Thursday, December 17, 2009

My Michigan Marathon

Thursday December 17th, 2009 - Gaylord, MI/Lake Villa, IL

Another 435 miles on my Toyota, not one of which helped to advance my career. It was great to hang out with Tim, but it came with a price. I spent all day Tuesday driving up to Houghton Lake and then had two nights of shows under less than ideal conditions. Then I had to spend all day today driving home. At the end of the day it wasn’t worth the effort.

Tim is a great guy and I love hanging out with him, but we’re going in two completely different directions. He’s trying to feed his family and comedy is a hobby once in a while. He had fun going up in Houghton Lake on Tuesday and last night in Gaylord. I did not.

Last night in Gaylord was very difficult. It was at the bar/restaurant of a hotel and even though they’re nice people, the conditions were awful. There was no stage to speak of, no stage lighting, and the sound system had both a hum and a buzz and drowned us all out.

Nice has nothing to do with any of this. I’m nice, but when it comes to performing heart surgery that has nothing to do with anything. If I need a bypass, give me a prick who has a clue where to slice me open and some experience doing it. We’ll look for nice guys later.

I like the booker and I took the gig of my own free will, mainly to hang out with Tim in December. Tim loves Christmas and knows I don’t, but he’s away from his family and he appreciated the fact I came up and spend some time with him. That I understand. Why I’ll continue to aggravate myself and do gigs like this, I don’t. I really have to knock this off.

I do love to perform, but time and energy are limited. It will do me much better to set up my own shows closer to home and not have to deal with the lack of professionalism from club owners who have no clue how to run a show. I’ve reached my limit and I know it.

I’m just going to shake this off and move on. My schedule coming up in 2010 is starting to fill up and it’s a better class of work. I’ve paid my dues and these low paying toilets are not what I need to be doing right now. No offense to anyone, but I’m past this kind of gig.

I tried to use the time in the car to be positive but I didn’t bring any audio material with me like I usually do. I left in a hurry and that’s one thing I didn’t bring. I know I said I’m due for a purge, but I stopped at a Goodwill and bought a set of Suze Orman tapes to help pass the time in the car. She’s one person I’ve heard of but never actually heard her work.

I found a nine tape set with a couple of tapes missing for five bucks. That’s a little high, especially with missing product, but I gave it a shot. I sure do need to improve my money skills so I drove and listened and then shut it off to reflect on my life and what she said.

Life is a constant battle with changing circumstances. When I was young, I had energy to burn but no act. Now I have an act but energy is running out. These trips are long and getting a lot harder than they used to be. I’m going to find a way to avoid them. I have to.
I can’t keep wandering all over the place like a gypsy, especially when the money is low.

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