My Real Name

Tuesday June 3rd, 2008 - Lake Villa, IL

Happy birthday to me. Kind of. On this date back in 1991 I officially changed my name to Dobie J. Maxwell. Those who know me by my birth name are getting fewer and fewer and although I don’t deny I changed it I don’t volunteer the old one anymore. I‘m over it.

It wasn’t a particularly horrible name or one to make fun of like Waldo or Mortimer but it never fit me even as a kid. I had a bunch of nicknames and Dobie was one that stuck for the long haul. Now it’s legal and nobody has to dispute it ever again. I’ll die as a Dobie.

That doesn’t mean I won’t change it again though. If the right situation came up I would do it for business reasons. Rodney Dangerfield’s legal name was Jack Roy. He changed it from his birth name of Jacob Cohen. Rodney was never his legal name but he still used it.

There was a used car dealer in Milwaukee back when I grew up that legally changed his name to ‘Crazy Jim’. He had run for governor at one point and there were campaign signs with that name on it. I used to work for his kid who was also named Jim but he went with the family name and didn’t share in his father’s penchant for staking a claim to craziness.

If the Uranus gimmick would happen to take off I would consider changing my name to ‘King Of Uranus’ or some variation of that but only to get publicity and/or piss people off who don’t have a sense of humor. At this point in my life my name doesn’t really matter.

I’m known good or bad by Dobie and that’s what I made legitimate in 1991. I’d used it both in comedy and in radio for a while before that and decided to change it legally so I’d be done with it and have all my checks and tax records have one name to make it simpler.

Lots of people in entertainment use a stage name but not many legally change it. I did it partially for logistic reasons and partially to distance myself from my father. I wanted the chance to make or break myself on my own merits and not be associated with his past.

He used to poke me on it all the time. We didn’t see each other all that often and it had been years between our last meeting when we were at a Christmas at his house. He had to make a big scene of course and when I showed up he condescendingly sneered ‘I see you changed your name. What, you ashamed of your family?’ I calmly said ‘That is correct.’

He thought he was going to make me back down and feel bad but I didn’t and it totally took him off guard. He had nothing else to say and turned and walked away and I knew it didn’t sit well with him. Every other time I saw him after that he would mention it and try to jam on me about it. I never backed down to him and now he’s dead and I’m still Dobie.

But there will be a time when I’ll be dead too so rather than dwell on what my name has been in the past or will be in the future I need to build a life around the one I’m using now so it actually means something to someone who isn’t a creditor. A name is nice I suppose but the person attached to it is much more important. I still need to keep working on him.