Dialing Ms. Davidson: Kevin Houston's Unlikely Story

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To say Kevin Houston is an interesting person would be the understatement of understatements. The Ferguson resident pays the bills working the door at Frison Flea Market on St. Charles Rock Road, collecting the one dollar cover charge from every oriental rug and chainsaw sculpture seller that enters the building. Houston's nights, however, are reserved for work of a different type. The 39 year-old vocal artist spends his time honing his alter ego Ms. Davidson, the character he hopes will one day put him on magazine covers alongside his idol, Tyler Perry. To hear Houston do the voice is nearly unbelievable; Ms. Davidson comes across as a sassy sixty-something woman with a nonchalant approach to life. To watch Houston do the voice is something entirely different. To start, he's an African-American man of significant build, so one doesn't exactly expect a Betty White-like sound from him. Then there's the facial expressions...His mouth contorts, his nostrils flare, and his eyes bulge as he strains against nature to deliver an impeccable performance. Though Ms. Davidson has yet to land Houston any movie roles, she did net him the story of a lifetime.

Nearly five years ago, Houston received a call from an elderly woman on the verge of suicide. Depressed, lonely, and bedridden, Barbara Holmes intended to dial her psychiatrist, but she misdialed and landed on the other end of Houston's line. Though Houston tried to tell Holmes she dialed the wrong number, he says the woman seemed too frantic to understand and could only repeat her wishes to die because the loneliness was too much for her. Eager to delay Holmes' actions until help could arrive, Houston told her he knew someone that could help...a few seconds later, "Ms. Davidson" picked up. Holmes unknowingly talked to Houston's character until she was calm enough to reevaluate her situation and get off the proverbial ledge. The two have continued their friendship via phone for the past five years, with Holmes never knowing she was actually talking to Houston doing a female voice. When the time finally came for a face-to-face meeting, ToastedRav was there with the cameras (and permission from all parties, of course) to capture a story so unbelievable, the True/False film fest awarded it second place overall in the Gimme Truth event, a competition that pits two-minute film shorts (yes, we had to squeeze all of this into a two-minute flick) against each other as judges try to determine if a film is fiction or reality (we mentioned it earlier here.)

Click the Featured Video tab to watch the film and the Audio tab to listen to a call Houston made to a local residential care facility to warm-up his voice prior to calling Holmes. Finally, click the Gallery tab for a few shots of ToastedRav's weekend in Columbia for the film's debut at True/False.

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