Repaying A Favor

Wednesday August 13th, 2008 - Duluth, MN

If I’m not good for anything else in life I’m good for paying back favors. If somebody is nice enough to throw me a bone I’m more than happy to show my appreciation however I can whenever I can. Today was a chance to do that but I had to make a long drive to do it.

Chuck Androvsky is a booker up in the Duluth area and for whatever reason he thinks I am the funniest person to walk the earth. It never hurts to have anyone think that but if the person can book me it’s even better. Chuck uses me in all his venues whenever he can.

He’s not a big time booker but he really is a good guy and very honest and is genuinely appreciative when he can lock down a date for me. Those are the kind of people anybody would love to work for and even though it’s a hellish eight hour drive through the bowels of Wisconsin every time I show up I get the royal treatment from Chuck and that’s a treat.

I don’t know exactly when it was but a while back there was a gig he booked in a music venue that was sold to a new owner. The owner wanted to drop comedy and Chuck did all he could to keep it going. He tried to make me a ‘special event’ from Chicago and put lots of time and effort into making posters and trying to please the owner but it was a big flop.

It wasn’t Chuck’s fault but the weather was nice and in Duluth when the temperature is in double digits without a minus sign in front of it everyone is outside celebrating. I drove the marathon to get there that night and Chuck was bummed out and disappointed but out of his pocket he made sure I got paid. It’s very classy and most bookers wouldn’t do that.

I told him I owed him a favor and there would be some time when he would need me to help him out and I would do it without question. Tonight was that time. The Black Bear is a casino a few miles out of town and they’ve done comedy for years. They just remodeled and stopped doing shows for a while but they finished early and wanted to start up again.

Chuck called me on short notice and asked if I could do it and I couldn’t say no. I know it’s a long drive and the money is ok but not great and by the time I pay for gas I’ll be just about even but this one is more important than that. He was in a spot and I was available.

It’s not horrible at all though. It’s a great hotel and they fed us a buffet that had walleye and barbecued duck and the people couldn’t have been any nicer to us so why is any of it a bad thing? If I had to take a day away from working on my projects this wasn’t awful.

I was supposed to do the gig with Kristi McHugh but she got a better gig for the week. I understand that totally and didn’t mind at all even though she’s a sweetie and way hot too but I was able to throw a bone to a guy named J.T. Newton and he was very appreciative.

J.T. lives near me and used to sell radio time but is now doing comedy. He thinks I’m a saint for getting him in with a new booker and Chuck was thrilled we could come up and the audience absolutely loved the show. Oh, the casino staff did too. It was worth the trip.