Madison Politics

Thursday October 18th, 2007 - Madison, WI

Playing politics all over the place. I’m in Madison this week working the Westgate Mall Theatres. The gig is in a movie theatre which has been converted into a live venue which is actually pretty good. The sound system is nice and the stage is decent and for years I have always thought this would be a good idea. If movie theatres could sell this concept to their customers for even a couple shows a week I think it could be a win/win for everybody.

The gig was booked by my friend Joe San Felippo who is also from Milwaukee. He now lives in Florida and has a bunch of comedy rooms all over the country. Some are in hotels, some are in casinos, and now he’s trying movie theatres. Joe is a great guy and has always taken care of me. I like working for him and I also like him personally so I try to be loyal.

That’s where the tricky part comes in. There is another club in town called The Comedy Club On State Street and I used to work there until I got banned for chasing a big gang of drunken hecklers out of the club the last two times I worked there. I feel bad about it but I had to defend myself and that’s a place where they just will not patrol the room. It’s crazy.

The owner of that club is a guy named Gus Paras who is also a wonderful person and as classy as they come. He’s a restaurant guy and is great at what he does but he inherited his comedy club when the previous owners leaked out on the lease. He decided to keep going and has actually done pretty well. His wife is a sweetheart too and they are just good folks all around. I loved working for them and didn’t even know I had been banned until I heard it from the booking agency out of Grand Rapids, MI. I couldn’t believe they banned me.

The politics of show business is as bad or worse than high school. There can be a whole lot of ‘He said, She said’ and hearsay and sometimes rumors morph into truths without the actual parties involved ever talking it out. That’s what happened in this situation. I should have talked to Gus in person when I found out I was banned and straightened it out then.

For whatever reason I didn’t do it. I like working Madison because the good crowds are FANTASTIC but the bad ones are horrendous and there usually isn’t any middle ground. I have always done well here when the audiences were good because they’re hip and smart. I usually eat it when they’re the drunk stupid college mooks who only want to get vomity drunk and not pay attention. Those are the times when I had to go nuts to defend myself.

It could have been the club manager that told the booker he didn’t want me back. It may have been Gus himself or his wife or his daughter who also works as a waitress there. I am really not sure who did it and I was hurt when I heard it and chose not to pursue the issue. Then this opportunity came up this week so I jumped at it and that’s not good politics. It’s probably going to make some ripples at the other club which will get back to the booker in Michigan and he’s got a lot of work around the Midwest. I’m not currently booked in any of those places and working here could seriously affect it. I am in a very delicate situation. What to do? I don’t really know. I worked for Gus first but I’ve known Joe longer. I don’t want to make anyone angry but if I’m banned at the other place I should take the work.

That would make sense on paper but it doesn’t always work out like that. Someone may see that I’m working the other room in town and it could get back to someone else and I’ll hear about it after the fact and get more work taken away because I wasn’t a good soldier. There is a lot of one way loyalty in comedy and I never thought it was fair. But it is reality so I have to play the game the best way I can. The best way to please nobody is to try and please everybody so I’ll have to make my decision and live with the consequences from it.

This gig could go either way. Tonight was their first show ever and we had twenty or so people in a theatre that seats maybe 150. They were surprisingly good laughers and we did the best we could in that situation. Management was thrilled and thinks we’re major stars.

I’m working with my old friend Tim Marszalkowski who I love hanging out with and he came up from Ohio this week. He hasn’t been on stage in a long time so he was rusty. We pulled off a show because I’m not rusty and everyone was happy. Tim is a great schmooze artist and people naturally love him. He’s very charismatic and likes to hang out and drink a few beverages with people after the show and he’s the perfect match to my personality. I like to go back to the room and not hang out at all. This is opening week so I should stay.

The hotel is beyond fantastic. The movie theatres are owned by the Marcus Corporation which also owns the Madison Hilton and that’s where they’re putting us. We both have an outstanding view of Lake Mendota from our rooms and the whole experience is first class. If I have to be banned from somewhere I’ll take this as a second choice every single time.

I’m not sure how the weekend shows will go or if they will even do comedy very long. I hope they do and I hope it doesn’t affect Gus’s business at the other club and that we can all get along and be friends. That’s my hope but I’ve been around way too long and see all the petty jealousies that come up between bookers. I choose Joe San Felippo but I have no animosity to the booker from Grand Rapids. I’ve worked for him over twenty years and he has a lot of decent work I wouldn’t mind doing again. But working here could cancel that.

The only thing that would stop this is if I were a big name draw. Then I would be able to choose which place I wanted to work and that would be that. I’d make my money and get to call the shots in every town and work for whomever I feel like working for. That’s what I’d love to be able to do and not have to worry about all these political chess game moves.

This week I made my choice. It may or may not hurt me in the long run. Next week will be interesting too because I’m at the Majestic Theatre in Brookfield. That’s a suburb west of Milwaukee and there are all kinds of politics in Milwaukee these days. I also work there at the Northern Lights Casino which is booked by Joe San Felippo. I have worked a lot at Giggles in Germantown which is booked out of Grand Rapids. I like the owner of Giggles very much and don’t want to do anything to upset him but I had to take the theatre gig.

I haven’t talked to him either and I hope he’s not angry. I took the week to keep myself busy and not to make any political statement or switch loyalties. This gets to be like gang wars after a while and I have never liked it but that’s how it works. I just want to perform.