
I'm going-- cuz even if you said a dancer in New York, that could a whole lot of things. So, I'm going, all right, entertain-- I got down it. So I had just that much to get. But she came, she kind of gave me the backstory. It was a weird backstory about 

that there was another family cousin who was trying to adopt, like, a year prior. and the adoption fell through and the lawyer involved called this ant of mine um to say hey I think we have another baby is this cousin still interested and I guess she had a falling out with this other cousin because she's like I don't know how to call her but I have this other cousin Lucy um they want a baby and he's like okay put me on the phone you know it was like Craigslist it was like who needs a baby we have a baby here you have any pictures of it well they're not born yet but who wants a 

Rich Bennett 20:08
baby 

Al Isaacs 20:09
so um so you know within like a month and a half it was like no baby baby and um for $3, 000 the Isaac's family purchased themselves a brand new baby um you know slightly dented um as those as well because I was I 

Rich Bennett 20:32
reading 

Al Isaacs 20:32
was 

Rich Bennett 20:33
show room show room for me 

Al Isaacs 20:35
you know 

it's like buying a fridge slightly dented it but you know a little pain you know we just 

it knowing a lotus 

Rich Bennett 20:45
corner 

Al Isaacs 20:45
um because on the adoption papers like my aunt had said the adoption but pointed to adoption papers the birth father passed away from um diabetes which I guess in 1969 no one knew a whole bunch about diabetes so they don't know if it's passed down or whatever so like we're just telling you that if this baby is born with complications due to diabetes we're warning you ahead of time and it was very nice of them because according to the papers you're giving us the $3, 000 now you have let's go with best bye you have the 90 day option to return the baby and we will credit you the $3, 000 towards a new baby to actually have on paper how much you were paid for and and and and the return policy on you is nuts trust me so so I so we had this information and this is what we were going up and I I got to tell you um between dealing my mom, dealing with my dad passing away and um and finding all this stuff it was just a rollercoaster 

Rich Bennett 21:52
run yeah 

Al Isaacs 21:54
and um thank God I had my my wife and son here to to kind of help me out and and no went to step in and support and went 

Rich Bennett 22:02
right 

Al Isaacs 22:03
step back because there were a lot of times when I was like yeah I can't do this I'm just gonna I can't cuz I'll tell you this real quick um so I I I I'll say I teach cuz I haven't given up all yet but I I've been teaching improv comedy now since 

the late 90s and one of the first things I talk about in my classes is imposter syndrome 

Rich Bennett 22:29
oh yeah 

Al Isaacs 22:29
or stage fright or you know what however you want to label it but it's that voice in your head and it might sound like an X or a parent or you know a guidance counselor telling you 

Rich Bennett 22:40
mm-hmm 

Al Isaacs 22:41
you ain't good enough you ain't smart enough you don't belong here people are better than you whatever and that part of improv and part of comedy and you know stepping on to a state is knowing to go all right yeah I'm not listening to you and how to kind of get over that 

Rich Bennett 22:56
mm-hmm 

Al Isaacs 22:56
so being performer in many years as I have been I've gotten over that I love to perform I love getting up but um so I thought that voice was gone that voice was looking for an opportunity to come back 

Rich Bennett 23:09
I was good see you got a lot of material you can write now 

Al Isaacs 23:12
yeah oh but which by the way when I went back to the oncologist a couple days later I went hey by the way you're right I am adopted she realized how many hippo laws she had violated by telling me and I'm going 

Rich Bennett 23:30
that 

Al Isaacs 23:30
I'm a comedian don't worry you've just given me three years of material we're good there will be no lawsuit we're fine so 

but that but that voice of you're not good enough now came back to me at weird times going you don't know your parents name you have no idea where you come from and a good one was um the only blood relative that you actually know is sleeping in the other room it's your son other than that you don't know anyone so 

Rich Bennett 24:07
wow 

Al Isaacs 24:08
that was a lot that was a lot to deal with and you know while I wasn't I wasn't doing a really good job of processing 

Rich Bennett 24:17
yeah 

Al Isaacs 24:18
all this stuff that was happening between the two literally were you met your parents now I was I was losing my parents and now I officially but you know I dove into the work of finding 

Rich Bennett 24:44
right. 

Al Isaacs 24:46
And, you know, it was like even like writing this book, I started writing it really early on, when I probably should have been sitting down and talking to someone, I was just spilling it out into my computer. But, yeah, so that was... Wow. 

That was kind of the first time, oh, so I should mention this around this point. So, while I was waiting for my DNA results, I had these adoption papers. Well, you know, here's a good idea. Uhm, not knowing what I'm doing. I don't know what I'm legally entitled to or anything. But 

Rich Bennett 25:20
Right. 

Al Isaacs 25:20
there's a name of a lawyer at the top of these papers and there's a law firm. I don't know if he's still alive, but maybe the firm is still open, or maybe someone else has his documents. And maybe I can contact them and see, you know, I don't know what I'm entitled to but maybe they can, you know, point me in a direction. So, the guy's name at the top of the papers was Stanley Mickleman. So, I googled Stanley Mickleman, expec to find out if Stanley was still around or if he's firm was still around. And all of these articles began popping up about Stanley Mickleman, the nation's most notorious baby broker. 

Rich Bennett 25:59
Get out of here. 

Al Isaacs 26:01
Turns out I was a grey market baby, turns out that I would, my adoption was not entirely legitimate by the book on the up and up. So, for you folks at home, we're playing along. A black, a black market adoption would be, you know, rich has 200 bucks. I've got a baby. Let's meet in a parking lot and we'll swap 

Rich Bennett 26:24
a 

Al Isaacs 26:25
grey market adoption, which is something that Stanley kind of came up with is. We're going to do this privately and I'm going to represent Rich who's looking to adopt the baby and I'm going to represent Al who has a baby. And this way, I can put whatever I want on all this paperwork because no one's overseeing it. No one has to validate a thing. So, 

Rich Bennett 26:49
wow, 

Al Isaacs 26:50
you know, legality, shmigality. Here's what we're going with. So, yes, so I found that I was a, I was a grey market baby and that not only was I going on very little information. I was going on completely falsified information. the stuff that I did have wasn't true because he was just kind of going, OK, this will make things easy. And the first example of that was, yeah, you remember that whole thing about my birth dead passing away 

Rich Bennett 27:21
Yeah, 

Al Isaacs 27:21
before I was born? Yeah, not so much. So, so 

Rich Bennett 27:26
oh my god, this had to be an emotional roller coaster that derailed several times for you. 

Al Isaacs 27:31
Yeah, every, every day was a new plot twist every day and this was, this was really the way that things went. It's like I go to tell an aunt that dementia has done this and she tells me, no, you're adopted. I go to do this to get information and they go, oh no, it was great. You know, the stuff you have is all lies. So, when we first officially found that out was, it was one of the those moments where I gave up where I was like, this is, this is killing me. 

Rich Bennett 28:00
can't 

Al Isaacs 28:01
I do this. So, my wife went to her sister, Victoria, who is awesome. And, and she's a whiz with a computer and do research and stuff she does. 

Rich Bennett 28:14
And, 

Al Isaacs 28:17
she found, well, here's, so here's what happened, went, went why I gave up at that moment. I had gotten my ancestry results back. 

Rich Bennett 28:25
okay, 

Al Isaacs 28:25
And where I'm hoping to get, you know, here's your mom and here's your dad. It was like, here's 6,000 fifth cousins. It's like, oh, this helps me. Not at all. Except, there was one person that was coming up as a cousin that my wife was looking at the DNA percentage and her age. And she was, I don't think this is a cousin. I think this is an aunt that they're just mislabelling. 

Rich Bennett 28:51
Right. 

Al Isaacs 28:52
So, I did a little homework on her and she hadn't been on ancestry in a year. So, I'm like, well, that's pointless to reach out to her through that. But I found her and I found her daughter on Facebook. 

Rich Bennett 29:05
Oh, 

Al Isaacs 29:06
so I Facebook message, and you know, if you message someone on Facebook and you're not friends, it's like throwing a Lego into a 

Rich Bennett 29:14
g 

Al Isaacs 29:14
and hoping they step on it. And that's what happened, except I gave the most cryptic, hey, ancestry says we might be related. Maybe, you know, we can connect. Her daughter answered me, 

Rich Bennett 29:30
Are you 

Al Isaacs 29:31
and 

Rich Bennett 29:31
serious? 

