Saturday Night Eager

Saturday August 8th, 2009 - Lake Villa, IL

No show tonight. I’m never thrilled to have a Saturday night without work. Yeah yeah, I can use the rest and all that but I can also use some money right now too. It’s my fault and I need to rectify the situation toot sweet. Any more time off and I’ll be sleeping in my car.

I knew the summer would be light so I didn’t really try to book much and intended to do a lot of other things that I’ve let sit idle because I was on the road so much. I haven’t even started to put a dent in any of that and now summer is leaking away like a cheap diaper.

I have a bunch of things I wanted to do and I did work on most of them but they’re not a finished product like I’d pictured they’d be by now. Things just take time and I don’t ever want to half ass any project but there does come a time when something has to get done.

That’s where I am right now. I have a lot of ground work done on a lot of projects but it doesn’t mean a damn thing unless I decide on one and get it finished. Then I need to pick a second one and finish that. And a third. And a fourth. Finishing has been my problem.

Comedy bookings are what pay my bills though and that’s where I need to really step it up right now. I am hot off a network TV appearance and I need to use that to fill as many weeks as I can in as many decent venues as I can. I don’t want to be driving 500 miles to the same hell holes I’ve been working even though I might have to for a little bit longer.

There used to be enough gigs I could get easily enough to stay working every weekend at least if not the entire week. Many of those gigs are gone now so that means I need new work to take it’s place. I’d been a bit lazy in trying to find new work because I had plenty to keep me busy that wasn’t all that far from home. Now I might have to travel a bit more.

I don’t mind at all if it’s good work. I’d love to work the top clubs in the country and be busy all the time. I’m not in many of the top rooms and that’s getting tougher and tougher as time goes on because it’s a numbers game. Every club has 52 weeks to book but I’d bet there are at least 1000 acts who could do a passable job. I’ll have to really do a sales job.

Hopefully some new clubs will take a flyer on me because of the TV shot. They’ll have to bump one of their regular acts to do it though. That’s just how it works. For every new gig I get someone else gets bumped. That’s life. It’s the same way in sports. Every rookie has taken the job of an aging veteran who gets shown the door, usually without fanfare.

I’m not asking to take anyone’s job. All I want is to make a decent living practicing my craft that I sacrificed years and years to acquire. I haven’t approached many clubs because I didn’t need to. Now I do. It’s not all bad because now I’ll go in there and really kick ass.

I’m in my prime as a performer now and every weekend I have off is one that’s wasted. I already gave up having a family to do this so now is not the time to lay low. I’m plenty rested and ready to get back at it again but this time in better venues. No more toilets.