Georgia Geography

Saturday July 27^th, 2013 – Columbus, GA

   It’s not often I can say I haven’t been somewhere in the Continental United States, but today is one of those days. I’d heard of Columbus, GA but I can’t ever recall coming through this place in my many travels. I’ve been all over The Peachtree State starting with The Punch Line in Atlanta in the ‘80s and including Albany, Athens, Augusta, Savannah, Valdosta, Waycross and more. 

   Columbus is on the Alabama border, and right next to Fort Benning. There’s a club called “The Loft” that has apparently been doing comedy shows for going on twenty years, and they have not one but two nights featuring different comics. I’ve seen that done on occasion, but not that often.

   The room itself is an upstairs facility, and quite large. They have a bar and restaurant, and they do comedy in an area separated by only a curtain. Unfortunately, noise from the other side bleeds over but that’s how they do it. It’s not my place to complain, as I’m here for the money and may never be back. It’s a long way from home, and circumstances brought me here for the evening.

   One nighters can always go either way, but if a place has made a commitment for twenty years chances are there’s a clue in the mix somewhere. The people on staff were all very nice, and I’ve never seen a more gorgeous wait staff in my life. Yowzah. Every last one was a total knockout.

   They had a nice sized stage with good lights and sound, and that’s another thumbs up. They do bands after the comedy, and there was a drum kit on stage but it still left enough room for me to prowl the stage like I like to do. They also serve dinner during the show, a big potential red flag.

   Again, if they’ve done it this long they’ve probably got a system and there were no problems at all. The noise from the other room was a bit distracting, but the crowd didn’t seem to mind so my focus was on them. They were aged probably from 30 to 50ish, and they were there for the show.

   I had a good time and more importantly got paid, but this is hopefully drawing close to the end of my barnstorming cross country one nighter tours. I took this run fully aware of everything that it entailed, but it’s only two nights and I’m barely going to come out ahead after all my expenses.

   Rent is due on Thursday of next week, and this was all I could find. I drove a lot farther than I should have, but I haven’t been out in a while so I sucked it up and did it. Since I’m on a budget this week, I chose to forego getting a hotel last night between Dayton and here. I pulled into the parking lot of a Marriott just south of Lexington, KY and slept there in my car for a few hours.

   That’s a part of road life I’ve never enjoyed, but everyone has done it at some point. It’s either budget restrictions or due to hotels in a town being full, but at one time or another performers of all genres end up sleeping in their car. It’s never a restful sleep, but we suck it up and move on.

   I’ve come way too far to be sleeping in my car at this stage of the game, but times dictate that I needed to so I did. I could have gotten a hotel, but I had a long way to drive and I would not have gotten my money’s worth. I did what I had to do, and hopefully I’ll squeak out a profit this week. 

   All in all, this was a good run. I’m in Fort Walton Beach, FL tomorrow, and that’s a place that I’ve been before. It’s been quite a few years, but it was one of the first places I’d ever headlined. Wait, let me rephrase that. It’s one of the first places they ever let me go on last. I was far from a ‘headliner’ then, but everybody has to earn their stage chops somewhere, and that’s what I did.