Sunday February 13th, 2011 - Frankfort, KY/Toledo, OH/Kenosha, WI I blew it. I was supposed to get up and start driving at 4am, but I rolled over and drifted right back to sleep. That happens once in a while, and today was one of those whiles. I’ve been away from the road grind for a while, and it shows. Sleep won out over stress relief. It would have been a lot less stressful to give myself a cushion of time to make it up to Kenosha, WI to be on The Mothership Connection radio show on WLIP, but I decided to get some rest as I hadn’t been sleeping well the last few nights. The road can be brutal in that way. Every night there’s a different bed in a different hotel with different features. Some are soft, some are hard, some are big, some are small. Every pillow is different as well, and it’s a wonder any of us get to sleep at all. It’s almost impossible to nod right out after performing, especially after a hot show (or shows). The lingering adrenaline pulsates through the veins and my brain feels like a blender stuck on ‘puree’. That lasts for hours. After a bad show, I often get deeply lost in reading or television and find myself staying up even later. Both situations make it extremely difficult to pop out of bed the next day to drive several hundred miles home. That’s one advantage rock stars have over comedians. Bands have a tour bus and someone else drives it. I am my own tour bus driver and also scheduler too. That’s about the last thing I want to do after performing, and even less after a whole week of driving after performing, but that old Cadillac isn’t going to drive itself. Tim Rowlands was sleeping too, and he didn’t call me at 4am like we agreed. He hadn’t slept well either this week, so I guess that’s how it worked out. Two old road dogs needed to get some rest, so we left a lot later than scheduled. Maybe we would have gotten into a wreck or hit a deer or who knows what? Still, it made the trip home a lot more of a chore. It was 300 miles dead on the dot to drop Tim off in Toledo, and then another 332 to get to Kenosha for the radio show. I drove west on US 20 as the sun was setting and sensed a symbolic feeling that my road days are coming to an end but quick. It’s hard to let it all go after a lifetime of doing it, but it’s time. I just don’t feel like these long drives anymore. My desire to perform is still there, but back when I was all over the road it was for a lot of reasons that no longer exist. I wanted to see and experience new places, which I have - all over North America. I also wanted to get in with new bookers, and I’ve done that too. I needed experience in both life and comedy, and now I’ve got that oozing out of every part of my being. I did everything I set out to do, and it was great - but now I don’t want it anymore. I had a blast this week, and if a run like this comes along I’ll do it, but not often. I don’t think there are enough quality runs like this to make it worth my while anymore. I see so many clubs closing or money going down that I can’t see myself making as much as I did ten years ago. It’s the end of an era, and I feel it. 632 miles is too long a commute.
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