Al Isaacs 29:31
she, yeah, her daughter answers me, and she says, "Oh, this is so great. I'm sure my mom is gonna wanna connect with you in this book." 

Rich Bennett 29:44
Right. 

Al Isaacs 29:58
It's like, this was my last best chance, and you just roadblocked. So, my, so my sister-in-law took that woman's name, and then found her maiden name. And using that, she did a search, and she found an obituary. 

And she knew that I wasn't in a good place, so she went to, she went to her brother, my brother-in-law Frank, and she's like, "Frank, I gotta show you something." And she shows him this obituary, and he falls out of his chair, literally. And she goes, "Okay, I think we have something, then they call my wife over as a family thing, and my wife comes over, she goes, "Do we show out this?" And she showed, she showed my wife. And the wife comes over to me, and she says, "I think Vicki found your dad's obituary." And at that point, I said, "Oh, from 1969, she found his obituary?" And I said, "No," and I said, "Oh, all right, that's weird." So I go, and they show me the screen, and I'm reading the obituary of this guy named Paul Hudgens. And, like, some of the personality traits that are being described in the obituary, I'm like, "Yeah, that sounds, that sounds like me." 

Rich Bennett 31:15
Right. 

Al Isaacs 31:16
That kind of sounds like my son. Oh, yeah, okay. Musician? Ah, interesting, okay, blah-blah. And I'm just going, "Okay, this just might." And I get to the bottom of it, and there's a picture of Paul. And when I tell you, I was looking at a picture of my son, it was like, "Someone took my son Nick's yearbook picture, put it in Photoshop, made it black and white, and put it there." 

Rich Bennett 31:40
Wow, 

Al Isaacs 31:41
like a twin. And I went, "Okay, I guess this is my birth dead." And, like, the emotions, it's like, you know, on the right hand, it's like, "We thought he was passed, but now I'm actually reading about the man, the person." And it's hitting me, you know, it's like, "Yeah!" The real flesh and blood, this is where you came from, person, you've lost a second dead. And the only thing that kind of buffered that was in the last paragraph before that picture was then mentioning that he had a daughter named Molly. And I said, "I think I have a sister." And I'm back in the hunt. 

Rich Bennett 32:24
Wow. 

Al Isaacs 32:24
I'm like, "All right, let's, we're gonna find us Molly." And Detective Hat is back on. I'm going online, and I'm looking for Molly. 

Rich Bennett 32:36
Wait, wait a minute. You say, 'cause you thought he had passed in '69. 

Al Isaacs 32:40
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 32:41
So what was the year? 

Al Isaacs 32:42
1998. 

Rich Bennett 32:43
What? 

Al Isaacs 32:44
1998. 

He just, you know, Stanley Mickelman in all his wisdom decided, you know what? Rather than get the okay of the father of this child, we'll just say he's dead. This way he has no rights to it, and he can't prove that he's the father, 'cause we're not gonna put his name on any birth certificate. We're just going to put deceased. Wow. Yeah. So, and again for the folks playing along at home, Paul's wife, Ros, was not my birth mom. But this daughter of his, Molly, is my half sister. So I wasn't playing games. Now I went online, and I went to a couple of websites. And it's almost disturbing how easy it is to find someone's address these days. 

Rich Bennett 33:40
Oh, 

Al Isaacs 33:40
So 

Rich Bennett 33:40
yeah. 

Al Isaacs 33:42
I found Molly's address, and I hand wrote her letter. I'm like, we're not playing, I'm just gonna, I'm gonna write her a letter. And I mail it off to Chicago, and I wait, and it's killing me. It's like, I mean, just, the wait for ancestry was nothing compared to this, you know, the week or so felt like a year. And 

Rich Bennett 34:05
mail mail. 

Al Isaacs 34:05
Yeah. And I get, but again, 

Rich Bennett 34:09
but it's a personal touch, too, 

Al Isaacs 34:11
Yeah, I'm not a Nigerian prince 

Rich Bennett 34:14
though. 

Al Isaacs 34:14
looking for a donation. It's like, I think, but again, I'm kind of, you know, cryptic, I think we might be related. 

Rich Bennett 34:23
Yeah. 

Al Isaacs 34:25
A week later, I get an email, and it basically began with, we're not just related. I'm your sister, you dummy. Oh, you are my sister, this is crazy, 

Rich Bennett 34:37
wow, 

Al Isaacs 34:37
and within this within like, a second I was on the phone with her. And it turns out she was looking for me for 20 years. 

Rich Bennett 34:45
Really? So she's older. 

Al Isaacs 34:48
She, no, she's younger. 

Rich Bennett 34:49
Oh. 

Al Isaacs 34:50
More than ten years younger than me. Paul never told her about me. But after Paul passed away in 98, she was driving home with her mom, Ras from college. And Ras turned her in says, 'I have to tell you you have a brother out there'. And from that moment on, Molly started looking for me. 

I didn't want to be found. So that, that was it. And, uhm, and the great thing, like, if I was writing this as a fixed, a piece of fiction, as a novel, as a movie, uhm, Molly's mom, Ras, would not be one of the major heroes of our story. 

She has no reason to be. 

Rich Bennett 35:40
Right. 

Al Isaacs 35:40
There's no reason that Ras should have told Molly about a child that her husband had with another woman. Shouldn't have happened. There's no reason that Molly, that, excuse me, that Ras should have gotten on the phone with me and told me everything that she knew about my mom. But she did. This is the woman that she is. 

Rich Bennett 36:02
Yeah. 

Al Isaacs 36:03
And she's the one that began going, 'your birth mom's name is Mary Smith', at which point I went, 'get out of here'.

Really? Could, could it be more exotic? 

Rich Bennett 36:15
Yeah. 

Al Isaacs 36:15
Mary Smith? Really? It's like that's a name that you're 

Rich Bennett 36:18
That's gonna, 

Al Isaacs 36:19
checking. 

Rich Bennett 36:19
that's gonna be a hard person to try to find. 

Al Isaacs 36:22
You know what? 

Rich Bennett 36:22
But 

Al Isaacs 36:22
It's 

Rich Bennett 36:22
that 

Al Isaacs 36:23
like, 

Rich Bennett 36:23
name--

Al Isaacs 36:23
that's, that's a name you're checking to a motel for four hours. 

Rich Bennett 36:26
Yeah. 

Al Isaacs 36:27
That's not 

Rich Bennett 36:27
a-- 

Al Isaacs 36:28
so, but I, you know, she, and she told me she's like, 'yeah, your mom, I was like, I heard from an aunt, she's an entertainer, and, Anterty, she's an amazing singer and guitar player. She's, she's a folk singer, she's amazing. I like, really. So it's like, she started filling in. But like, she had no knowledge of anything about her past, like the 70s. She didn't know she 

Rich Bennett 36:53
and, and, right. 

Al Isaacs 36:53
was, you know, still alive. But she was like, here's everything. This is everything I know. And she was able to confirm for me. We found, you know, because there were a million, like I said, there's a million 

Rich Bennett 37:06
Smiths. 

Al Isaacs 37:06
Mary 

Rich Bennett 37:06
Yeah. 

Al Isaacs 37:07
So, we're finding a million Mary Smiths in, like, you know, yearbooks for, for high schools. Bu she's like, when we, we found this one, she goes, that's Mary. That's, that's, your mom. So now I had a picture of my mom. So I'm going with Mary Smith, and I'm going with a picture of her from high school. Except, of course, it was a school that closed 25 years ago, 

Rich Bennett 37:27
in 

Al Isaacs 37:27
because that's, that's been everything to this point. 

Rich Bennett 37:30
Yeah. 

Al Isaacs 37:31
But it was something. You know, and then the real detective work began. And, you know, I started hooking up with, they called them "Search Angels." If anyone out there is 

Rich Bennett 37:45
I 

Al Isaacs 37:46
in-- 

Rich Bennett 37:46
never heard 

Al Isaacs 37:46
I was 

Rich Bennett 37:46
that. 

