It Plays In Peoria

Saturday March 15th, 2008 - Petersburg, IL/East Peoria, IL

Two more hot shows tonight. HOT. Volcanic. I am now in a new chapter of my comedy life and I know it’s going to be a good one. I’m not saying I won’t have a bad show at any time in the future because just about when a comedian thinks he’s got it figured out that’s when life turns into a giant pig rape and brings the reality hammer out for a few whacks.

I’m not getting cocky at all. What I’m saying is that I can feel myself in a place of being completely comfortable with myself on stage. Granted I had been at this club before just a few weeks ago and I’ve known Jim McHugh for many years so that brought a certain kind of comfort vibe to it all but even if that wasn’t part of it I still felt a new inner strength.

‘Will it play in Peoria?’ That was Vaudeville’s question about any kind of act. It meant a successful act had to be simple enough that simple people everywhere could understand and enjoy it. It didn’t mean they were bad people, it just meant they had a certain level of connection and if an act could connect with them on that level it would be a big success.

I totally get that now and YES I have played in Peoria. And Pittsburgh. And Pensacola. And a whole lot of other places too. Some of those places didn’t go well but a lot more of them did that’s what has made me ready for this next level. I have earned my Master’s.

Both shows tonight I felt totally in control. I felt comfortable ad libbing and just flowed from one subject to another as my brain shifted gears. I slowed down and was totally in as much of a zone as I’ve ever been in. I have an opener I use a lot but I didn’t use it tonight until about twenty minutes into the first show. By then the line got SHREIKS of laughter.

Before that I was in the moment and my inner antenna knew exactly where to steer the show. I felt like overdrive kicked in after all these years and I will keep working on it so I keep improving. This feeling was like Superman flying for the first time. I felt like a king.

I’ve been putting in my time lately though. No matter what problems I may be having or things that slide through the cracks my comedy has been a priority lately. I’ve been taking my Gene Perret correspondence course every week and that has helped me sharpen up my writing skills along with watching master comics like Carl LaBove and Jake Johannsen.

Another thing I’ve done to help me improve is getting all my surviving comedy notes in a single computer file and making it into a notebook. Losing my other computer will hurt forever but it didn’t kill me. I still had a random pile of loose notes left and some outlines of bits I’ve been thinking about so I typed it out and printed it and have it all in a binder.

I have been working on it for a while now and it’s 135 pages of stuff. Much of it isn’t in finished form but that’s ok. It will give me something to do over the next few months and years and however long I’m left on this planet. I will flesh out the ideas for a ton of fresh material and that will keep me busy and interested as I keep striving to make my act even better. I want to get so strong somebody big HAS to notice me and I’m doing exactly that.

I didn’t get a lot of sleep at all last night because Max got up early and went over to his deli and ice cream shop to prepare for the upcoming tourist season. It’s located in the Abe Lincoln Village about ten minutes from his house and I told him I’d tag along and help to keep him company. We don’t get to see each other that often so I didn’t mind getting up.

Max is a natural when it comes to business. He loves it just as much as I love comedy. I am not fooling myself into thinking I have anywhere close to his acumen for what it takes to be a success in turning a buck but he will help me just like I’d help him if he needed it.

Actually I already have. I put my life savings up as collateral for this business venture. I believe in it and him that much and he needed it so I said I’d help out. He is going to have this thing humming by the end of the summer and that’s when I’ll be able to use that cash again. It’s still in my name but I can’t take it out until Max pays the loan off. I trust him.

Those three words say a lot. I have a hard time trusting ANYONE including my mother, father, blood relatives or radio morons who tell me to move across the country for a job. I gave Max all I had and I know he appreciates it and won’t allow himself to not pay back a vote of confidence from someone who believes in him. Neither one of us are used to that.

Watching Max run that deli is like watching Brett Favre run a football game or a Mafia family run a labor union. There’s a plan there. Not only that he’s got great timing because Abe Lincoln’s 200th birthday anniversary is in 2009. There’s a movie being filmed about his life with Liam Neeson and Sally Field and it will be a HUGE tourist stop when it hits.

Max is hoping it will be like Field Of Dreams and people will come from all over to see it. He could be right but then again if gas hits $4 or higher maybe nobody is going to have money to go anywhere except the poor house on their summer vacation. Either way I still took a chance and lent Max the cash and we spent much of the morning talking it all out.

We talked about what would happen if he died first or I did and how we’d work it out. I trust Max but he still has it in writing in his will that I get paid first before anything else. I can just see his desire and ability to be a businessman and he vowed to help me in getting the Uranus Factory Outlet business up and running and help consult with me as it grows.

Getting fired and humiliated at the Loop still bothers us both. We talked about that too. We also agreed that if it took that ugly situation to bring us together it was still worth it. I know Max is going to be a millionaire because he WORKS at it. He’s got rental houses in Springfield and does the morning show on WYMG and he also has this deli business too.

We spent most of the morning talking and then we went with his wife and kids to Pizza Hut for lunch and just hung out. He doesn’t get to do that much with either me or his kids so we just sat around and ate pizza and laughed a lot and made ourselves a fun memory.

These kinds of things are all necessary for that ‘big success’ everyone dreams about. It’s actually a lot of little successes all strung together. This weekend was extremely positive.