Ending On A High Note

Sunday June 13th, 2010 - Louisville, KY

And now it’s all over. There’s always a tiny twinge of sadness at the end of every road week that goes well, and I can feel it now. The friendships are put on hold until next time through town, and some of the people I hung out with while I was here I won’t see again.

This was a very good week as far as getting along with everyone went. I didn’t have an issue with anyone on stage or off, and even the heckling situation was a non issue. There wasn’t even one drunken outburst the entire week, and I think that’s some sort of record.

I still give credit for the positive comedy vibe in this town to Tom Sobel. He’s had this city and area under his control for going on thirty years. He really likes comedy and we’re not just pieces of meat to him. He treats comics with respect and he’s one of the few who I really trust when it comes to a booker. I’ve never had an issue with payment even once.

Tom allowed the Louisville comedy scene to grow into a healthy one, and it’s evolving into a new generation of comedy that I hope continues to grow. The new owner Darrell is a good guy, and we got alone fine all week. I hope he can continue the tradition for years.

Tonight’s show was a fundraiser for Catholic charities and most of the audience wasn’t into comedy at all. They were a little older and I could tell they were a bit tight, so I had a difficult task ahead of me. There were guest sets and the host went long, so when I got up they were already tired. I had all I could do to both hold their attention and get laughs too.

I slowed it down considerably, and went with my years of experience. I told slow stories with animated expressions and didn’t flinch when they didn’t get big laughs. I kept doing it until they caught up with my rhythm, and I closed very strong. I wouldn’t have had any clue how to do that just a few years ago, but that’s where my years of experience pay off.

I knew those people weren’t there to see me. I also knew it didn’t matter if they thought I was funny or not. They made their money with the fundraiser, and all I really needed to do was finish out my time without offending anyone. I kept it clean and passed that test.

After the show I received all kinds of flattering comments from the wait staff and door people and just about everyone who worked at the club all week. They said they liked my act and that I was easy to deal with and low maintenance and that’s exactly what I love to hear. I don’t want to be anything but a sweetheart, and it’s really nice to hear them say it.

But now it’s over. Hopefully I’ll be back here again, but who knows? It was quite a few years since the last time I was here, for whatever reason. Nobody was angry or anything at all like that. It just worked out that this was the week where we were able to hook it up.

We’ll all go on our ways, and hopefully in the future the opportunity will arise for me to return to Louisville again. This is one of my favorite places, and they seem to like me too. I appreciate everyone this week from Tom to Darrell to the staff to the customers as well.