Desk Jockeying

Thursday October 1st, 2009 - Chicago, IL

Today was a positive start to the fourth quarter of 2009. I’m pleased. I left my phone off the whole day and didn’t miss it at all. Some people are phoners and others are emailers. I am an emailer. The phone is a necessary evil in my business even though I don’t use mine like I should. It’s much more under the radar dealing via emails and I like that a lot more.

In the old days the phone was THE way to get comedy bookings. Tracking down all the bookers was like calling in to radio stations trying to win a prize. “The fifth caller gets six weeks of work in Florida!” That’s exaggerating, but not a lot. It was hell back then as the cost of long distance was a lot more than it is now. My phone bill often eclipsed my rent.

We’d have to call bookers hoping to get them not only on the phone but to also open up their calendars and give us work. It was always on the booker’s whim. “Call me back in a few weeks” was a very common blow off and that’s a very vague term. How long IS that?

I used to really hate working the phones trolling for work but some comics are excellent at it. Usually those are the guys with the worst acts but not always. It’s just another hat we wear as comedians. The stage part is very small. We’re also sales people and travel agents and promoters and publicists and mechanics if our cars break down and other things too.

Fortunately I had enough ability and was easy to work with for enough people that I was usually able to fill my schedule any time I wanted. For a few nice years bookers would be calling ME and I’d just fill in my dates to taste. Some clubs still do that but there aren’t as many as their were and most of us are now having to go out and actively seek new work.

That’s ok, clubs aren’t the only place to work as a comedian. There are many venues for standup comedy and I’m going to start finding some. I had lunch with Marc Schultz today to give him our Jerry’s Kidders flyers for the play we’re working on with Vicki Quade. In theatre circles it will be a ‘play’, but in reality it’s our standup bits disguised as a play.

Marc is a great friend but also able to sell this kind of thing a lot easier than he was able to sell my former standup tape. The Craig Ferguson DVD will also help and he’s getting a few nibbles for gigs I wouldn’t have gotten before because I was perceived as ‘clubbish’. I’ll end up getting some of these gigs and hopefully get to leave the toilet clubs behind.

Andy Martello is a Chicago comic/juggler who moved to Las Vegas not long ago. I like Andy as a person and I don’t share the typical comic’s hatred of jugglers. I’m to the point now I don’t really care what someone’s act is, if he gets booked that’s fine. I judge people by if I like them as people and Andy gets a thumbs up there. He’s a good guy and a pro.

Andy has been getting booked from tapes for years. He’s not a club guy and has been in it as long as I have so he must be doing something right. Andy’s wife April and Marc and I had a great lunch at a place called ‘Booby’s’ which of course starts jokes going right off the bat. The food was excellent but the company was better. I sat with my ears wide open.

When I did my Late Late Show appearance in July Andy sent me one of the best emails I’ve ever received. He congratulated me but told me to enjoy the moment and know it’s a rare and special treat that not everyone gets to experience. He said not to focus on all that went wrong but to enjoy the fact that I got on and bask in it and also kudos from friends.

I still have that email and I thanked him in person as we sat there today. He nailed it and I totally got what he meant. I did enjoy it and I still do now. I’m very grateful for my little time in the sun and whether or not anything else ever comes of it I had a dream come true.

I think more WILL come of it though and that’s what I’m going to start going after right now. I’m getting my groove back and I can feel it. When I’m in sync with the universe the path seems to open right before me but when I’m not it feels like everything I do is wrong and I’m trapped in a perpetual nightmare with no hope of waking up. I’m glad that’s over.

Lunch was early and I had to drive into the city so I didn’t get my walk in until after but I did squeeze two brisk laps in at the old Gurnee Mills 500. I felt pretty good and my head was firing on all cylinders, cranking out ideas and lining up an order of things I need to do to get myself to where I know I belong. Living like a cockroach isn’t what I want in life.

After my walk I gently sipped an extra delicious Jamba Juice as I sat in the car thinking about what I really want to do in life. I got back home and immediately cleaned off all the clutter from my desk and started there. I scrubbed it, dusted it off and started reorganizing it like I never have before. The first thing I did was break in two calendars for next year.

I bought them recently but today I wrote my name and info in both in case I lose one or the other and that’s in fact why I have two of them. Many times I get calls in the car to see if I’m available and I have to wait until I get home to answer. That’s not smart business.

If there’s one thing I need to be, it’s smarter in business. I now have my calendar for the next few months organized and I will start firing off my avails to clubs I’ve worked in the past and start looking for new ones. I need to keep that up even though I’m looking to get work in other venues, like with the Kidders’ play. I’ve let my booking contacts drift away.

I also sat and outlined what I really want to do with many facets of my life from comedy to teaching comedy classes to doing radio to just being an entrepreneur. I have books I am hoping to read and audio programs I want to hear and I went about getting started as I was cleaning out my work space and starting over again. It felt great to get myself in motion.

This next three months is going to be a how to clinic. It’ll either be how to get one’s life in gear or how to totally ruin one in 90 days. Either way, I’m going to do something that’s going to get results. I have too much left inside me to dry up now. I’ve got work to do.

I listened to some Wayne Dyer and it was really great. It was just what I needed to hear at this time and it felt totally right. Then I listened to a Don Lapre CD I had and that was a perfect fit too. I have an outline. I have burning desire. Now all I need is steady progress.