Al Isaacs 37:46
looking. Neither the night. This was all new to me. This 

Rich Bennett 37:49
Yeah. 

Al Isaacs 37:49
was all new. But "Search Angels" are people online. You can find them on these websites for folks. We call ourselves NPEs. 

There are people who have non-parental events. 

Rich Bennett 38:03
Okay. 

Al Isaacs 38:03
Or, you know, or late-in life adoption. 

Rich Bennett 38:06
Yeah. 

Al Isaacs 38:07
And there's a lot of us. But in these groups, there are these folks called "Search Angels." Who are people who either used to be detectives and cops, or people who have done this themselves and know all the shortcuts? 

Rich Bennett 38:20
Okay. 

Al Isaacs 38:21
And they're like, "This is how we find the people you're looking for, whether it's siblings or parents or whatever." So, I dove into the world of "Search Angels." And I had a couple of really, really good ones. But the thing is with them, they're very much of, like, " "Percentages." And, like, "Okay, we're going to go back five generations to this one because you match in DNA and we're going to try and work backwards." And, you know, there's this, you know, possibility that it might be that everything is numbers. 

Rich Bennett 38:52
yeah." 

Al Isaacs 38:52
And I'm very much, like, the tangible, You know, let me see something. And, you know, I go a lot into it in the book. There's 

Rich Bennett 39:03
yeah. 

Al Isaacs 39:04
a lot of stuff. But 

what ended up happening was my niece. I have two incredibly talented niece, Samantha and Caitlin, both extraordinary in their own way. Samantha, give her any instruments. She'll pick it up and master it within three hours. And, Caitlin is a performer. She's doing summer stock right now. 

Rich Bennett 39:28
Oh, wow. 

Al Isaacs 39:29
Incredible, you know, talented singer actress. So, my wife is like, you know, if Mary is as good as Ross said, maybe it is like our niece, Caitlin. Because every time Caitlin does a show or a performance or something, there are newspaper articles. There 

Rich Bennett 39:49
are... 

Al Isaacs 39:50
so maybe Mary has a paper trip. 

So I went to my search angels and I said, "This is, you're doing amazing work." I said, "But you gotta do me a favor." Because I'm kind of obsessed about this. I was like, and if you can find any articles, I mean, I was finding little things. 

Rich Bennett 40:14
see 

Al Isaacs 40:14
There were people who trusted me along the way that it could have went either way. There were like classmates and other people who like, and were giving me hints and clues where Mary was at different points in her life. I knew she was in Michigan and then I found that it was more like Flint, Michigan, then I found that it was actually Civic Park, Michigan, the school district. So I said to them, "Here's where we know Mary grew up. Here's the general area." I was like, "Do me a favor. See if there's any information about Mary as a performer, in any articles, any reviews, anything." I was like, and after words reading my emails, I sounded like a complete jerk, like emailing them, going, "I know you've been doing this for 20 years, but being a comedian, I'm telling you how to do your job. You should do this instead, now go." They could have very easily went, "Thanks, it's been nice knowing you." But I told them, I was like, "Look, I was like, at the very least you'll tell me no, and I can like drop this and do something productive. Maybe I'm not on the 

Rich Bennett 41:23
right thing." Right. 

Al Isaacs 41:24
So I sent that off, and maybe within a day, I get a message back from one of the search angels, and she goes, "I think I found something." And it was this tiny article in this Michigan paper about this competition that was being held called Sound of Youth in 1968. And very much like what you had said in the intro, almost like American Idol, where it was like, okay, there was Sound of Youth in these local towns, and then in this city, and then in the state, and then regional. So in this article, it talks about this town having a Sound of Youth competition, and there were three winners. There was the band, there was the male singer, and there's the female singer, and it said the female singer who won this was Mary Smith, and I went, "Oh, okay." It's like me being the internet guy, I'm going, "Okay, now I have Mary Smith, I have Singer, but I also have the search term, Sound of Youth." So now I'm plugging in Sound of Youth, and all of a sudden, BING, BING, 

Rich Bennett 42:40
BING, BING, BING, BING, BING, BING, BING. 

Really? 

Al Isaacs 42:41
Mary Smith won the town, won the city, won the state, won the regional, and then in November of 1968, on a TV show hosted by Duke Ellington, 

Rich Bennett 42:55
"Oh my 

Al Isaacs 42:56
New 

Rich Bennett 42:56
god."

Al Isaacs 42:56
York, she won the whole damn thing. 

Rich Bennett 42:59
Wow. 

Al Isaacs 43:00
She won Sound of Youth, and all of a sudden, it's like Mary Smith. She was everywhere. And now it was like fast and furious. All these articles, all these interviews, my son comes running upstairs with his iPad, he goes, "Dad, you're not going to believe this." And he throws it down in front of me and hits Play, and it's a YouTube video. 

Rich Bennett 43:24
Oh, 

Al Isaacs 43:24
Of a song called "Rap, Running On Down," it was the B side of Mary's first single. And he's playing it. And it is such a 70's, doing, 

Rich Bennett 43:34
yeah. 

Al Isaacs 43:34
doing, doing, doing, doing, doing, and my mind is blown. And my wife just taps me on the shoulders. She goes, "By the way, this is the first time you're ever hearing your mother's voice."

Rich Bennett 43:46
Oh my god. 

Al Isaacs 43:50
And 

now I'm like, 

Rich Bennett 43:56
"Wow." 

Al Isaacs 43:57
My life is suddenly, I've become a Mary Smith cyber stalker. And I'm finding everything I can. I'm finding articles, interviews, and I'm getting to learn. And I'm falling in love with this 19-year-old girl who is chasing a dream. So she was between 18 and 19, which she had me. And, 

Rich Bennett 44:17
Is that her photo on the cover of the book? 

Al Isaacs 44:20
yeah. 

Rich Bennett 44:20
Okay. 

Al Isaacs 44:20
That's her. And that photo on the cover of the book is, it's like, "All right, and I'll tell folks." It's like, 'caus people were surprised when I was putting this book out. First off, like publishers, when I'm handing the book called Finding Mary Smith, they're going, "Oh, what a clever idea for a name, for an anonymous woman." And I'm going, "No, no, 

Rich Bennett 44:42
no, 

Al Isaacs 44:43
her 

Rich Bennett 44:43
no, it's 

Al Isaacs 44:43
name." 

Rich Bennett 44:43
(Martin laughing) 

Al Isaacs 44:45
That's a problem. And the subtitle of the book is, "A Memoir of Family Secrets, "Scream Market Adoption, and My Miracle reunion "with my mom." And they're like, you're just going out there and spoiling it, right with the title. 

Rich Bennett 44:58
(Martin 

Al Isaacs 45:00
Yeah, I'm letting you know the ending. 

Rich Bennett 45:02
laughing)

Al Isaacs 45:03
I find her. And I had to do that. And 

Rich Bennett 45:06
Yeah. 

Al Isaacs 45:06
the reason I had to do that, I'm like, because in the book, I'm going to put you through a lot. Because like for everyone, for everyone, disappointment I'm telling you about, those are another 10 in the book. And for every 10 in the book, there were probably a hundred in real life. But I'm like, it was, it was, it was this all the way through. Every time we thought we had a break, it was, you know, one step forward two steps back every time. 

Rich Bennett 45:32
Wow. 

Al Isaacs 45:33
But, you know, but yeah, that's, that's, that's a picture. And now he's got a picture on the front that was kind of how I found her was through that picture. 

Rich Bennett 45:42
You're listening to the conversations with Rich Bennett. We'll be right back. 

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Al Isaacs 47:27
Where 

Rich Bennett 47:27
They come on, they throw on, it's path 15 minutes, they throw a pitch, throw their pitch out and then read an excerpt from the book. And it's something I found out when listeners hear the actual author read an excerpt. Yeah. It just draws them 

Al Isaacs 47:42
in. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 47:43
Yeah. And it makes them you know read the book. Now we know where your musical abilities came from. 

Al Isaacs 47:49
My whole life makes sense. 

Rich Bennett 47:51
Yeah. 

Al Isaacs 47:52
All of a sudden it's like oh That's you know and even you know we'll just get getting to know Mary 

Rich Bennett 48:02
yeah. 

Al Isaacs 48:02
has been one revelation after another of going okay. 

