Brewers And Birthdays

Tuesday August 14th 2007 - Lake Villa, IL

Tonight was the 25th anniversary reunion of the 1982 Milwaukee Brewers World Series team up at Miller Park in Milwaukee. I wanted to be there live in person because I lived in Milwaukee then and it really was a special year. The stadium was sold out but I did get to listen to some of it on the radio. It took me way back to life twenty five years in the past.

I graduated high school in 1981 and I hadn’t started comedy yet at that time. I was still a baseball player myself and hoped to get a shot to play professionally. I was 19 and all over the place and didn’t have an idea what life would be. The Brewers were the talk of the city and it was a team with all kinds of characters on it that just fit the town’s personality. I’d love to be a part of something that people would still be excited about 25 years from now.

Sports touches people in so many ways more than just the game. That was a completely different time and era in my life and I can go back there immediately just by hearing names of players like Cecil Cooper and Ted Simmons and Eddie Romero and Don Money and all the rest. I have to admit that it sent chills down my spine just hearing it on the radio. If I’d have been there in person I bet I would have cried like a baby. It’s really that emotional for some reason I can’t explain. Am I losing my edge or getting to be a sentimental geezer in my old age? Who knows, but today I focused on good people the whole day. I love that.

I’m not an authority on astrology but I have to believe that this is a special day in zodiac history. I know four people who happened to have a birthday today and every one of them is one of the sweetest most generous and gentle souls I know. It’s amazing how all four of them could have a birthday on the same day. I looked in my Chase’s book of events I used to use when I was on the radio to see which celebrities were born today and saw that there was of note Halle Berry, Steve Martin and Antonio Fargas who played the role of Huggy Bear on Starsky and Hutch back in the 70s. I don‘t know if any of those people are as nice as the four that I know though. These people are just the cream of the crop and I mean it.

One of them is a former student named Donna Lappert. She lives in Wheaton and is very religious and you’d never think she’d like comedy much less perform it. She looks like she would play June Cleaver’s stunt double but she’s a wonderful soul and very funny and tells everyone she meets how good a teacher I am. It’s people like her that cause me to keep on teaching the classes. I sure don’t make a ton of money. I do it mostly for the satisfaction.

James Wesley Jackson is another one. He was the opener for George Clinton for years. I knew George had a comedian open for him because I’m a huge fan and when I finally met James I really liked him and still do. Working with him in Chicago Style Standups is a real treat. He’s very laid back and spiritual and just a quality person all around. So are both of the other two. Joey Callahan is a comedian from Philadelphia I met years ago through my contact with Gene Perret. Gene was Bob Hope’s head writer for years and he too is from Philadelphia originally. Joey and I became friends and stayed that way and we have a huge bond because we’re both left handed. We’re wired differently and understand each other.

Kate Brindle is the fourth one. She is also a comedian from Ann Arbor, MI and is about as opposite as anyone can be from me. She is a vegetarian or vegan or something that isn’t in my foreseeable future that starts with a ‘V’. She is into all kinds of animal rights causes and is very P.C. and is very liberal in her politics but I respect her because she really lives a life she preaches and she doesn’t try to recruit everyone to her causes. I worked with her a few years ago and her sweetness radiates from across the room. She’s kind of like if Mary Tyler Moore did standup comedy. Who could heckle someone like that? She’s absolutely wonderful and maybe we get along so well because we’re so opposite but whenever I see her on my caller ID it makes me feel good. All four of them do. I am not always a butterfly of political correctness or social interaction and I tend to think there is an overabundance of stupidity and greedy selfish people scaling the earth but people like these give me hope.

Another person I think the world of is my friend Marc Schultz. He’s a booker but we’re friends first. If he never booked me again I would still hang out with him and that does say a lot. I’ve learned to tolerate most bookers but not hang out with them as friends. It’s rare and there’s probably a reason for it. Most performers and bookers are different in that they both have a different ideal. Performers want to perform and bookers are looking to fill the hole and make a buck. Marc is a real person first and I try to be that way too. We agree on the fact that the show is bought by the customer and they are the ones who call the shots.

Marc called me a few weeks ago and wanted to meet a comedian named Dan St. Paul in person. Dan is part of a group called ‘Standup Dads’ which is a great idea. It’s kind of like the Blue Collar Comedy Tour with four guys who are all fathers. Fantastic gimmick. Marc is hoping to sell them to theatre shows along with Chicago Style Standups and he’s talked to Dan on the phone but never met him. I know Dan because he hosted some of the shows at the San Francisco Comedy Competition when I was in it in 2003. He happens to be here in Chicago performing at a Zanies so Marc asked if I wanted to go and catch his show.

Going to see comedy on a comedian’s day off is about as appealing as having diarrhea in a space suit but Dan St. Paul is different. He’s been doing it for probably 25 years and he’s a true pro. He’s got lots of well written original JOKES and he delivers them for forty five minutes. That should be what every headliner does but it’s far from the case. Watching all the comedy I have in my life the good ones stand out. It’s like being an NFL quarterback. The experienced ones stand out and nothing except actual experience will substitute for it.

Marc and I watched Dan’s set and I was laughing out loud which is also hard to do as a comedian. He’s just a pro and makes me laugh and his stuff is smart and original. He has a bit about a baseball game with heaven vs. hell announced by Harry Caray that lays me out. I heard it on the radio years ago and loved it then and when he did it tonight I exploded.

These are the kinds of craftsmen I respect. He is making a living and his family probably won’t be starving any time soon but unfortunately Dan St. Paul is not a household name. I think guys like him and Tim Walkoe and Dwayne Kennedy and Larry Reeb and a bunch of other people who are out there in the trenches just like I am should be more known but we are all just making a living. I have to believe it’s like that in music and acting and all of the creative arts. The famous ones aren’t always the best ones and that’s just how it works.