Half A Birthday

Monday September 14th, 2009 - Chicago, IL

Half a BIRTH-day to meeeeee-eeeeee…half a birthday to me. Exactly six months from today is my next official birthday but I had a jam packed day of fun anyway. It didn’t start out that way. I left my cell phone in the back seat of the cab that drove me to get my car at the parking lot of my friend Todd Kasulke’s business. He let me park to save airport fees.

Todd crawls out of the rack super early and we agreed I wouldn’t call him after 11pm if my plane from Denver was delayed, which it was. We finally got in about 11:20 so I took a cab to live up to my end of the deal. I left my phone in the back seat as I got my luggage and didn’t discover it until the cab was gone. I raced directly to the airport to retrieve it.

Of course in Mr. Lucky tradition it was the cabbie’s last run of the night and he checked out and was going home. After running around and getting supervisors to call and see if it was turned in someone finally tracked the cabbie down and he ended up bringing it back.

That was a close call and I thanked him profusely but it sure was a lesson. That could be a total disaster as I have no ‘if found return to’ info on my phone. Who does? By the time I got back home it was 4:30am. I slept for a few hours and then had to be in Chicago for a run through with Jerry’s Kidders at the Royal George Theatre. I wished it wasn’t today.

I could have used a full night’s sleep but I said I’d be there so I was. I barely made it by 2pm as I said I would but it was close enough where nobody complained. Vicki Quade is in charge of this particular facet of the Kidders and she’s doing an outstanding job. We’re starting to see the production take shape and everyone is excited about it. It’s a lot of fun.

Basically what the ‘play’ is about is Jerry Agar’s radio journey tweaked a little for stage effect and we do our comedy bits as ‘callers’. We start out with a live version of what we do on WGN each week and then it’s just a reframed version of all our standup material in strategically placed points during the show. Like communism, it all looks good on paper.

Now we’re starting to make it happen on stage. We know our comedy bits, we’ve been doing them for years. Now we’re presenting them in a theatrical setting. Rob Becker did a similar thing with his standup material and called it “Defending The Caveman” and he’s a multimillionaire because of it. He packaged and sold it extremely well and kudos to him.

I’m not sure if we can do the same but we ran through it today and it was a blast. We all invited people we knew who had a clue about entertainment and took their suggestions at the end of the run through. It was amazingly productive and everyone who came liked the concept. The big picture is getting clearer, now we just have to fill in the smaller details.

After that I went to Zanies in Chicago to teach a comedy class with Bill Gorgo at 6 and then host the showcase show at 8:30. Both those things were fun and went very well but I again almost fell asleep at the wheel driving home afterward. I’ve got a full plate for sure but I really enjoy all that’s on it. This was about as happy a half birthday as I can imagine.