Out Of Site

Thursday April 9th, 2009 - Chicago, IL

I need a new website. Badly. I also need several other things but the site was my priority for today. My old one has been down since Mr. Embezzler decided to do his little deal but that’s ancient history now. Nobody else cares about that and I just want to move past it all and start over and be bigger and better than before. He’s out of my life and I feel relieved.

He did put me in a difficult spot with the timing of it all but when exactly is a good time for a guy to have his business partner clean out the bank account? I guess that time never comes. I learned a very valuable lesson here. It cost me a few grand but it sure did sink in.

Actually it cost me more than just the money. That was bad enough but then it got nasty and personal and he tried to trash my name to the people who mean the most to me. I still can’t believe it happened like it did but it seems to be cooling down now. He’s a lazy oaf and always was and never had any passion or drive about anything so hopefully it’s over.

Dane Cook had to deal with his half brother or whomever the guy was who cleaned him out for a whole lot more than I had taken so I guess it could have been worse. Still, it’s no fun to get betrayed like that for any amount of money. It’s absolute torture because it’s so personal. It really is like a professional divorce. I trusted that snake with everything I had.

That being said, there are a lot bigger snakes than him plotting to attack a lot bigger guys than me with a lot more money to steal so my little scab isn’t even worth picking. It won’t change the situation and if I stay bitter about it I’ll never be able to achieve my dream life.

My friend Shelley has been helping me with web stuff and she’s been doing very well at it so far. She’s got her own life with two kids and a husband but she’s not working at the moment and has time to help me so she’s who I will use for now while it works out for us both. I paid her what I could afford and she was thrilled to get it and we’re on our way.

She showed me what she designed and it’s a nice looking simple but effective site. I am so busy with other things I really don’t have time to fart around with a website nor does it interest me. I want to be out doing shows and teaching classes, not stuck in some cubicle trying to figure out how to change a font or cut and paste pictures. I don’t enjoy that at all.

That’s probably what kept me from getting a site back up this long but now I can’t wait any longer. I need one yesterday. I have a booking in May at a club in Appleton, WI and it was part of the requirements of getting booked. They require headliners to have a working website and rather than complain about it I will take it as a sign to get one and move on.

I always thought it was important to have a website in the past and I invested in it a long time ago when not everyone had one. It got me a nice amount of work for quite a time but then everyone else hopped on that bandwagon and it wasn’t unique anymore. It was never my responsibility to manage the site however. That was all handled by my ex partner. His job was to make my ideas realities. It worked out well for a long time and I got used to it.

That’s why it hurt so much when I had to sever ties and fire him because it left me with nobody to turn to immediately. He handled everything and it was amputated overnight so I had to deal with it and move on. Now it’s time to regroup and re-launch a new version.

Shelley is a good person and works very hard. I do trust her but she doesn’t have access to my bank account like the other guy did so that makes it a whole lot easier. She can’t do what he did and I won’t let anyone have that kind of free reign again. I learned my lesson.

I’m also going to back myself up and have other people work with me too. Donna up in Milwaukee who handled Tom Green’s website will be part of the team and hopefully I’ll be able to work with Kerri Coates down in Louisville who works in Tom Sobel’s office.

These are three good people who are competent and honest and understand the business very well. I will see how it all works out and hopefully I can include all three in one facet of this or another. I want to have a backup plan so I don‘t get stranded like I did last time.

Shelley will have www.dobiemaxwell.com up very shortly. I need to get her my full list of bookings and also some one liners she can have flash on and off. I gave her my bio and resume and she’ll transfer that onto the site and so far it looks very professional. It’ll be a work in progress all the time but at least I’ll have one up and that’s a huge step right now.

I need to do several other things too like revamp my press kit and promo materials. I am in dire need of new pictures in color and put some audio and video on the site so I can get some bookings with it. I’ll also start offering merchandise on it and a newsletter and use it as my business base. I’ve been needing to develop new products to sell for way too long.

I’m still working with Donna in Milwaukee about getting a new CD product out. She’s busy with her own stuff and still has to make a living for herself but she’s been helping to get this project moving. She produced or co-produced Tom Green’s CD projects and they are all of excellent quality. I think we can get at least one and maybe two out this year.

Then after that I need to work on my comedy classes and get them on a site so I can use the web to reach students all over the world I can’t reach from Chicago. I’ve needed to do that for several years but for whatever reason it never got done. Thankfully it didn’t or I’d have probably been stung for a lot more money than I was and I would’ve been furious.

Now I’m not really furious so much as disappointed. What a knob shine that guy turned out to be and I feel like I wasted a lot of years of what I thought was a friendship but that wasn’t the case at all. He was never my friend and I feel used and that’s not how it should be. Life should be fun and exciting and I’m setting my sights in precisely that direction.

Tonight was an absolutely killer show at Zanies. Wow, what a kick ass audience. I love life when it gets like this and I enjoyed every second of it. My friends and former students Tony Talley and Ken Rosenbaum came out and we had a dinner at Flat Top Grille before the show and that was fantastic too. I love days like this when so many things get done.