Rich Bennett 48:07
Yeah. So you were able to meet her. 

Al Isaacs 48:10
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 48:10
Yeah. Alright, what was when you 

Al Isaacs 48:13
Yeah, 

Rich Bennett 48:13
first-- 

Al Isaacs 48:13
I should let you talk sometimes maybe. 

Rich Bennett 48:15
No, 

Al Isaacs 48:16
Oh 

Rich Bennett 48:16
no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, you're doing you're doing perfect man. Look, I'm just a host. I always say the show, it may have my name on it but the show belongs to the guest. It's the guest show. But when you first met her 

Al Isaacs 48:29
yeah. 

Rich Bennett 48:30
walk us through that because I know it was very emotional for you but even for her it had to be. 

Al Isaacs 48:37
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 48:38
If you can because I don't 

Al Isaacs 48:40
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 48:40
want everybody I don't want to give the book away. 

Al Isaacs 48:42
No, no, no, I'm leaving a couple of 

Rich Bennett 48:44
chunks. 

Al Isaacs 48:44
giant 

Rich Bennett 48:44
Okay, 

Al Isaacs 48:45
but yeah. So even just the first time getting on a Zoom call with-- 

Rich Bennett 48:52
Oh wow. 

Al Isaacs 48:53
I mean I was like in my brain. 

I'm an improv guy so 

Rich Bennett 49:01
Like 

Al Isaacs 49:01
usually I'm flying by the seat of my pants. I'm jumping out of the plane and then putting the parachute together. You know? 

Rich Bennett 49:05
Right. 

Al Isaacs 49:06
But in this I'm like reverse engineering. Everything I'm going to say or do, it's like a first date times a thousand because I'm panicking because like I it's like on the plus side having a 50 year old show up at your door to say I'm your son versus like an 18 year old. 

Rich Bennett 49:27
Mm hmm. 

Al Isaacs 49:28
It's a completely different animal. 

Rich Bennett 49:29
Oh yeah. 

Al Isaacs 49:30
Yeah. And I'm coming to you with why did you abandon me? Why, um, completely not the five. I'm a grown man. I have my own family. I have my own life. You know, I just want to like include you. And that was and to be honest that was a weird part for my existing family. The folks who knew I was 

Rich Bennett 49:52
was 

Al Isaacs 49:52
adopted. It 

Rich Bennett 49:52
yeah. 

Al Isaacs 49:53
I'm 

not 

substituting you, this changes. Nothing between us, what you were, to me, on Tuesday, is what you are to me today. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But it's, I think I took them a while to realize that I meant that. Um, so, but with Mary. 

You know, coming to her at this time, because she felt the same thing that Molly did. She thought I knew, but just didn't want to 

Rich Bennett 50:30
Right. 

Al Isaacs 50:31
find it, because she looked for me on and off. But, 

Rich Bennett 50:34
oh, 

Al Isaacs 50:36
but so Stanley, Michealman, a year after the adoption took place, the, um, the birth mom has to come in and sign some papers. 

Rich Bennett 50:45
Right. 

Al Isaacs 50:46
To finalize everything. And she went in and apparently, Mr. Michealman, um, left my folder in front of her and said, I have to go to another room and do something for a few minutes. Please excuse me. So that Mary could open the folder and see. You know, maybe your baby's name is Albert Isaac's and he's in New York and these are his parents. So she knew my name and she knew where I was living and that. So over the years occasionally, she would look for Albert Isaac's 

Rich Bennett 51:15
Yeah. 

Al Isaacs 51:15
except I wasn't going by Albert Isaac's. I was going by Alex. So if you're doing a search for Albert, none of my articles, none of my comedy shows. Nothing was going to pop up for you. So she had no idea what I did with my life. She had, you know, but she was hoping for the best, but, you know, she never, but she assumed I knew and just didn't want to find anyone. 

So, um, I'll start with the very first zoom call that we had was was 

ridiculously emotional. 

Rich Bennett 51:52
Yeah. 

Al Isaacs 51:52
And, um, but I'll tell you the very first thing I said to her before she said a word. I said, I don't know you, but I love you. You. 

Rich Bennett 52:02
Wow. 

Al Isaacs 52:02
You gave me life. Like my parents gave me a life, but you gave me life. It's like, you know, this is, you know, the choice that you made and I thank you and and my wife, like followed suit. She's like, you gave me, you know, the two men in my life. You know, me and her son. And she's, you know, it's like I could never, you know, thank you enough for that. And so that, that was kind of the note that we started off on. And, you know, there were so many things going through my mind, a, I didn't want to come across as a psychopath. You know, I, because I, you know, for almost nine months, almost a year, I had been reading about this girl and falling in love with this girl. I was falling in love with this idea of a person. And now 

Rich Bennett 52:48
Right. 

Al Isaacs 52:48
I'm meeting her flesh and blood, you know, having, you know, lived her own life. She never had any other kids. Um, but that was, you know, that was one of the questions that I had going in. It's like, man, I am about to drop a bomb in someone's life. You know, that I have no idea if she has more kids, I have no idea if she ever told her husband. And I told my wife, I was like, this is the second time in Mary's life that I am showing up unexpectedly. 

Rich Bennett 53:14
So, 

Al Isaacs 53:15
um, so we had, we had a great conversation. You know, video. My family 

Rich Bennett 53:24
and I. Right. 

Al Isaacs 53:25
And then I then I got Mary on the phone and we just had more personal conversations. And, and the one that sticks out was one of the first ones that we had that was so cool. We started talking about our favorite gigs. Like she was telling me about, 

Rich Bennett 53:41
oh, 

Al Isaacs 53:41
it's one show she did at SMU that there were supposed to be 80 people to show up. And there was almost 2000. And she played for them. And she's like, you know, I started this one song and you could hear a pin drop. And, you know, it's like it was, and then I was telling her about, you know, a couple of these different shows that had a lot of meaning to me personally. 

Rich Bennett 54:01
Right. 

Al Isaacs 54:03
And my wife came to me afterwards. She was, you know, I didn't mean to over, you know, I wasn't eavesdropping, I wasn't, but you know, to hear you guys talking about that. She goes, do you know what the one thing that neither of you mentioned in talking about any of these shows. You never talked about what you got paid because with my parents, my, my dad was a Wall Street guy. 

Rich Bennett 54:23
Right. 

Al Isaacs 54:24
And everything for them was defined through value of it was how much were you paid for it? It was you did this show. How much did they pay? Dad had a great show really good. How much did they pay you? How much did they pay you? And with Mary right out of the gate, we got each other. And it was like, 

Rich Bennett 54:44
the 

Al Isaacs 54:44
no, it wasn't. Yeah, it was where you artistically satisfied. 

Rich Bennett 54:49
Yeah. 

Al Isaacs 54:49
Did you get the reaction you were looking for? Did you get new material from it? Did you, you know, what was special about that night? Not the paycheck at the end. 

Rich Bennett 55:00
Right. 

Al Isaacs 55:00
And it was like, yeah, we just, we completely got each other's vibe. And that was amazing. So, like, I, oh yeah, that's the other thing I should mention. Mary lives in England. 

Rich Bennett 55:17
Why? 

Al Isaacs 55:18
Mary lives in England. So, yeah, because having Mary Smith, that wasn't, you know, enough. She had to leave the continent. In 2007, she got married and moved to England. And she lives in a beautiful little town. And so I, I, I flew to England. 

Rich Bennett 55:35
Okay. Good. 

Al Isaacs 55:36
Okay. I was like, we're going to, I, but like for four days, which, when you factor in travel is like two hours. You know, it was, it was, it was crazy. But I'm like, I'm going to dip my toe. I don't want anyone to be uncomfortable. This is again. This is the first date. And I want it to be like, if it's not working out, hey, it, you know, we tried. But I'm nice to meet you. Glad to know you take care now. And it was almost the same thing with Molly. It's like, nothing's just because we're blood. Nothing says that we're going to jiburb that this is going to turns out. I have this amazing sister turns out I have this amazing mom. And, you know, I spent an amazing couple of days with her in England, getting to know her and hearing her stories. And 

Rich Bennett 56:24
Wow. 

