R.I.P. Tony Miller

Thursday October 11th 2007 - Oak Lawn, IL/Lake Villa, IL

Up and down day today. I am going to be in the Washington D.C. area this weekend so I wanted to get Chicago stuff done before I left. I wanted to get my new car licensed but I couldn’t squeeze that into all the places I had to be. I had a meeting with one of my former radio partners Spike Manton to talk about my business idea. My other partner Max is very interested and I wanted to get Spike’s input on what he would do if this were his project.

Spike is a very good idea man and he has a successful play called ‘Leaving Iowa’ that he and another comedian Tim Clue wrote and produced. He’s been putting all of his energies into it since we got fired and it has done very well. He has also hooked up with a guy who used to be in radio for years named Jeff Schwartz and they are working together on a few marketing ideas and have opened an office. That’s where I met them this morning to talk.

As it turns out Spike had told my idea to Jeff and Jeff LOVED it. He was all over it and now wants to be part of it and absorb my startup costs in exchange for a cut of the profits. I haven’t made my first dollar yet but the idea is strong in my opinion and 99% of people I have told it to agree. I will be glad to tell you too but for now I have to keep it quiet to be sure nobody hears about it and runs with it. I will say it involves selling humor products if that helps but that’s as far as I can go. Believe me I’ll lay it out in detail as soon as I can.

I like Jeff so far and he’s very smart and creative and we’ll see how it develops. Spike is a friend and I trust him implicitly after working with him every day for a year at the Loop. I thought we’d end up tangling creatively but that never happened and we still get along as if we were at the station. We had a fun and productive meeting and this could really work.

After that I went downtown to pick up Jerry Agar from the WLS studios. We rode out to the auto auction lot to get my Honda and drive it back to his house. He will store it for a while until we can figure out what to do with it. I hope to see it go to his son Tanner but just giving it to him wouldn’t teach him anything. He can work and earn money to pay for it but as of now we haven’t worked any of that out yet. Jerry is saving me space by taking it and I’m thankful he did. I’m in a bind for a few weeks but I’ll eventually dig myself out.

Then I headed home for a quickie shower and back in the car to pick up Bill Gorgo for a Chicago Style Standups show at Barrel Of Laughs on the south side in Oak Lawn. We had a show scheduled but only two people wandered in. It was very disappointing and I didn’t want to be there and then the guys went up one by one and that pushed all my buttons in a bad way. I shouldn’t have gone but I did and I regret it. I didn’t listen to my inner voice.

When I was there I heard that Milwaukee comedian Tony Miller passed away yesterday. I knew Tony for many years and he used to run some shows as well as perform. He was a very laid back nice guy and was honest too. He had a benefit done for him a while back to help pay the cost of his medical bills and I sent a few bucks to help out. He wrote me back the most sincere and grateful card I think I’ve ever received. I still have it. I certainly hope Tony is in a better place and I will keep that card as a remembrance of how short life is.