A Trail Of Two Cities

Saturday November 7th, 2009 - Chicago, IL/Milwaukee, WI

Another day jam packed with things to do and places to be, but all of it was productive. The first stop was downtown Chicago to do Jerry’s Kidders on WGN radio. Today it was a 10am start due to a football broadcast so I got up extra early to avoid unnecessary stress.

There was no traffic at all and I got in an hour early, but that’s a great problem to have. Too many other times I’ve encountered delays and showed up just as the intro music was starting and that’s not good for anyone. I’d much rather be too early and relax for a while.

I usually don’t look over the stories until the day of the show anyway. I enjoy riffing off the top of my head and I’m quick enough to come up with something to add. If I have any real gift, it’s that. I like to not know where we’re going and have the pressure of having to come up with something funny on the spot. That’s the challenge that makes this so fun.

Unfortunately, the other guys are uncomfortable working that way. I read where Jackie Gleason was very similar in style and he liked to keep it fresh too. He didn’t want to take the spontaneity out of his performance and it drove the rest of the cast crazy sometimes.

I have to respect how the other guys work and I do, but it doesn’t mean I have to like it. It can be a solid mix though, and today it totally was. We had a strong show and all of us felt like we nailed it. That’s the feeling that makes all of our time doing this worthwhile.

We’ve got an official booking for our play so after the radio show we did a run through of that in one of the conference rooms at the station. That’s a lot of work and will be a lot more before it’s all done, but that doesn’t mean we’ll sell even one ticket. It’s a gamble.

This is all part of the process and none of us mind, but it would be nice if we could turn a buck with this pretty soon. We’re going on two years of hard work with Jerry’s Kidders and we haven’t seen a dime for any of it. Fun is fun, and it is, but now it’s time to cash in. We’ve got a solid foundation now and we’ve all contributed to making this a team effort.

We didn’t have our usual lunch because all of us had other things to do. We focused on the play and made some solid rewrites and threw ideas around and it was totally worth the effort, but it got long and we were all spent by the time we were finished. This was work.

I drove home, took another shower and got ready for two shows up in Milwaukee at the Potawatomi Casino. Normally we’re in the Northern Lights Theatre which is an amazing facility but they’ve got some special shows scheduled so we were moved to another room that was still very nice. Those guys are on the ball and I always enjoy working that place.

The staff is extremely friendly and they treat us like stars. And I NEVER have to worry about my check bouncing. If I’m going to work in Milwaukee, this is the place I will look to do first. I make as much for one night of low pressure fun as I would for a whole week of stressed out insanity at a Giggles or a Comedy Café. I don’t miss those hassles one bit.