Al Isaacs 56:25
the amazing life that she had lived. And it's, what was so cool was I'm like, like, with the folks scene when she was in New York, she lived right next door to kettle of fish and the gas light cafe. 

Rich Bennett 56:43
Yeah. 

Al Isaacs 56:43
Everyone was there. Like she couldn't, you know, we always have a joke in comedy about, you know, name dropping, you 

Rich Bennett 56:52
Right. 

Al Isaacs 56:52
know, that, like, but she couldn't tell a story without it because like she was in the middle 

Rich Bennett 56:57
It 

Al Isaacs 56:58
of 

Rich Bennett 56:58
was, 

Al Isaacs 56:58
it. 

Rich Bennett 56:58
yeah. 

Al Isaacs 56:58
The people that she was opening for the people. She's like, oh, yeah, you know, she used to, she used to double date with Carly Simon. 

Rich Bennett 57:06
Oh my 

Al Isaacs 57:07
Because she was, she was really good friends with comedian David Steinberg, who was dating Colley Simon. So they would come on double dates. And she's telling me, oh, yeah, she was, you know, great, her rolling paper smell like lavender. It's like, okay. 

Rich Bennett 57:17
god. 

Al Isaacs 57:17
Yeah. 

Stop the, it was amazing. It's like all these, but I told I told my wife, I was like, I have such cool, instead of having memories, I have really, really cool stories. 

Yeah. And like, yeah, yeah. And again, the vent diagram overlapping, you know, when she heard that I did improv, you know, back in like the late 60s, you know, when they would have shows, it wasn't ever strictly music or it was, it was like, okay, we're going to have a couple of this, never going to have a comedian, never going to do this. So when she used to do her shows at the bitter end of New York, and that's the picture of her standing for the bitter end 

Rich Bennett 58:02
on the 

Al Isaacs 58:04
book cover. Like her big brothers was an improv troupe called the Ace Trucking Company. 

And 

Rich Bennett 58:14
I sound familiar. 

Al Isaacs 58:15
Well, they probably were on the tonight show, maybe 60 times. 

Rich Bennett 58:20
Okay. 

Al Isaacs 58:21
And like, they're members. Like the guy, you remember the guy from the beer commercials, we call him, you're a you can call him. 

Rich Bennett 58:28
Yeah. 

Al Isaacs 58:28
Yeah, he was one of their members, and but the lead guy and it was Fred Willard. 

Rich Bennett 58:35
Oh, 

Al Isaacs 58:36
And I was the lead guy who was like, you know, Mount Rushmore. 

Rich Bennett 58:40
yeah. 

Al Isaacs 58:40
Like she said that I went, what? It's like, 

Rich Bennett 58:45
she's 

Al Isaacs 58:45
having like a whole life just making sense. 

Easy, 

but you know, I will say this, you know, because this is the fun part. But you know, it's like, 

it occurred to me a little later on. Well, first up with my folks, both of them getting dementia was terrifying for 

Rich Bennett 59:10
me. Yeah. 

Al Isaacs 59:11
Because my whole life with the problem with comedy has been my mind. And here I was watching both parents lose theirs. And I'm going, well, that's 100%. That this is my destiny. Here's, here's where, here's where the road leads enjoy it while you can. 

So finding out I, that I was not genetically predisposed to this. At the same time was such an amazing relief. But then such guilt at being relieved. Does that make sense? It's like, I'm happy. This isn't happening to me. Oh, why am I happy? 

Rich Bennett 59:59
Yeah. 

Al Isaacs 1:00:00
Yeah. This is happening to these folks. But what also hit me with this. And where I gained a lot of understanding about where my parents were coming from. Right. You're adopting a kid in 1969. And. I'm gonna, you know, it's like you're putting a recipe in the oven and you're going I want to make this. And then you pull it out of the oven and, and it ain't that. And 

Rich Bennett 1:00:27
Yea. 

Al Isaacs 1:00:27
it's because, well, and I, I realize, you know, you talk about nature versus nurture. 

Rich Bennett 1:00:34
um, 

Al Isaacs 1:00:45
I mean, for my parents, that I'm not made from the same stuff. 

Rich Bennett 1:00:49
Yeah. 

Al Isaacs 1:00:50
And I didn't know that. And I kind of wish I did because maybe I could have tempered or figured out a way to include them more. 

It just, it, it struck me that it's like, here I am striving to do bigger shows and perform for other, and win and do this. That, like, that I'm thinking eventually this is going to make them proud and satisfy. And it's like there was nothing I was ever going to do in that realm that was going to make that happen. 

Rich Bennett 1:01:23
Right. 

Al Isaacs 1:01:24
And I didn't know that. I didn't know, I didn't know the rules of the game we were playing. And, and, and, and you talk about mixed emotions. When we were cleaning out my parents house. my, my dad, we're going way over. I'm sorry. 

Rich Bennett 1:01:39
You know, 

Al Isaacs 1:01:39
My dad, 

Rich Bennett 1:01:40
you're fine. 

Al Isaacs 1:01:41
My dad, um, back in the 80s, created a man cave before that was the thing. But no one was doing man cave. My dad, retired from Wall Street. He's making himself a man cave. Had them build this giant room over the garage that you can get into through their bedroom. Um, vaulted ceilings, giant pool table, big screen TV before that was a thing. He made himself a man cave before they were man cave. But the pool table remained covered and he used it as a desk as he watched financial channels on his big TV. What? So he kind of kind of wasted the whole idea. Um, but in cleaning out this man cave, which was a job. Because like I said, he was a smoker forever, so trying to. 

Rich Bennett 1:02:31
Oh, man, 

Al Isaacs 1:02:32
I want the wall. 

Rich Bennett 1:02:33
Yeah. 

Al Isaacs 1:02:35
But under a pile of papers on that desk of these things, there was a folder that had my name on it. And I was thinking, you know, tax 

Rich Bennett 1:02:48
investment. 

Al Isaacs 1:02:48
information, 

Rich Bennett 1:02:49
Right. 

Al Isaacs 1:02:49
Something about my house, something financial, and I opened the folder. And it was all the newspaper 

Rich Bennett 1:02:56
articles, all 

Al Isaacs 1:02:56
ads for my shows and interviews that I had done. And it was literally like the exact same thing that I was collecting about Mary. And I'm like, the emotions that hit me because I'm going, I was right here. I would have talked to you about this all day long. Anytime, it's like, you know, because part of me is going, oh, maybe he was proud 

Rich Bennett 1:03:21
that. 

Al Isaacs 1:03:21
of 

Rich Bennett 1:03:21
Yeah. 

Al Isaacs 1:03:22
But man, tell me, I was right here. It's like, were you hiding this from my mom? Why? Some 

Rich Bennett 1:03:30
of them didn't know how to. 

Al Isaacs 1:03:31
Yeah. That's the bottom line. That's the bottom line. You know, that part. It's like at the same time, it made me so happy but it broke my heart at the same 

Rich Bennett 1:03:39
Yeah. 

Al Isaacs 1:03:39
time. 

Rich Bennett 1:03:40
Wow. I have to ask you this with Mary. 

Al Isaacs 1:03:44
Yeah, 

Rich Bennett 1:03:44
Is she still playing music? 

Al Isaacs 1:03:47
No. Um, and this made me so sad. Um, she doesn't. She retired from it. She walked away. You know, what, when I met Mary. 

She was 72, 

Rich Bennett 1:04:02
Okay. 

Al Isaacs 1:04:02
but I think, and, and don't ask me because I think her voice is lovely. I think she's still, you know, because when we had her over the house, I'm like, I got to do a do at with Mary. I, 

Rich Bennett 1:04:12
Yeah. 

Al Isaacs 1:04:12
I, I can't not. But she's like, no, I don't sing anymore. Like I, I understood with her guitar with arthritis. 

Rich Bennett 1:04:19
She's right. Oh yeah. 

Al Isaacs 1:04:20
Because she was a thing 

Rich Bennett 1:04:21
Tard. 

Al Isaacs 1:04:21
or pick her. Yeah. But I'm a, because every now and then we went to a park when she came. Um, I forgot to mention that after I went to England, a year later, she came to New York. 

Rich Bennett 1:04:32
Okay. 

