Stale Air Day

Monday January 14th, 2008 - Chicago, IL

I’m getting old. I used to be able to pull an all nighter with no visible side effects. Those days are over. I’m really dragging. I didn’t get in until almost 5am from the gig in Becker, MN because it snowed during the last part of the trip and made it longer. Then I got home and had a few emails I had to answer promptly so I just took a shower and stayed awake.

I needed to be downtown to do Jerry’s show on WLS by 10:30. I ended up catching the earlier train and was there by 8:15. I walked over to the radio station from the train station and it was an artic blast of cold the whole way. I hadn’t been able to sleep on the train and when I got to the radio station I had to finish up writing the jokes I’d be using on the air.

We all had an off day today and that’s never fun. Radio is like sports in that momentum plays a big part of it and we just couldn’t get a groove going. Ken Sevara was sick and on low sleep and Tim Slagle was yawning in the green room before we went in. Jerry said he was off before we got in there and it made for a long twenty minutes. I thought we stunk.

That happens to everyone in radio at one time or another and the trick is to move on and not let it bother you but that’s easier said than done. We’ve had some very solid segments in the past and management has been very happy but today felt like we regressed. I’m glad we waited until now to do it because if the first week had gone this poorly we’d be done.

A lot of things contributed to us being stiff today but we were. The news stories weren’t that great and we were all tired and I was delirious from driving all night and it just laid an egg all around. We got a few decent lines in but we could all feel that it wasn’t the same as previous weeks when we got in a rhythm and it was clicking for everyone. Not this time.

The funny part is sometimes these are the shows the audience likes the best. I have had a lot of comedy shows I thought were brutal and had people come up afterwards and tell me how much they loved it and I can tell by the look on their face that they mean it. The thing to do is smile and shake their hand and tell them thanks. The audience in comedy judges it.

Radio is different. The audience doesn’t give immediate feedback. We walked out of the studio today knowing we could have been better but the audience could have thought that we were on fire just because one or two jokes hit them the right way. I’m through judging at this point because truly it’s a crapshoot. It was what it was and now we’re done with it.

One thing we all agreed on is that this is a work in progress and we’ll come back and try it again next week. We’ve had a lot more good weeks than this one clinker and we’ll use it as motivation to prepare more and be ready when the mike cracks next Monday morning.

I got back on the train and came home only to get showered up and head back to Zanies for the new talent showcase tonight. I enjoy hosting them but I would have loved to have a night off tonight to catch up on my sleep. Not so. There was a smaller audience and they were not great laughers like they were last week but it was ok. Now I’m ready to nod out.