Backstabbers

Thursday April 3rd, 2008 - Sault Ste. Marie, MI

I’m on the top of the world and the bottom of the world all at the same time. Sault Ste. Marie is as far up north in Michigan as I can get and it’s still winter up here. There’s a lot of snow still on the ground and it doesn’t look like it’s going away any time soon. I’m at another casino gig I’ve done before and it’s a beautiful facility but a not so beautiful gig.

That’s not what put me in the dumper though. I found out today my ex business partner who embezzled me dry in the comedy class project is now starting another class at a club other than Zanies with another comedian who has been a total wanker to me for a while. I was blown away when they weren’t even smart enough to take me off their mailing list.

Actually it’s my mailing list and he kept it and now is trying to go behind my back and make money. I was pretty furious when I read it but I’m 600 miles away and what could I do? What could I do if I was in Chicago? Not much really but I still think it’s a big slap in the face. I’ve been very good to both of those pukes and now I get kicked hard in return.

Business has never been one of my strong suits and I’m trying to get better at it but I do think I have some morals and scruples about the way I treat people. Maybe that’s why I’m not good at business but I don’t believe there has to be a total lack of respect for people. It was wrong what my partner did and in my mind this makes it even worse. It really hurts.

The fact is he’s a rich kid who never had to struggle in his life. He’s 41 and has painted himself into a corner in life so rather than GET A JOB which most people would do he is in a panic and will do anything but that. He’s always tried to take the quick and easy way out and that’s just not realistic. He did a lot of damage to himself and now it’s to me too.

This is going to be a tricky situation. I wrote him a very nasty note telling him I am not at all pleased that he’s doing this. The other comedian is a very intelligent person but not all that great of a comedian and he is not a headliner. He thinks Zanies is blacklisting him when in fact he’s just not all that talented of a performer. There are a lot of variables here.

Politics is going to make this situation uglier than it already is and I need to play it right. I never said I am the only one who can teach a comedy class but in this situation it’s a fact of my list of past students is being used to troll up business for their deal and that’s wrong in my book. Get your own list. The email even said I was on ‘hiatus’. Ha! What a joke.

Tonight’s show was not easy at all. It was in a nice sized room but nobody paid to get in and it was very chatty and very smoky too. The casino is not going to shut anybody up for fear of them leaving and not gambling so I was on my own to tame these lions yet again. I didn’t enjoy the show and it was even more unpleasant thinking about all of this insanity.

I work very hard to be peaceful and make a living and earn my keep in life. Those idiots don’t drive to the U.P. to do shows in a smoky casino for drunks who got in for free and I am not going to endorse them stealing my list so they can skim money off my hard work.