Mr. Whitekeys, Spenard icon and Alaska’s irreverent showman, dies at 79

By SUZANNE DOWNING

Oct. 19, 2026 – Mr. Whitekeys, the musician, humorist, and Fly By Night Club founder who spent decades turning Alaska’s politics and peculiarities into musical comedy, died Oct. 19, 2026, at age 79. His wife, Judith, confirmed his death.

For generations of Alaskans and summer visitors, Whitekeys offered an introduction to a state that rarely took itself quite as seriously as its politicians did. His signature production, The Whale Fat Follies, mixed live music, parody songs, slides, outrageous costumes, and jokes that made public officials frequent—and sometimes willing—participants in the entertainment.

His stage was rooted in Spenard, the Anchorage neighborhood whose rough edges and eccentric characters suited his humor. The Fly By Night Club, which he operated from 1980 to 2006, became a destination for Spam dishes, music, and irreverence. Its seasonal productions included Christmas in Spenard, Springtime in Spenard, and The Freeze-Up Follies.

Whitekeys grew up in South Dakota, Iowa, and Arizona, graduated from Duke University, and arrived in Alaska in 1970. He worked as a bar-band musician, including at Mike Gordon’s Chilkoot Charlie’s, where he was credited with coining the establishment’s enduring slogan: “We cheat the other guy and pass the savings on to you.”

Opening his own club gave him a permanent home for a style of entertainment that became part of Anchorage’s cultural identity. Beginning in the mid-1980s, The Whale Fat Follies offered a distinctly Spenard version of Alaska: spectacular scenery alongside human foolishness, with little reverence for anyone holding a microphone or public office.

Political satire was central to his work. Republicans and Democrats alike supplied material, as did celebrities, local personalities, and Alaska life itself. His shows could move from wilderness photographs to a cutting political parody within moments. A 2019 review described routines taking aim at figures ranging from former President Barack Obama to Gov. Mike Dunleavy and President Donald Trump.

Among his most enduring subjects were Congressman Don Young and former Gov. Sarah Palin. Young, whom Whitekeys lampooned for decades, eventually stepped into the act himself.

During the farewell season of The Whale Fat Follies in 2019, Congressman Young surprised Whitekeys at Anchorage’s Hard Rock Cafe, joined him onstage, and joked that the repeated mentions of his name had helped keep him elected.

Young and his wife, Anne, also joined the show’s conga line. The congressman presented Whitekeys with a bolo tie featuring a Spam-can image etched into its antler fastener.

“You have to be able to laugh at yourself,” Young told the audience that evening.

The closing of the Fly By Night Club in 2006 did not end Whitekeys’ performing career. He took his work to private events and conferences and later revived the Follies at Taproot and the Hard Rock Cafe. The production returned for a farewell season in 2019, more than three decades after its beginnings.

He released recordings with the Fabulous Spamtones and contributed humorous writing and commentary to Alaska Magazine, The Alaska Almanac, and KTUU television. His work also included Alaska Bizarre and the comic history production Alaska: The First 10,000 Years.

Away from the stage, Whitekeys was an avid birdwatcher who served as president of the Anchorage Audubon Society. His interests also led him into historical research. His 2024 book, The Voyage of The Alaska Union, chronicled an 1898 gold-rush expedition through photographs, diaries, letters, and newspaper accounts. The project brought another set of Alaska adventurers, and their sometimes astonishing decisions, to his audience.

Over more than five decades, Whitekeys helped Alaska laugh at its ambitions, its excesses, and its public figures. In a state full of larger-than-life characters, he built a stage where they could all become part of the show.