Detroit Press Club 'Steakout' Returns for Another Year - Politicians, Business Leaders and the Detroit Lions: Beware!

Detroit Goodfellows and Detroit Press Club Foundation to Share Proceeds

Tickets now on sale at P.O. Box and next week at detroitsteakout.com

Only 1,000 seats will be available this year

You will laugh your butt off - or your money back! (Not really.)

DETROIT, July 25 -- Much to the dismay of Matt Millen, Governor Jennifer Granholm, Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, L. Brooks Patterson, Bob Ficano, who-ever-it-is-in-Macomb-County-that-replaced-Nancy White, Matt Millen, Doctor Kevorkian, Michael Vick and many other newsmakers, the Detroit Press Club Steakout is back for another year. Did we mention Matt Millen? The 30th-something version of Steakout (our historian embezzled our kitty and fled the country) will be Thursday evening, November 1 at the Marriott Renaissance in Detroit.

The Steakout is the annual, off-the-record and often tastefully tasteless parody show designed with one goal in mind: To lampoon the state of Michigan's newsmakers and rule breakers. It began more than 30 years ago as Detroit's version of the Gridiron Club. After serving a 12-year sentence for bad behavior, the Steakout returned two years ago to critical acclaim ... unless, of course, you live your life in the public eye.

This year's Steakout is entitled "Detroit Idle." No other explanation will be given until showtime.

"If you're famous in this state, and you've done something illegal, immoral or, well, just plain stupid, we're gunning for you," said Chrysler's Jason Vines, co-chair for the event along with WWJ/UofM -- Dearborn's Tim Kiska and Ed Lapham from Automotive News. "And if you haven't, then we'll make something up."

As was the case the past two years, all proceeds from the Steakout will be donated to the Goodfellows, the Old Newsboys' charity that annually provides needy local children with Christmas gifts, and the Detroit Press Club Foundation, which provides scholarships for journalism students.

"We thought about donating it to the State of Michigan but the Governor said she was all set," Kiska said.

"As was the policy of last year's Steakout, there will be no full frontal nudity, unless of course a coach of a particular local sports team is trolling through the fast food nation," Vines added.

For many years, Steakout was the must attend event of the year. It has featured such notables as Mayors Young and Kilpatrick, Governors Milliken, Blanchard and Engler, Ted Koppel, Oprah Winfrey, Siskel and Ebert, Dan Rather, Sonny Eliot and L. Brooks Patterson.

The event features a cocktail reception beginning at 6 p.m. sponsored by Chrysler and Toyota and other companies yet-to-be targeted. Dinner follows at 7 p.m. and the show begins at 8 p.m. The highlight of the program will, again, be the awarding of the Steakout Lifetime Achievement Award, given annually to the newsmaker that gives the media the most material or "raw meat." The past two winners were Patterson and Mayor Kilpatrick.

"Mayor Kilpatrick was a gracious recipient last year, once we told him that he wouldn't be sitting with Steve Wilson," Lapham said. "We hope to have him back this year to pass the award along to another poor soul ... I mean lucky winner."

"We won't announce the winner until the night of the event for three reasons," said Vines. "Potential incarceration at the time of the show, buying the farm or someone else deserves the award because of something done between now and showtime."

The ticket price for the Steakout will be $150 this year, which works out to approximately 28 cents per laugh. Tickets can be purchased on detroitsteakout.com or by mailing a check to "Steakout, P.O. Box 255, Eastpointe, MI 48021. A total of 1,000 tickets are available for the event. Tables of 10 are the suggested purchase.