Decisions, Decisions

Monday October 22nd, 2007 - Indianapolis, IN

What a difference a couple of days make. Last week I spent three nights in one of THE swankest hotels I’ve ever stayed in. It was a Hilton and I had a fourth floor view of Lake Mendota in Madison. It was beautiful and classy and everyone I talked to called me ‘sir’.

Tonight I’m staying in a joint called ‘Dollar Inn’ in Indianapolis where I’m listening to a couple have a screaming match outside my door in the parking lot as I type this. They both have had a few drinks and are swearing at each other at the top of their lungs. It makes me feel like I’m back in my childhood again listening to my old man’s biker cronies squabble.

The room in Madison didn’t cost me a penny other than ten bucks to have internet for a 24 hour period. This room cost me $32.28 with tax and that’s why I took it. I like to cut a corner when I can and this is one of those nights. It’s raining outside and I needed to leave the highway before another methed up trucker passed me at 88 mph like I was parked and sprayed water puddles on to my car to keep me awake. There isn’t any high speed internet and I can’t use dialup because the phone jack is from 1952. And nobody here calls me sir.

This is part of the comedy business that most people can’t take. There is a constant flow of dramatic change and very often things go from one extreme to another without warning and it can be jarring. One night the hotel is great and the gig is horrible. The next night the gig is great and I’m sleeping on someone’s couch. It’s been years and years of that and by now the one thing I can expect is that I won’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow.

I chose to be in this dumpy hotel tonight just to save a couple of bucks. I am on my way to Nashville to do a private show tomorrow and had a class to teach at Zanies followed by a Chicago Style Standups show. Rather than drive all the way back home through the bad weather and road construction only to have to turn right around and back south just a few hours later it was smart to leave after the show and see how far I could drive in the rain.

Earlier today I looked at an apartment right around the block from Zanies. It’s a little bit more than I want to pay but the location is perfect. My monthly bills would double and I’d have a year lease but I really think I need to do it. It’s a very clean studio apartment on the first floor and it’s the same building where Zanies has a unit where they put up the comics.

I’m not thrilled about having to move again and I guess I don’t but where I am is out of touch with everything. It is cheap and quiet and there is no lease and all of that is a plus so now I have to make a choice. If I do move I’d have to do it quickly and it would cost me a chunk of my savings for the security deposit and all that. My parking would be extra and it would tie me down to Chicago for at least a year. Of course if I took it I’d get some major opportunity in another town and get stuck eating the lease and that’s what concerns me.

I’ve got a couple of days to think about it so I’ll run all the options through my head and then make a choice one way or another. It’s not a matter of life or death and if I stayed up in Hooterville a few more months I would be able to save some cash and that’s never bad.
Things are really changing quickly. I had my meeting today with Jeff Schwartz about my business idea. He and Spike Manton and their promotions guy Ken took me out for a meal and we discussed the idea a little more in depth. They said that the people they told all had the same reaction - silly laughter. It’s a gimmick and a third grade level joke and when I’m able to write about it in detail I certainly will. For now I need to still keep it quiet until I’m protected with a copyright and all that kind of stuff. The gimmick is what is going to make this thing work and I need to be careful who hears it before I can get it running for myself.

The fact that Jeff liked it so much says a ton. He has been around Chicago radio for a lot of years and he said at lunch today that he knew my old boss at the Loop Greg Solk when he started out as a teenage intern. Greg is about my age and now a top radio poobah. Jeff has a ton of media connections and that’s what I need to get this thing started correctly.

Now I’ve got more decisions to make. After lunch we went back to the office and they presented me with an offer to partner up on the project. I would be in charge of creativity and product design and they would up front my costs of a website and making products. I would be giving up a chunk of a company that hasn’t even made it’s first dollar but I need to team up with someone who has media connections to get some exposure from the start.

This is a tricky situation. Could I say no and own it all myself? Yes. Would that be smart in the long run? Probably. But in the short run I don’t have to put up a nickel of my money to get it started. All the business books I’ve read say that’s the dream situation to look for. I am not greedy but I don’t want to just give away something now I will really regret later.

I have a good gut feeling about the people involved. They are all radio veterans and are not beginners in either promoting things or being in business. Spike has a corporation for a play he and another comedian Tim Clue wrote and produced. I worked with him for a year at the Loop and we went through some very stressful times together and he didn’t crack. I thought we would end up having a falling out but that never happened. He’s a super guy.

That alone makes me feel good about this partnership idea but what if Spike has a falling out with the other two guys and I’m left alone with them? There are too many scenarios to count and the one that will actually happen will be one nobody thinks of so what I need to do is talk to a lawyer before I sign any agreements. Jeff encouraged that and I don’t feel a high pressure sales pitch from him at all. He told me he’s interested in teaming up and that alone made me feel pretty good because it lets me know my idea is as solid as I felt it was.

The main thing this is going to be is a mail order business that sells funny products. I am ok with having to split it with someone else if I can be the creative entity churning out fun ideas. Their job is taking care of the marketing and website and fulfillment of orders which is how it will work according to the contract I read today. All of it is up for negotiation.

I could be making the dumbest mistake of a long line of dumb mistakes I’ve made in my life but it could also be the best opportunity I’ve ever had. I am going to think it through a little more and then make my decision based on my research and gut feeling. Here we go.