Yachts O'Luck

Saturday February 6th, 2010 - Lake Villa, IL

A rare Saturday night off, and I can’t say I’m thrilled about it. I enjoyed the time off, but I don’t like the way it came about. I was supposed to be booked for a show tonight up at a yacht club in Fond du Lac, WI, but was bumped because the venue went with a local act.

I’m fine with that, but they should have either paid me out or moved it to a solid date in the future so I could have gotten my money somehow. I can’t just pull work out of the air to make up for a show that cancels only a few weeks out, but they don’t care about that at all. They aren’t a comedy venue and probably aren’t aware of how big of a hassle this is.

This is another delicate situation, and I’m usually pretty bad at those. The last one I had to deal with was the bounced check situation at Giggles last summer. That didn’t turn out well at all, and I ended up getting screwed by both the club and the booker who I thought was supposed to be in my corner. They both turned out to be greasy, and it got very ugly.

This situation is a little different. It was booked by a comedian who got it handed to him by means of which I’m not exactly sure. He’s not an agency, just a comic making an extra few bucks. I’ve turned people on to an occasional gig myself, and it’s usually done out of goodwill. I don’t usually take a commission because I figure it will come back around.

I know the guy didn’t mean for this to happen, but he called me and told me I was going to be replaced and just kept saying “Sorry about that.” Not acceptable. I told him that and he asked what I wanted him to do about it. I told him I wanted him to call the person up at the yacht club and tell them I need to be paid and/or get me a solid date for a future show.

He wasn’t prepared to do that, and just kept saying he was sorry. I hung up the phone in frustration and disgust, and it will be a long LONG time before I ever agree to do a show for him again. I was going to fire off a letter to the yacht club too, but what would that do other than make things uncomfortable all around? The damage is done, and I got screwed.

It wasn’t all that much money, but it was better than an average one nighter and I had it already spent when I said I’d take the gig. There’s no reason I shouldn’t get it, and that’s a fact even if I got bumped. That’s not my problem. A professional situation would pay me.

Show business is full of half assed fly by night hassles like this. I’ve known that guy for 25 years, and this puts a real strain on our relationship. He’s not a bad person, but I’m not up for getting boned out of a payday because he doesn’t have any power with a venue that he books. HE’S the one who booked me for this so in theory he’s responsible for paying.

I’m going to shut my mouth and just let it go. There was a time when I would have gone off on both the comedian and the venue, but that’s just wasted energy. Fond du Lac isn’t a comedy hotbed and never will be. Personally, the Fond du Lac yacht club and everyone in it can lick the barnacles from the depths of my port hole and if they ever want to book me again, it’s going to cost a lot more than it would have tonight. But I hope they don’t ask.