Racine Theatre Guild

Saturday February 9th, 2008 - Racine, WI

I’m starting to get spoiled. I worked in yet another wonderful theatre space tonight and I had a blast. The last two weeks I was at the Northern Lights Theatre up in Milwaukee and tonight I performed at the Racine Theatre Guild. It’s a gorgeous venue with a super sound system and an audience that came to laugh. Shows like this are what I always dreamed of.

My friend Steve DeClark set up this show. He and I go back as far as there is to go with comedy in Milwaukee. We started in the early 80s at a place called Sardino’s on Farwell. It’s the same place Al Jarreau started his singing career and it’s since been torn down but they had a comedy night there on Mondays and that’s where I first met Steve back then.

He went out to L.A. and played the Hollywood game and did pretty well and then came back to raise a family in Wisconsin. He is a social worker and is very good at it but he is a lifer in comedy just like me. He now does plays mostly and is very good at that too but he set this show up because the Racine Theatre Guild has been doing a comedy series lately.

It was a great deal for me because all I had to do was show up and go up. I love to work onstage and if I can do that I am happy. Setting up shows is not what I enjoy even though it’s a necessary evil. The show part is more fun than the business at least for me. Steve is good at it so there is no competition from me. I just want to perform for good audiences.

Tonight’s audience was superb. They got the jokes and the subtleties and all of the local references too. When I come back to Wisconsin I can really punch it up with that kind of stuff and it’s fun for me to hear them laugh in recognition when I mention something they know. It really forms a bond between them and me and takes it all to a whole new level.

I had a whole bunch of material left over that I didn’t get a chance to perform. I guess it was because there was so much time eaten up by laughing and applause breaks. That’s the best problem in the world to have as a performer but sometimes I like to stretch bits out in length so I can ad lib some things if I feel like it. Tonight I kept it tight and still had things left over. I didn’t want to go too long so I ended it when I felt they had laughed enough.

That can be a tough call when it’s going well. The natural tendency is to keep going for as long as the material holds out but sometimes there can be a point of saturation where it doesn’t need to be extended. They’ve laughed enough and it’s time to say goodnight. I’ve usually had a good barometer for that over the years and tonight I felt they’d had enough.

These are the kinds of places I want to work. Clubs can be fun on Saturdays when there is a full house of paid customers but the week day half empty or less drunk fests aren’t the thing I need to be doing anymore. These last three weeks are where I want to be and that’s what I will be hoping to book in the future if I can. I know I can rock these kind of shows.

It was a pleasure sitting after the show and having people line up to tell me how funny I was and shake my hand. I thanked every one of them and meant it. This was a fun night.