Al Isaacs 1:04:33
It came with us for a week. And we took her around to all the places that were important to us. And then she took us into Manhattan, into the city, into the village, and showed us all the places that she used to play and, 

Rich Bennett 1:04:43
oh, wow, 

Al Isaacs 1:04:44
that was just priceless. In fact, she, she took us to this one restaurant called Arturos. That was around the block where she lived, and she, she waitress and bartended there while she was singing. And they took a picture of her, and it's still hanging over the bar, but the picture looks like it could have been taken last week. And she's like 21 and it and she's gorgeous. 

Rich Bennett 1:05:10
Wow. 

Al Isaacs 1:05:10
Like they told us that like people sit at the bar and just stare at it. Not realizing that this woman is now in her 70s, 

Rich Bennett 1:05:17
Yeah. 

Al Isaacs 1:05:17
but that's okay, but um, that being said, yeah, so she, she doesn't sing anymore. but like her friends, oh yeah that was the, her friends as soon as they heard she had a sun out there and we're reconnecting with, they started sending me pictures and photos and they started sending me these great videos of her performing in nightclubs and stuff and like just awesome. I mean the and boy I'll tell you what, 

eBay. What a, what a, the stuff that I found from her on eBay 

Rich Bennett 1:05:57
what a, what a, what a, what a, 

Al Isaacs 1:05:57
because she was singing, she was doing her stuff, she was doing backup stuff. There was a guy named Barryman who, you know Barryman I wrote on Broadway wrote a bunch of different songs. So when all of these like songwriters began going, hey I should sing my own stuff. He went to the studio, he had Mary sing backup. So if you find Barryman, 

Rich Bennett 1:06:23
wow. 

Al Isaacs 1:06:23
There's an awesome Broadway, Mary's doing backup on that, but when she was in a studio they had extra studio time. So recording at Jimmy Hendrix, Electric Lady Studios, Mary cut this promo album with this guy, that was never released. So fast forward to Al looking for Mary Smith memorabilia. I found the real to real 

Rich Bennett 1:06:48
being oh come on. 

Al Isaacs 1:06:50
It's in the closet behind me because the guy who was the assistant to the producer thought oh maybe someone would want to buy something from Jimmy Hendrix recording studio. It's like yeah that's, 

Rich Bennett 1:07:05
but not because it's his name 

Al Isaacs 1:07:08
right. 

Rich Bennett 1:07:09
Wow 

Al Isaacs 1:07:10
because even he's going 

Rich Bennett 1:07:10
amazing 

Al Isaacs 1:07:10
oh it's Mary Smith it's some you unknown person no it's Mary Smith. So yeah so I finding a lot, but like her stuff was so good. It was it yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:07:22
know 

Al Isaacs 1:07:23
I 

Rich Bennett 1:07:23
wow 

Al Isaacs 1:07:24
wish she was still for, but also you know she had long Covid that she's still kind of 

Rich Bennett 1:07:29
working 

Al Isaacs 1:07:30
on. So man I still got my fingers crossed that when you know she got to the other side that you know that maybe she would 

Rich Bennett 1:07:39
I was going to because that would be pretty cool if you two could not just do a duet together. 

Al Isaacs 1:07:46
Yeah 

Rich Bennett 1:07:47
but even a show together where she's singing and you're doing your stand up. 

Al Isaacs 1:07:51
Yeah 

Rich Bennett 1:07:52
yeah 

Al Isaacs 1:07:52
yeah 

Rich Bennett 1:07:53
yeah that would be cool. 

Al Isaacs 1:07:54
That's kind of the dream in it. Yeah yeah man. 

Rich Bennett 1:07:59
Look all the searching you did all the work you did I have a funny feeling you're going to make it happen. 

Al Isaacs 1:08:06
When I look back, you know they always talk about how when you're living life forward not it makes sense but you look back and you go oh that's why that. 

Rich Bennett 1:08:13
Yeah 

Al Isaacs 1:08:14
that was that was this whole journey. That was none of this should have happened. There are so many times that this should have gone sideways right you know all we would have taken them and I tell people I'm like you know because what people say to me oh don't you are you angry that you didn't find out 30 years ago yeah and and there and I won't lie there's a part of it's like man what I love to take my little sister 

Rich Bennett 1:08:38
treating 

Al Isaacs 1:08:39
yeah of course I all those years but the realist the person who's looking at this black and white this happened exactly when and how it was supposed to because had I found out five 10 years earlier New York had different laws when it came to finding your pre-adoption birth certificate New York didn't allow you to do DNA tests through the mail and DNA tests were not where they are now right so um that part wouldn't have it right it was literally there had I found out a year and a half two years later my aunt who first confirmed that I was adopted since passed away um two other people who were early on giving me clues passed away so it was like there was this window for this to happen 

Rich Bennett 1:09:26
right 

Al Isaacs 1:09:27
and that's when it happened before after none of this happened 

Rich Bennett 1:09:32
why 

Al Isaacs 1:09:32
so this was exactly when and how it was supposed to 

Rich Bennett 1:09:37
with the book have 

Al Isaacs 1:09:38
happen yeah 

Rich Bennett 1:09:39
you thought a bet of course you would have to get her permission but have you thought about putting like a QR code where people can if she allows you to like upload music to Spotify we're taking click on the QR code and have the playlist 

Al Isaacs 1:09:58
go to go to l isics.com that's a l is a cs.com yeah because you know what um 

i'm going to jump to the side for one second put a pin in that thing and come right out to it 

Rich Bennett 1:10:16
okay 

Al Isaacs 1:10:16
the hardest part of writing a memoir right now is knowing exactly want to begin and went to end. And... I'd chose something fairly dramatic to begin the story, uhm, and the ending kept- I kept pushing the goalpost on that, right? 'Cause I kept going, okay, the natural end for this is me getting on the plane to go visit Mary. And then that visit was unbelievable. I'm like, "Okay, it's gonna be after that. Okay, it's gonna be- I'm gonna include this." Oh, Molly's coming? Oh, okay. Oh, Molly just gave birth to my niece. Oh, well, it got to include that in the book. And we kept going back and back, and I'm going, "I don't know how to end this book." So, while I was searching for Mary, there was a search going on parallel to that, which was, "Man, I wish I could find sound of youth", 

right? The TV show that she won, and I should not have been able to find it, because it happened live, and shows from that time period, unless it was, you know, a TV show that, you know, there was a library that they were going to put in this indication, or it was something that they were going to air again and get- it only air the one time. Almost everyone, every door I knocked on. They went- yeah, it's probably gone. And it's 1968. 

Rich Bennett 1:11:51
Yeah. 

Al Isaacs 1:11:52
No one's got BCRs, that's not a thing, so no one taped it. They're like, "You're not gonna find it." And I went to a WOR, which is the studio here in New York where it originally, you know, they taped it from and air from. WOR doesn't exist anymore. So I went to the studio that took over all their stuff, and like, "Yeah, no, we don't have I contacted Duke Ellington's people at the Smithsonian, and they have a collection of his stuff. They actually had his diary that mentions it, which was really, 

Rich Bennett 1:12:23
that." 

Al Isaacs 1:12:24
really cool, 

Rich Bennett 1:12:24
Wow. 

Al Isaacs 1:12:24
but he didn't have it. So I'm finishing up writing the book, I'm doing my research, because I'm all about- I'm a crazy when it comes to context. 

Rich Bennett 1:12:34
and 

Al Isaacs 1:12:35
I'm a deep dive kind of guy, right? And the way I wrote the book is, "I'm taking you on my journey. I'm- I should be telling this on the other podcast, but I'm telling you now. We could repeat it myself." I'm going step-by-step how I did this, but before I make any discovery, the chapter before, I'm telling you the story about the discovery, so you understand why it's so important, right? So before I talk about finding, you know, stuff about sound-of-youth, the chapter before, I tell you the story of sound-of-youth. And how it came to fruition, and the guy who's making it, and so on, s forth, like, I tracked down the producer's son to see if he had information. 

Rich Bennett 1:13:24
Wow. 

Al Isaacs 1:13:25
You know, I- and everyone was great, but no one had it. So I- in doing this deep dive, like one of the last things I did, I found this article from 1967 in this radio magazine that happened to be, you know, on the internet. I don't know when it was on the internet. I don't know why it was put on the internet, but it's on the internet. So it had a couple of things, and it was mentioning how sound-of-youth that Sid Bass was the name of the producer. Sid Bass was bringing in a couple of other professionals to help produce what would be the final, you know, episode, 

Rich Bennett 1:14:08
Right. 

