Monday, October 11, 2010

Dealing With Disappointment

Saturday October 9th, 2010 - Saukville, WI

   It was only last night that I saw the band Kansas perform, but the lesson I learned from their show has paid off less than 24 hours later. They gave me a splendid performance at the Arcada Theatre in St. Charles, IL. Whatever they thought off stage never touched me.

   The band could have been exhausted from the road, fighting with either themselves or  spouses, sick with colds or the flu, whatever. None of that mattered when it came time for the show, and they leaned into it and brought home what the people there were expecting.

   Actually, it was more than we were expecting. Maybe there were some regular fans who knew what to expect, but a lot of us were first timers and we were blown away. That’s the lesson I learned - even after 35 years of performing those songs, we’d never seen them do it so they had to win us over. And they totally did. I’d go see them again and bring others.

  That lesson couldn’t have come at a better time, as I was booked back at a place called ‘The Railroad Station’ in Saukville, WI. I’d worked there the day before my birthday last March, and although there were a few technical issues it was a pretty good show. We had about 146 people show up, and it was a no brainer that this time we’d draw even more.

   Well, I guess no brains were involved because we didn’t even come close to that many this time, and it was a major disappointment. Richard Halasz was the one who promoted the both shows, and he couldn’t have worked any harder. I felt worse for him than me.

   Richard is a great guy and honest to a fault. He put hours of time into this show sending out postcards and flyers and telling everyone he knew. The place holds probably 200 or so and I thought we’d be turning them away. Ha. I wish. We both did. The club owner too. It was maybe half full, even though as the night progressed a few more people wandered in.

   It really was a kick in the teeth no matter what the reasons were. The weather was great, and that’s a killer in the northern regions like Wisconsin. People went to their cottages up north or stayed home or did a lot of things other than come to see a live comedy show at a place that rarely does shows of any kind, much less comedy. It was not our night to draw.

   That didn’t mean the show wasn’t good though. I was bummed that we didn’t draw, but I told myself before the show started that I wasn’t going to let it show and the people who did show up were going to get my very top performance, and that’s exactly what they got.

   This was by FAR my best showing for ‘Schlitz Happened!’ to date. The Schauer Center in Hartford was a very good show, but this was light years ahead of it. I was smoother and more in control, and I felt myself ad libbing some funny lines the whole night. It was fun.

   I did an hour an twenty-two minutes, and had a ton of material left over. I was soaked to the skin with sweat when I was done, and physically and emotionally exhausted too. I did give all I had, and those people loved it. They didn’t need to know of my disappointment.

Posted via email from Dobie Maxwell's "Dented Can" Diary

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