Two Times Traffic

Monday December 10th, 2007 - Chicago, IL/Lake Villa, IL

Lots of driving today. I felt like I was on my own personal Cannonball Run. Twice. First it was downtown to WLS to be on Jerry Agar’s show at 10:30. I overslept and that is very rare with me. I woke up at about 4:30am and read for a while and then flipped through the cable news channels so I could check up on news stories to possibly use on the air today.

I laid back down for ‘just a little nap’ at 7:00 and didn’t wake up until 9:25. Panic. I had only planned on snoozing for maybe an hour but this put me in the trick bag. Jerry told me to be there at 10:30 and I said I would. If I didn’t get there I’d feel like I let him down. To do that would make me feel like my father and I want to do anything but that in my life.

All I could do was get in the car and drive it as fast as I could without endangering lives. It was snowy and slippery and I felt like the Blues Brothers except I wasn’t wearing a pair of sunglasses. I needed to be downtown at 10:30 and I was in the car by 9:28. Game on.

One of the hardest parts of the drive is getting from where I live in Lake Villa to I-94. It has all kinds of speed zones and cops like to hide behind things and pick people off. I had no time to spare so if I was going to get caught I was going to get caught. It’s about eight miles to the freeway and I did it in record time. I don‘t want to make a habit of it though.

Once I got on the freeway I really opened it up. The good part was I wasn’t panicked at all. I knew I was going to make it and I wasn’t stressed. Well, not much. I also was trying to write some jokes on a legal pad for a bit we’re doing about ‘the year that was’ in 2007. I was weaving in and out of traffic and writing jokes and I felt good as long as I was could stay moving. When I had to sit and wait for no apparent reason is when I started to worry.

This kind of hectic tenseness is part of every comedian’s life at some point. Getting to an engagement can sometimes be WAY more involved than the actual performance. Today is one of those days. I made it into the studio literally as they were going on the air and I had to hide the fact that I was out of breath from running down ten flights of stairs and then as fast as I could around the block all so I could make it to the gig on time. That’s my duty.

The show went really well today I thought. We’re starting to get a nice rhythm and if we can stay on the air for a while it will be good for everybody. After the show I had to get in the car and drive back to Waukegan to drop off the titles of the two cars I’m going to sell. I already had the cars there and I switched the Mitsubishi for the Honda I bought Saturday morning. I will get rid of the Mitsubishi and the other Honda and keep the one I bought.

After that I went home and showered and headed down to Zanies to host the showcase. It’s not fun to drive into the city once in a day much less twice but that’s what I had to do. There was a great lineup of comedians and the audience was small but they were into it so it made it all worth the drive. There will be time to sleep when I’m dead so I’m glad I took advantage of all my opportunities today. The radio was fun and so was the showcase. I am also glad I got my car situation handled so today was productive but I’m sick of driving.