Al Isaacs 1:14:08
you know, where they announced the winner. And they mentioned this guy's name, and it topped my head. I have too much stuff rattling around. But he- he mentions this guy's name, who's going to help him produce, because this guy was- he produced all of the Miss America pageants in Miss USA, and he was the guy behind the Republican National Conventions being aired on TV, and he did over 1,500 television commercial. You know, he had this, you know, this crazy resume. Except it said that the guy was going to film it in Miami, because he's from Miami, and this was his home base. So I kind of went- Okay, that's interesting. Maybe I'll include it in the book that he was supposed to be the producer, because I'm going, it doesn't sound like it's the producer, because it happened in New York. 

Rich Bennett 1:14:57
right. 

Al Isaacs 1:14:57
And at this point I was in touch with Mary. I emailed Mary. Does his name sound familiar? Did you work with this guy? And she says- and by the way, that's the other. Mary's mind is like, she could tell you what she had for 

Rich Bennett 1:15:09
born. 

Al Isaacs 1:15:09
breakfast the 

Rich Bennett 1:15:10
Sharp 

Al Isaacs 1:15:10
day 

Rich Bennett 1:15:10
attack. 

Al Isaacs 1:15:10
before I was 

Rich Bennett 1:15:10
Yeah. 

Al Isaacs 1:15:11
Sharp is attack. By the- do you remember this guy from Sennis? And she's like, no, that- that name doesn't ring- because she knew like everyone else I was talking about, but that's good name doesn't ring bell. So I'm like, oh, I'll put that in as a footnote that this guy was supposed to be the producer for whatever reason. Yeah, if things fell apart. So, as I did a little more research into this guide to get, you know, just a little more color for the book, I saw that there was a university that had his papers in his collection. So I emailed them to say, "Hey, he was supposed to do this show, I don't think he did it, but maybe among his papers there are notes or photos or, you know, anything?" And they're like, "Well, we'll check." And they got back to me and they're like, "Well, nothing in the papers, they haven't really sorted it out. There's a whole box of stuff." And yeah, you know, there' a giant reel that says sound of Youth on it. But, you know, and I'm going, "Uh, 

Rich Bennett 1:16:15
Jackpot!" 

Al Isaacs 1:16:18
Maybe? Can you do me a favor? I like, "Can you, like, look at the first minute or so and tell me if Duke Ellington is there?" And they're like, "Well, you know, it's on this really rare kind of video tape, so we don't have the player here." And I'm going, "Guys, you're killing me." like, in the back of my mind, that little voice who's 

Rich Bennett 1:16:42
'Cause 

Al Isaacs 1:16:42
trying to get my attention is going to sound of Youth. It's like, "This is probably a TV commercial for a bunch of H-tracks and you're going to waste $1, 000." No, no, no, no, we're going to roll the dice. Do me a favor. Is there someone that can, you know, transfer this? Can we get this digitized? And they're like, "Well, you know, we can..." But then they sent me a picture of the real, I have the picture in the book and on the picture, it has Sticker on it, that's a W-O-R-T-V. 

Rich Bennett 1:17:13
"Oh, 

Al Isaacs 1:17:14
I'm going, sit, that's it." And again, they're trying to temper my expectations. They're like, this tape, you know, it's been sitting here. I don't know, how it's, you know, for the past 50 years. It might look okay on the surface, but bacteria, blah, blah. 

Rich Bennett 1:17:35
"Wow, 

Al Isaacs 1:17:35
It's like, "Do it." And they did it, and it was sound of youth. It's the show. And when you know she is the very first face you see when that show comes up, and it's like email, there's like, "Mary, I found it." And I literally went, "I've got the ending for my book." It's like, you know, this was my national treasure part two, I found sound of youth. So yeah, so if you go to my website, and I put it in the book too, I edited it down, and you can see her performance on sound of youth and you can hear the first single that she put out called Summer Go Slow that she recorded because she won a record contract from that. So yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:18:19
How is her reaction when she saw it? 

Al Isaacs 1:18:21
Blew her mind. She's like, you know, it's like because she saw it the one time in November of 1968, and that was it. And it's like, yeah, it's like, I told her, it's like, when you got me, you got a package deal. You got 

Rich Bennett 1:18:40
you got 

Al Isaacs 1:18:41
a whole other family over here. You got a career retrospective. You got a book with your picture on it. Come on. Yeah, she, she's become a celebrity 

Rich Bennett 1:18:52
English 

Al Isaacs 1:18:52
in 

Rich Bennett 1:18:53
again. 

Al Isaacs 1:18:53
Yeah, well, when, when I, you know, I told her, I said, "Look, I wrote this thing, I'm going to mail it to you. If you don't want me to, I won't put it out." 

Rich Bennett 1:19:02
like, 

Al Isaacs 1:19:03
I 

Rich Bennett 1:19:03
"Right." 

Al Isaacs 1:19:03
was But if you want me to change something and she says don't change a word, she's like, you know, and and I put it out, but I think I don't know if it occurred to her that when I put out a book, when they publish a book, it doesn't just come out like in New York because I put the book out, and then maybe a week later one of her friends who lives in Sweden emailed her goes, "I just bought your son's book." And she's like, "Wait, what?" And like, then all the people in her community in the UK, they're all buying the book. And she's like, they didn't know about all this stuff. I moved to England. I was just the person with the funny accent. They had no idea. I'm like, "Yeah, you're a celebrity now." See? 

Rich Bennett 1:19:48
you 

Al Isaacs 1:19:48
So, 

Rich Bennett 1:19:48
know, any plans on doing an audio version of the book? 

Al Isaacs 1:19:52
I don't know if you can see this giant booth that's sitting right next to me? 

Rich Bennett 1:19:55
No, I can't. 

Al Isaacs 1:19:56
This big black? 

Rich Bennett 1:19:57
"Oh, okay, yeah." 

Al Isaacs 1:19:58
Yeah, I just finished recording the audio 

Rich Bennett 1:20:00
version. "Oh, so you did it yourself?" 

Al Isaacs 1:20:03
I figured no one sounds more like me than me. 

Rich Bennett 1:20:06
"That is true." 

Al Isaacs 1:20:08
So, and you know, I keep going into these side streets. But, you know, I went into this book. Like I think I said, you know, off camera before, um, like that, the expectation was, if, if, you know, anyone more than, you know, my family and maybe one neighbor bought this. It's all gravy. Um, I, I sincerely mean that because I really, I didn't, 

Rich Bennett 1:20:38
yeah. 

Al Isaacs 1:20:47
And I don't anticipate being adopted again. So, this is it. 

You know, I sent out this book. I'm like, you're, you're, you're gonna invest a whole lot of time and effort into this. 

Rich Bennett 1:21:02
Yeah. 

Al Isaacs 1:21:03
And I was lucky enough to find someone who believed in it. Yeah, it's like, because it's not like you're gonna put time and money into something going, oh, every year we've got a new, you know, a piece of fiction from him. 

Rich Bennett 1:21:16
this is 

Al Isaacs 1:21:16
So, you know, so when they came to me to, like, you want to do an audio book? Like, yeah. And, and I had a great editor who got me. Because that was a big thing, too, it was like, I, you know, I have a very specific, for my days of being a wrestling journalist, I have a really specific way of writing. I 

Rich Bennett 1:21:32
right. 

Al Isaacs 1:21:32
write the way I speak. So, like, doing the audiobook, too. It was very easy for me because I just, it, it, it sounds like a conversation that we're having. 

Rich Bennett 1:21:41
Yeah. 

Al Isaacs 1:21:41
But there were even a couple of moments in the book. Like, you know, hey, I'll, this, you know, sentence you have here. You really want to go with that. That's like, that's the way I talk. I was like, 'cause even if you change it in the print, when I go in the booth, that's how it's coming. 

Rich Bennett 1:21:53
It's coming. Yes. 

Al Isaacs 1:21:55
They 

Rich Bennett 1:21:55
Yeah. 

