Taking Action

Monday January 28th, 2008 - Chicago, IL/Milwaukee, WI/Chicago/IL

Lots of running around today but it was all productive. I got up at 5:30am to make it to my train on time to do Jerry’s show on WLS. I printed out the news stories we were going to be talking about and used my train time to write jokes. What a great thing the train is. It lets me relax and not have to fight traffic. When we got to Chicago I was totally prepared.

The segment went very well today. The other comedians were prepared too and this was a great week for stories. This is a good exercise for us in joke writing and it’s a nice bit of exposure too. We all enjoy it so it makes the train trip and getting up that early worth it. If it wasn’t fun I wouldn’t do it. There is also a feeling of accomplishment that‘s there too.

After the show I had a lunch with Bill Klaproth who was our assistant program director when I was at the Loop. He stayed on with the new company when we got fired and that’s amazing. We all thought he would be the first one to get blasted out but he’s the only one that ended up staying. Everyone else got das boot but that’s radio. It’s completely insane.

I don’t have a problem with Bill and in fact I liked working with him. He’s my age and has a family so I don’t want to see him have to suffer like my other two partners Max and Spike did. They’re still being affected by it and that was in 2004. It really wiped us all out at a bad time and those are the challenges in life that define if someone is a winner or not.

Bill is still at the Loop and is actually up for a promotion apparently. He’s friends with Kipper McGee who is the program director at WLS who I’ve known for many years. It’s a big inbred radio family and having connections never hurts. I am smart to rekindle one with Bill and eventually I could have it pay off down the road. This is all good business.

On the way home on the train I used my time to outline the book idea I had yesterday. I thought about what chapters I’d want to include and what information I thought would be useful. Then I got home and took it a step farther. I got in my car and went to a thrift store to search for a copy of the actual ‘Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus’ book.

I haunt thrift stores and have seen that book there time and time again. Why pay the full price when I don’t even want to read it? I just want to see how it’s laid out so I can model it for my own book which will have nothing to do with the topic. I just think it’s a winner of a title and that’s everything in the book business. I wanted to take action on this today.

The first two thrift stores I went to didn’t have a copy but I didn’t flinch. I know I have seen it time and time again so I kept the faith. I pictured getting a copy and I knew I’d get one eventually and that’s exactly what I did. I went up to Milwaukee to get some stuff out of my cousin Brett’s house I’d been storing for years and found one at a thrift store there.

I also found copies of ‘The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People’ and ‘Chicken Soup For The Soul’. Those were both huge sellers and for .79 each I now own those too. It’s an educational process and I am studying everything about what made those books sell well.

I’m sure content is part of it but by far not everything. Marketing and presentation and a lot of intangibles had something to do with it just like in comedy. I’m sure the best selling books aren’t always the best written books just like the most popular comedians aren’t the funniest in many cases. I don’t have to have the best book ever written. I want it to SELL.

Does the world really need another book? Movie? CD? Comedian? No, not really but if I am going to make a mark as an entertainer I need to come up with products and then not only sell them but use them to sell me to people I don’t know. This is all a sales process. I am seeing the big picture now whereas for years and years I only cared about being funny.

I don’t like the results that it produced by living that way so now I’m changing it around so I can change my results. Having an idea for a book was good but I was proud of myself for getting right in the car today and finding a copy of the Men Are From Mars book so it can turn the idea into a reality. Taking action is what it’s all about and I’m glad I did it.

While I was in Milwaukee I got a call from my friend Ross Bennett who was in town at Zanies last week and had a layover day. Ross was very helpful to me when I started and is a fantastic comedian himself. He lives in New York and when I go there he’s the one who I stay with and we always have fun. He is also a dented can and we get along very well.

Ross was going to see an improv show with his son Nash at a place near Wrigley Field called Improv Olympic. I was in Milwaukee and felt like the Blues Brothers trying to get to Chicago on time for the show. I made it within five minutes and I really thought it was very entertaining. I work so much myself I don’t get a chance to enjoy other performers.

After the show Ross and Nash and I went out to eat and talked about a lot of things. It’s always fun to hang out with Ross because he’s been through some hard times and has the same kind of luck I do. He got kicked off the Bob and Tom radio show years ago and then he eventually got back on…the same day I got kicked off. He was sitting next to me in the studio when my little incident happened and he was very supportive and helpful that day.

He’s doing the best he can to be a good father too. Nash is 22 and his wife died when he was just a baby so it hasn’t been easy but he’s truly done the best he can and I respect him totally. Life is not easy and comedy makes it even harder but Ross has taken the challenge and done well. He’s one of my favorite comedians and favorite people too. He’s a mentor.

There was no showcase at Zanies tonight but it starts up again next week. I thought this would be a night off but I ended up running around more than if I worked. I’m glad I took action though and I don’t regret it a bit. Everything I did today had a purpose and I had an immediate payback. I wrote jokes that got on the radio. I found my book. I visited friends.

These are the kinds of days I need to have again and again. I got a lot done and if I keep it up I’ll finally start to put a dent in all those projects I say I want to get to. It’s about the ACTION and not just thinking about it but thinking about it is the first step. Sometimes it all becomes one big blur. Thumbs up for today but now I have the rest of the week to fill.