Paying Showbiz Dues

Monday May 11th, 2009 - Chicago, IL

Back in the Zanies Monday night saddle after a couple of weeks off. It felt good to have off but it also felt good to be back. I really do enjoy hosting these shows and it gives me a chance to check out who’s coming up the ranks. It’s smart business to know these people.

Somewhere along the line any one of them may catch a big break and need a writer or a role in a sitcom or movie and hopefully I’ll be at the top of the list. I do try to be available should they have questions to ask and many times they do. I also try to encourage them as much as I can. I watch their shows and make suggestions and I see that they appreciate it.

I know exactly what they’re going through because I was there myself. It takes years for an act and stage persona to truly develop and mature and there is nothing that will rush it. Doing sets at every possible opportunity in every possible environment is the way to do it correctly and when it’s not going right that can really get old. This is part of paying dues.

NOBODY else can pay one’s dues except that particular person. I see a core of comics putting in their time at Zanies and other places and I see their progress whether they do or not. People like Mike Palaszak and Bryan Berry and Adam Burke and Hannibal Burress and Julianna Forlano and Mikey Mason and Beth Stelling and others are doing it right.

Sometimes the audiences love them and other times they just sit there. I can totally feel what they feel because I still experience that now even if it is on a different level. I try to always give them a quality introduction and show them what a good emcee does so if and when they host shows they’ll get an idea of what to do. I am setting an example for them.

C. Cardell Willis set the example for us back in Milwaukee when I was starting out. I’m just passing his kindness forward and hopefully when I’m dead there will be someone that remembers what I was trying to do with fondness just like I remember Cardell. He was an inspiration to all of us then but as the years go by his memory grows sweeter and sweeter.

I don’t do it for any other reason but that it’s FUN. I enjoy being able to watch this crop of newbies ripen and if I can throw a little fertilizer in the mix I’m happy to do it. I owe a lot to the few people who helped me when I started and I’m just paying it forward. People like Cardell and Gary Kern and Kyle Nape and Danny Storts all helped me get my chops.

Darrin Hensley is a very funny guy out of Lexington, KY. He drove up to do a set and it was good to see him. We worked together in Corbin, KY of all places and he was the host of a weekend I did down there. He was very new then but I could see his hunger so I went out of my way to be nice to him and help out. I know he appreciated it so I didn’t mind.

Tonight I was the host so I made sure he had a great introduction and he went up for his six minute set and I could see the major improvement since Corbin. He did a nice job and the crowd liked him and I told him he should be proud of himself. And he should. Paying dues doesn’t have to be miserable but they do have to be paid. There are NO exceptions.