Al Isaacs 1:21:55
go, okay, we're, we're cool with that. So they were, we're publishing was, was awesome with me. I so appreciate everything they did for me. 

Rich Bennett 1:22:03
Then, those of you listening, you know what I'm going to say already, when you purchased the book, Finding Mary Smith, the memoir of Family Secrets. Great market adoption of the Miracle Reunion with my mom. Make sure you leave a full review after you read it. Everywhere that you can leave a review. Take a photo of yourself holding the book, posting on social media. Take out and it tagged me and tagged everybody in it. Whatever you can, because, you know, I want to sell more books. 

Al Isaacs 1:22:37
Sure. 

Rich Bennett 1:22:38
And of course, purchase copies for other people because they'll enjoy it as well. So, Al, is there anything you'd like that before I get to my last question? 

Al Isaacs 1:22:49
Well, Rich, the only thing I would add to is, you know, I have so many different folks reading the book and they're hitting them different ways, whether it's, you know, living with folks with dementia or finding out, you know, adoption or people, you know, or they're searching for for folks. Yeah. Whatever it is you're going through, you are not alone. There is so many folks online who are willing and able to help, including me. And if I, if you do read the book and you have a question or I can help you come to my website, drop your line, I will do it. I would like to pay it forward 

Rich Bennett 1:23:27
Yeah. 

Al Isaacs 1:23:27
for all the folks who help 

Rich Bennett 1:23:28
Yeah. 

Al Isaacs 1:23:28
me. 

Rich Bennett 1:23:28
Awesome. 

Al Isaacs 1:23:29
I'd like to help other folks. 

Rich Bennett 1:23:30
That's great. All right. So, I don't know if you know how this works or not, but you're going to pick the last question. 

Al Isaacs 1:23:37
Okay. 

Rich Bennett 1:23:37
So, I need you to pick a number between one and five. 

Al Isaacs 1:23:41
Let's go with the three. 

Rich Bennett 1:23:43
Three. All right. Now, I need you to pick a number between 41 and 60, 

Al Isaacs 1:23:50
52, 

Rich Bennett 1:23:51
52. We're going to see how good you are because a lot of times the question and lines of what we've been talking about somehow. You said 52? 

Al Isaacs 1:24:00
Yes, sir. Oh, boy. What have I done? Always. 

Rich Bennett 1:24:06
done? It's 

Al Isaacs 1:24:06
What have I 

Rich Bennett 1:24:06
good. This is good. What is something you've come to appreciate more as you've gotten older? 

Al Isaacs 1:24:14
What is something I have gotten to appreciate more as I have gotten older? Man, I, I got to go with family. 

I, I got to go with family and I, you know, in, in doing interviews and, and stuff and the book appearances, you know, the authors, 

Rich Bennett 1:24:37
yeah, 

Al Isaacs 1:24:37
you know, I have been talking about my family a lot. And in writing the book and in recording the book again and, and, and reliving a lot of it. I realize, man, how lucky and fortunate and blessed I am. And I couldn't have done any of this without my beautiful wife. I could not have done any of this without my amazing son. They're support for me at every step has been beyond amazing. And, uh, I, I just, I, I loved them so much. And, and, you know, everyone has stepped up and molly and, and Mary and, you know, and, a I tell folks, um, because, you know, when, when I do interviews with folks like yourself, um, and they say to me that, um, I, I, I should be really happy that my book gives hope to, 

Rich Bennett 1:25:37
yeah, 

Al Isaacs 1:25:38
well, you know, who are looking for But I, I've read enough stories online and, and in these support groups to know that it doesn't always end up, in fact, 

Rich Bennett 1:25:49
someone. That's 

Al Isaacs 1:25:49
you know, 

Rich Bennett 1:25:50
true, 

Al Isaacs 1:25:50
it 

Rich Bennett 1:25:50
yeah. 

Al Isaacs 1:25:50
usually doesn't. Um, and, and I tell, you know, folks, you know, if you have the chance to find someone out, if you, if, you know, people come to me saying, you know, this says I have, I have brother out there, and I have his email, should I. And I like a million percent. Yes. You know, it, it doesn't mean you're tied to them for life. If it, 

Rich Bennett 1:26:10
right. 

Al Isaacs 1:26:10
Work out. But you'll never have that regret. You know, improv was always yes and you just, you 

Rich Bennett 1:26:16
Mm-hmm. 

Al Isaacs 1:26:17
do it. And you, you deal with it afterwards. And how many of us have a cousin or something like, okay, you know, once every five years would drop the line, you're, you're not. It's no commitment. Um, but I realize that in my situation. Um, it's like, it's like the Oscars, right? Um, when someone gets up there and, and they're holding that statue and they say, see, this is proof that dreams come true. It's like, no, this is proof that your dream came true because there's four other people still in their seats who have that exact same dream. Didn't come true for them. 

Rich Bennett 1:26:54
Oh, 

Al Isaacs 1:26:55
so, you know, so I, I, I, my biggest hope is that, you know, this helps folks and man, if, if, if you get half the, the satisfaction that I got, 

Rich Bennett 1:27:11
yeah, 

Al Isaacs 1:27:11
if you, you know, whatever answer you need to hear, because it is always the one you want. 

Rich Bennett 1:27:17
Right. 

Al Isaacs 1:27:18
But, you know, whatever it is that you need that will help you move on. I hope you get it. So family. 

Rich Bennett 1:27:26
Yeah. I, that's a great answer, because, you see, that question did align with what we've been talking about because your family grew in a way that you weren't expecting. 

Al Isaacs 1:27:37
No. 

Rich Bennett 1:27:37
yeah. And for the better as well. 

Al Isaacs 1:27:39
Yeah, yeah, 

Rich Bennett 1:27:39
Or for the good, I guess you could say, what? Better good. Whatever. 

Al Isaacs 1:27:42
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:27:44
And now it makes sense to why you're a musician. Yeah. The comedian, and now author. 

Al Isaacs 1:27:53
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:27:54
Who knows what's on the list next. 

And right now, thanks a lot, man. It's been a true honor and a pleasure. And like I said, you're going to have to come on again because we got to talk wrestling, we got to talk. There are 

Al Isaacs 1:28:09
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:28:09
so many different things. And I'll just, you know what? I'm making it easy. I'm just going to send you the link to the other one. 

Al Isaacs 1:28:14
Please. Please, 

Rich Bennett 1:28:16
I 

Al Isaacs 1:28:16
why, 

Rich Bennett 1:28:16
think I 

Al Isaacs 1:28:17
why 

Rich Bennett 1:28:17
love 

Al Isaacs 1:28:17
wait? 

Rich Bennett 1:28:17
you. 

Al Isaacs 1:28:18
Come on. 

Rich Bennett 1:28:19
And I'll thanks a lot, man. 

Al Isaacs 1:28:20
Thanks, Rich. 

Rich Bennett 1:28:21
'I think what makes Al's journey so powerful isn't just that he discovered he was adopted at 52 years old, or that he found his birth mother through an incredible series of twist and turns. It's that his story reminds us that our identity isn't defined by a single moment or even a single family. It's shaped by every person who loves us'. Every challenge we overcome, and every truth we're willing to face, even when it's painful. His journey took him through grief, unanswered questions, family secrets, DNA searches, and more dead ends than anyone should have to experience. But instead of giving up, Al kept searching, and in the process, he didn't just find Mary Smith. He found pieces of himself that been waiting to be discovered all along. I also hope that you take away something else from this conversation, whether it's adoption, dementia, family relationships, or simply wondering where they belong. None of us truly know what someone else is carrying. A little grace, a little compassion, and the courage to ask questions can change lives. If you to learn more about Al, pick up a copy of Finding Mary Smith. It's an unforgettable memoir that's filled with mystery, heartbreak, hope, humor, and ultimately, the incredible reminder that it's never too late to discover who you are or where you come from. Al, thank you again for joining me, and thank you for reminding all of us that sometimes the answers we're searching for have been waiting patiently for us all along. Until next time, I'm Rich Bennett. Thanks for listening, and remember, every great conversation starts with someone willing to listen and someone willing to share. And now it's your turn. Join the conversation by sharing this episode, leaving a comment, or reaching out to me directly. Take care, be kind to one another, and I'll talk with you again soon.