Uranus Is Calling

Monday June 14th, 2010 - Louisville, KY/Indianapolis, IN/Chicago, IL

Up early and on the road this morning, as I needed to go from Louisville to Indianapolis for a lunch with Greg Phelps, my friend who did my CD replication on Hard Luck Jollies. His website is www.tridigitalsolutions.com should you need audio or video duplication.

Eventually, I hope to do many more products with him and I wanted to discuss some of the options I’ll have when the time comes. Plus, he’s just a good guy. I’ve known him for 25 years now, and he’s always been a good friend. He chose to be a family man, and he’s a good one, but part of him is still living the road life adventure vicariously through me.

One question he and many of my other friends I don’t see all the time always ask with a gigantic grin on their face is “How’s Uranus?” That’s one project I’ve managed to just let poop out at exactly the wrong time, pun intended. I’m getting a clear message to restart it.

I hadn’t really been out on the road much lately, and this whole week I’ve been getting a lot of people honking and waving at my ’I (heart) Uranus’ bumper sticker, which matches my ’URANUS 1’ license plate. That’s happened before, but not like this week. I’ve had a lot of people roll down their windows and yell “I love Uranus!” and giggle like a hyena.

I know I’ve got something with this idea, but I’m just not following through. Maybe it’s a fear of success, or maybe I just don’t know what the hell I’m doing. Maybe it’s a combo platter, but I just know there’s some kind of magical power in the whole Uranus concept.

Now I have to find out exactly what that is. I need to create that concept clearer, first for my own mind, then to others. I know I want it to be a line of products, but there’s more to it than that. I want to create a concept people can belong to, a social club. Club Uranus!

Everyone, and I do mean EVERYONE I’ve told about this idea has smiled and instantly gotten the joke. Before I left, I knew I’d been letting this idea get away from me, so I sent my web person Mark Huelskamp final payment in full for his work on the site. It’s almost ready, and has been for months. It’s about 9/10ths completed, but that’s just not enough.

I don’t have a good reason why I haven’t done more. I just don’t. I’m not going to try to analyze it or beat myself up for it. I’m going to DO it. I’m going to BECOME the King of Uranus, even though I don’t exactly know all the details of what that is. I do know it’s the most sheer fun I’ve ever had, and I haven’t even fully developed it yet. This is a winner.

Who else gets people of all ages, sizes and colors rolling down car windows to give the thumbs up sign and say “I love Uranus?” I also see people snapping pictures of the sticker and plate combo, and I caught several people doing it today. I can just feel that it’s time.

Mark Huelskamp sent me an email thanking me for my payment and suggesting we get together next week and just get the site up and running. Period. That would be a huge step forward, and a shot of espresso to my self esteem. It looks like my future lies in Uranus.

It also lies in teaching some sort of comedy and/or comedy writing classes. I’m getting all kinds of inquiries from all kinds of sources and that’s a good thing too. I can see a big demand starting up again, and that usually happens when Last Comic Standing returns to television each season. If that drums up business for me, then I guess it’s not bad after all.

Bill Gorgo and I met up with a guy who is interested in helping us market a writers only class in the Chicago area. We’ve taught several of those over the years, and they’ve been smashing successes. There are a lot of people who are interested in just writing and never going on stage, and we were able to come up with enough exercises to make them happy.

Gene Perret’s daughter Linda and I had been talking about an online course possibility, and that’s not dead yet either. Plus, I’m going to be teaching this fall at a local community college in the Chicago area that will take my visibility even higher with the masses. I may not be doing that much road work in the near future, but that doesn’t mean I won’t work.

This is exactly the kind of life I want. If it turns out like I plan, I’ll have multiple stream income flowing in from everywhere, but still get to do fun things I really enjoy. Uranus is a mail order concept, and I can move that anywhere I choose. I can also teach classes both live and online from anywhere I choose as well. These are two very solid income makers.

Wait, I think that’s wrong. They’re very solid POTENTIAL income makers. I’ll have to develop both of these ideas a lot more, but I know it’s worth it. Comedy classes will bring money back the quickest, only because I’ve got years of experience under my belt doing it successfully. The bugs are worked out of the product, now I need to successfully sell it.

Uranus Factory Outlet is a much bigger concept, and that will take a lot more work for a payoff, but it will be huge if I can pull it off. In a way, I already did. My tiny bit of market research tells me I’ve got a huge hit on my hands, and people don’t even know what it IS yet. I don’t know exactly what it is yet, other than it’s going to be a test of my creativity.

I’m feeling up for both challenges, but none of this is going to be easy. I’m getting older and I can feel that too. I’m not the young buck that used to be able to pull all nighters and drive across country and still be stage fresh. Those days are gone. Now I need to conserve energy and spend it wisely. The game has changed, as have my own personal strengths.

On top of all this, I received an email from the booker of cruise ships today offering me a week of work this coming week. I know a few comics who do the ships, and one put my name in the mix with a booker he knows. Supposedly, it’s decent pay and all I have to do is two different thirty minute sets in a week - one family friendly and one ‘nightclub’ set.

I could do that in my sleep, and if the pay is good I’m going to have to really consider it seriously, at least for a while until I can clean up my finances. It’s a great problem to have and I’m grateful for the recommendation. She asked me to send avails so she could try me out sometime this summer, and I know I can do the job so I’ll do that. First it’s dead, now I’ve got more going on than I can handle. Why is that? I don’t know, but busy is better.