Rememberin' Rasslin'

Monday October 8th, 2007 - Milwaukee, WI/Chicago, IL/Lake Villa, IL

I have to believe my Mondays are consistently as a whole busier than any other comic in America. I’m not complaining about it but I do seem to have Monday mayhem cornered. I continued the tradition today as I got up in time to be in Milwaukee by 8:45am to meet up with my friend Steve Hall so we could head to the Ho Chunk casino near Wisconsin Dells.

Neither one of us are big gamblers but we’ve been going two or three times a year for a lot of years. It’s just a time to hang out and relax and both of us enjoy it. We put a couple of bucks in the video poker machines and then hit the buffet and then drive back to town.

Steve took a job in Reno and will be moving there this week. This was our final jaunt for a while so I didn’t want to miss it. I’ve known Steve for over 20 years. He wrestled on TV as Tom ‘Rocky’ Stone for the AWA and also ran the local pro wrestling scene in the 80s.

I started out as his backup ring announcer and then eventually became the regular and it was a lot of fun. Then he started a TV show and I was his play by play announcer for that back when I worked at 93QFM. Then I ended up buying the whole business and ran some shows for about a year back in 1992. That was an odd experience most people never get.

We always laugh at how we didn’t get along at all when we first met. I had a friend who was starting out in wrestling just as I was starting in comedy. I loved wrestling and when I heard there was an opening for a backup ring announcer I jumped at the chance to do it. It sounded like fun and my friend brought me in to talk to Steve who was training somebody in the ring when I walked in. He turned around and scowled at my friend who had brought me behind closed doors when he shouldn’t have. Steve’s initial words were ‘Get HIM the (bleep) out of here.’ I felt like an ass when he said that but he was protecting the business.

Eventually I became one of the boys and was let in on all the secrets and I totally see the reason he did that but at the time it was pretty uncomfortable. We laugh about it whenever we get together and he teases me that I became a much bigger jerk than he ever was. After having to deal with some of the events and people I had to deal with he’s probably right.

But looking back on it being part of that wrestling group was one of the most fun things I have ever done. There were a lot of great guys and even some not so great ones too but whenever we would get together for a live show or a TV taping it was always a lot of fun. I still see some of the guys once in a while and we look back on those days with fondness.

I’m glad we got to hang out a final time but then I had to be back in Chicago by 8:30 for a showcase show at Zanies. I am the host and it’s always a fun time. Tonight’s show had a nice mix of people and there was a good crowd too but after it was over I was ready to go right to sleep. This is the time when living so far away from the city is a major hassle. Now it’s even worse because the freeway construction on the Edens Expressway makes it even slower. I sat in traffic on the way home thinking about a lot of things and decided I would much rather be tired after a long day of having fun than fresh and rested rotting at home.