Tuesday September 18th, 2012 – Fox Lake, IL
One of the most valuable lessons I ever learned from my grandfather (and there were many) is that when a person makes a mistake the correct way to move forward is quickly acknowledge it, accept full responsibility, sincerely apologize and move on. I’ve learned not everyone can do it.
Well, I made a mistake. It’s surely not the first and it won’t be the last. It wasn’t the worst one I ever made, and it wasn’t even intentional - but what mistakes ever are? Nobody wakes up on a Tuesday and out of the blue on a whim says “I feel like pulling off an extra stupid stunt today.”
I received a phone call this morning from Dana MacCraw of Comedy Express Entertainment in Florida. Dana and her husband Doug have been in the entertainment business for twenty years or more, and we have worked together on occasion. They have always treated me extremely well.
In fact, they happen to be some of my very favorite people in the comedy business. I have total respect for both of them, because they’re honest hard working people who are trying to earn their living in a very difficult business. They have a house full of kids to feed, and that’s no easy task.
Doug is a successful comedy hypnotist, and Dana books comedy shows of all kinds in quite an array of venues besides just comedy clubs or one night bar venues. My dealings with them in the past have been to schedule random fill in dates in my own calendar, but they have a much bigger scope of reach than that. Their website has a more complete view at www.comedyexpress.com.
Dana called to point out – and correctly so – that I had mentioned her in a recent entry in which I stated that she and Doug had booked me for ‘some random shows’. She wasn’t angry, but she’d read that as maybe not being completely accurate as to what she does in business as a whole, and future potential customers of her and Doug might see that as a negative. She makes a good point.
That was never my intention, and it isn’t now. It’s very easy to lose track of the fact that all we ever put up on the internet is ‘out there’, and nobody knows when it could ever come back to bite us in a nasty place. I have learned that the hard way, and I was very sensitive to what Dana said.
The only reason I ever started writing a daily diary was to see if I could do it for thirty days in a row. I don’t know why that appealed to me, but I thought I’d give it a shot and begin on March 14th, which is my birthday. I’ve managed to do it every single day since 2006. It’s become habit.
I try to make it a strong policy to not mention names if a situation is negative. Occasionally I’ll tee off on someone or something that touches a nerve, but more often than not I’ll either take aim at myself, or find something positive to say about someone I like or admire. I’ve done that often, but the ones that tend to step on toes are the ones that I’m known for. I probably should just stop.
I guess I’m not that smart. I mainly post it for the benefit of younger comics climbing the ranks so they can see what it’s like, warts and all - and there are many warts unfortunately. Dana is not one of them, and in fact she and Doug are examples of how I wish all comedy bookers would be.
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