An Extra Day In Paradise

Tuesday July 20th, 2010 - Somewhere In The Caribbean

I’m on board ship one more day, like it or not. We won’t dock until Grand Cayman Isle tomorrow, and then I fly from there to Miami and then back to Chicago. One thing about comedy clubs, when the gig is over it’s out the door and back home. This is a new world.

I got to hang out last night with Jim Brick and a few of the musicians who’ve done this kind of work for years, and it was very fun hanging out with them. The typical person on the ship has been extremely laid back and friendly and welcomed me without question to this lifestyle. It’s not for everyone, but those who can handle it seem to really get into it.

The women on board are absolutely incredible, both crew and passengers. I don’t know who I’m supposed to stay away from, so I haven’t made any moves on anyone, but there’s no shortage of female company anywhere. The crew is mostly foreign and I’m drooling at some of the sexy accents alone. I met a Bulgarian desk clerk I’d swim to Bulgaria to see.

I wonder why it’s taken this long for this whole world to open up to me? I’ve known of cruise ship comedy work for many years, and I can’t think of any legitimate reasons why I haven’t looked into it before now. If it weren’t for my friend Jeff Shaw mentioning me to his boss, I probably never would have looked into this. Now, it could be a whole new life.

I’ll wait to see how it all shakes out first. The worst case scenario would be they didn’t like what I did, and they’ll say so and that’s it. I’ll thank them for their time and I had the chance to get paid to go on a fantastic cruise to some exotic places. I was off anyway and it will pay my rent for a couple of months. No matter what happens, I appreciate the shot.

Best case scenario would be they liked me and want to book me for more work, but not a full time commitment just yet. I’ve got things going in Chicago and Milwaukee and I’d like to see those through since I’ve taken this long to get started on them. If I can pick my schedule, that would be the best of all worlds. For now, I just want to pass this audition.

It’s too early to predict anything, but my gut feeling is that I achieved my goal of doing adequate shows and not being a troublemaker to anyone. I showed up on time, did what I was asked, and really did enjoy meeting the people I met. The company is allegedly trying to aggressively expand their comedy roster and for once I seem to be in a favorable place.

Since I was stuck on the ship for another day, I decided to savor every single second of it, in case I don’t come back for whatever reason. I think I will, and I just may get tired of it like I’ve gotten tired of comedy road work at some point. Right now, it’s fresh and new and I’m having a blast, just like I did with the road. The key is to keep this mindset going.

I had a fantastic day just reflecting on everything. Jim Brick and I had a great dinner and then we went to see the song and dance show with the people we hung out with last night. They were all amazingly talented and blew the roof off the joint. We both were spotted by people who saw our show and we got asked to take pictures. A guy could get used to this.