Happy Half Birthday

Friday September 14th, 2007 - Toledo, OH

Today is my half birthday. I didn’t go out for cake and ice cream and I didn’t tell anyone else about it. I am halfway to being 45 and my youth is leaking away fast. The cement of it is drying and all that happened both good and bad is fading into memory and I am working at finishing life’s marathon with a strong kick at the end for however long it is to the finish line. I don’t even know who I am up against other than myself and trying to give my best.

I spent the entire day in my hotel room banging out new paperwork for comedy classes. I’ve worked and reworked it time and time again but I can start to see it come together. I have the best edition I’ve ever had by far and it’s almost ready to expand into a full book.

It was not easy to get to this point but I did and I’m very happy with it how it ended up turning out. It’s been inch by inch for many years now and I can finally start to see results. One thing I never did was give up on comedy or teaching classes. I moved all over trying to make radio work but even when I had to be up at 4am or earlier to go to work I was in the clubs the night before working on my standup skills. I hope I can now make it pay off.

I put in about twelve full hours of getting everything exactly how I wanted it so I won’t have to tweak it for a while. I can just have copies made of the sheets and be ready for any class in under an hour. I cleaned out my archives and erased all the old stuff so this edition is the only one. I’ve been meaning to do this for many months and it felt great to finish it.

I also took a nice brisk walk to get a cheap Chinese lunch at a restaurant that was not an all you can eat buffet. You don’t see just a regular Chinese restaurant so much anymore so I decided to give them some business. I was the only one in there for most of my meal and it was around lunch time so I wondered how they stayed open. Maybe it was a front for an international organized crime ring. Or maybe it was just a kind of halfway ok Chinese joint in a strip mall in Toledo that nobody has a desire to patronize on Friday at lunch time. The food was not great but not horrible and it was pretty cheap so I thanked the lady and left.

Getting exercise felt good and I didn’t drink any soda today either. I stretched before the show and was loose when I left the hotel. I had been sitting and working so long that I felt a little cramped up but the walking and stretching and hot shower recharged my batteries.

Tonight at the club was about as opposite as two shows could get. The first show was a pleasure from start to finish. They were explosive laughers and I could feel it right away. I tried some new material and was very loose and I flubbed a couple of lines but still did not lose them. They were right there the whole show and I felt bad that I was off a little. I had not prepared for the show because I was too busy working on my class stuff. Mistake. I’m not going to do that again because I felt I could have done even better if I’d have focused.

The late show was all over the place. There were drunks and cell phones and even a man who proposed to his girlfriend right before I was brought up. It was awkward and I hadn’t heard it was happening until right before it did. I am shaking this one off and moving on.