Where's My Own Joan?

Wednesday July 23rd, 2008 - Chicago, IL

All kinds of stuff is starting to bubble again. I love that. I am getting calls for gigs and it feels good to get back in that groove again. I love to work and always have and any time I can get on stage in a good situation that’s what I want to do. Key words - ‘good situation’. It doesn’t do me any good to drive to Wyoming to work for 37 drunks who got in for free.

It’s about time to make my rounds again for the clubs I like. I already am set to return to Memphis in February and that will be a blast. It always is. I also heard from Tom Sobel as well. He owns the Comedy Caravan in Louisville where I recorded my CD and I have had fun every time I worked there too. He treats comics very well and that’s how it should be.

My friend Max called from Springfield and asked if I would sit in with him on his radio show the next two mornings. His partner is out and I always love to see Max so of course I said I would. He’s also arranged a meeting with the bank down there so I can work out a deal to get my life savings back that I loaned him for his ice cream shop. I really need it.

The highlight of my day by far was an email I received totally out of the blue from Joan Dangerfield, Rodney’s widow. She told me that she is aware of my blog and enjoys it that I mention Rodney in it. She also told me Rodney did a character called Mr. Lucky on one of his network TV specials back in the ‘80s with Bill Murray. I totally wasn’t aware of it.

What a nice thing for her to do though. It made my whole month. It was because of her I got to meet Rodney in person when I lived in Salt Lake City. She’s from Utah and when it came time to set up a radio interview she initially said Rodney didn’t do radio but when it came out that I was a comedian and Rodney was my hero she made sure we got to do it.

Whether she reads anything else I write or not Rodney is STILL my comedy hero and he always will be. Like George Clinton, Rodney and I bonded on several levels. Not only did his comedy style match mine he also had to fight the depression dragon like I do. Rodney rose above it and dedicated his life to making others feel better and that’s what I want too.

I’ll never forget the phone conversation I had with him when we did the radio interview in Salt Lake City. I know a lot of things about his career because I study comedy and that impressed him. We stayed on the phone for quite a while and exchanged names of people we both knew. There weren’t all that many but there were a few and that helped us bond.

What really put it over the top was when I told him how much I loved his movie ‘Easy Money’. I wasn’t lying either, I really do. For some reason that character he played was as funny as I’ve ever seen and Joe Pesci was in it too. My friend Mark Shilobrit and I still do lines from that movie when we see each other and it still cracks us up. Rodney loved that.

Getting my chance to meet Rodney in person will be one of my all time life highlights. It was only for a few minutes after his show but he remembered me from the phone and I could see his eyes light up when Joan told him who I was. That was an electric moment.

We talked for a few minutes and I made him laugh. That’s a feeling I can’t put into any form of language. Making Rodney laugh is like scoring a touchdown in the Super Bowl. Not everyone gets a chance to do it but if it happens it’s a lifetime memory. And that was.

The only downer about the experience was that the person from the radio station didn’t tell me until we were driving home that the camera he used to take our picture didn’t have any batteries in it and there was no picture. I was SO crushed. Nobody will ever see how I got to meet my hero. I’ll have to take that memory to the next world all by myself. Arrgh.

I’ve said it before but I’m Rodney’s comedy pedigree. I don’t do his jokes but I have his DNA in my style. Lots of comics come from someone else but I’m totally from Rodney. I used to cringe when someone would say ‘You remind me of a young Rodney Dangerfield for some reason’ but now I understand that it’s the biggest compliment I can ever receive.

I hear that very often too. Even in the most horrific drunken hell hole someone seems to always have to find me and tell me that. I guess it means he’s the closest thing they know of that I remind them of. I try to be myself and I am but it reminds the public of Rodney.

I have no idea why Joan chose yesterday to send me that email but I’m very glad she did because it really came at a good time. It validates me in my struggles and tells me I might be on the right path after all. Sometimes I have no idea if anything I’m doing is working.

If I can be this generation’s Rodney Dangerfield I won’t be upset about it at all. I will be honored to carry that torch and I’ll carry it proudly. Rodney was the hope for the struggler and the release valve for the pressures of those who needed it. The people who liked what he did LOVED him and he was revered both by his fans and by comedians from all over.

In wrestling Buddy Rogers was known as the Nature Boy. He was a huge star and then a young punk named Ric Flair came along and he called himself the Nature Boy too. He did it his own way and was a superstar in his own right but his pedigree goes back to Rogers.

If I can take Rodney’s hard luck character DNA and build my own fan base for a whole new generation I don’t think he’d mind. I doubt if anyone will ever reach the total level of success that he did but I’d sure love to try. If I ever get it I won’t deny his direct influence.

One thing I definitely noticed about Rodney and Joan was that they really did appear to love each other. I didn’t get to know them very well but all the dealings I had and in every story I’ve ever read about them they really did seem like they had a very healthy marriage.

On paper it would seem like anything but that. Rodney was older and very successful so who wouldn’t want a much younger blonde stunner on his arm as eye candy? Of course. I wouldn’t have blamed him if he did but I didn’t get that impression at all as I met them.

Maybe there’s a future Joan Dangerfield type out there for me. Smart, funny, gorgeous and rich. Hey, I have to leave my fortune to someone. Right? Oh, I have to make one first.