Ken Swann & Dave Rickert

Friday September 5th, 2008 - Lake Villa, IL

Good news and bad news today. I’ll start with the bad to get it out of the way. I received word that a Chicago comedian named Ken Swann passed away unexpectedly. I knew Ken for years but like most comics we only knew each other on a comedy level. I never did get to know him beyond just being friendly in the clubs but he was always a pleasant person.

Comedy friendships are very different than whatever ‘normal’ work friendships are. We are nomadic road creatures and many times we are forced to be roommates for a period of time usually a few days to a week or so in a strange place and then we may not do it again or see each other for months, years, or ever again. Usually it’s a completely random draw.

Sometimes it works great and lifelong friendships are formed. Sometimes it works very well and there may not be a close friendship formed but whenever the two who had a time together meet up they refer back to it years later. I’ve got hundreds of comedians like that.

An example of what I mean is a guy named Billy Gardell. Billy has been on a lot of TV shows as an actor and a comic and he’s a big loud guy from Pittsburgh that is absolutely a sweetheart of a human being. Everyone loves him and he just has a way to make anybody feel good. His act really doesn’t matter because everyone loves Billy as a person. I do too.

We worked together in Miami years ago and I had a rental car and he didn’t. It’s a polite gesture to share in that situation and I usually am very good about it. We were trapped for a couple of days between shows and we’d discovered a great pizza joint in one direction of where we were staying and a fantastic bakery the other. We were regulars at them both.

We’d get lost at first and a left turn became a ‘pizza’ and a right turn became a ‘donuts’. I know it’s completely stupid but at the time it was very funny. Now whenever I run into Billy he says ‘Hey, which way is that - pizza or donuts?’ That was a dozen years ago now.

Ken Swann and I never did any road work together but we crossed paths in Chicago and got along very well. He wasn’t necessarily the most dynamic guy on stage but he did have the ability to keep getting booked so that says something. It would be like the equivalent of a utility infielder in baseball. He isn’t a star but it still took ability to make the majors.

I have never heard a bad word about Ken from anyone. He was one of those guys unlike me who never pissed anyone off. I am the first one to admit that I have done that and still do but there’s also an opposite camp that love me to the death. Ken was not a polarizer. It still saddens me to hear about it and I know he was married so that makes it even worse.

If there are services I will definitely go out of respect to a guy who gave his life making others laugh. The more I see the world flip out the more precious I think comedians really are. I know how difficult it is to last in the business for years and all the insanity that goes on and I have more respect on a daily basis for anyone who can put up with it for any kind of tenure. Most of us started comedy very young so when one of us dies it’s a big shocker.

The good news was getting an email completely out of the blue from a guy named Dave Rickert from Milwaukee. Dave is a great guy and used to do comedy for a short time back in the ‘80s when I was starting. That was the comedy boom and a lot of people got in on it then and rode the wave. Some lasted longer than others and it was a very exciting time.

Most people who get into any kind of creative or competitive entity don’t do it for their entire lives. There are many reasons for that and not all of them are bad ones. Comedy has it’s way of weeding people out and only the diehards last the distance. I’m totally a ‘lifer‘.

Dave Rickert was never going to be one of those but that doesn’t mean we didn’t have a lot of fun performing together because we did. We were even part of a group that put on a few shows and we called ourselves ‘Producers 4’. Stupid name - yes. Successful? No. But I remember it like it was yesterday because all of us then were so young and enthusiastic.

Like I just explained we just kind of drifted apart over the years. It was funny how when he started his email he wrote ‘Hey, I don’t know if you remember me…’ Of COURSE I’d remembered a guy like that. It wasn’t just for his comedy either. I knew his family also.

Dave came from a big family and his parents were some of the nicest people I’ve EVER met. Both of them were college educated and hard working and I’m glad they had a lot of kids because those kids were in good hands. Dave wasn’t a dented can. He had some love and that has helped him carve out a successful life and I’m very glad to be back in touch.

I remember one Christmas the Rickerts invited me over for dinner. It was so nice of the family to include me but it made me feel so much worse because I saw what a real family is supposed to be like and I knew I’d gotten screwed. Still, I never forgot how kind it was of them to have me over and I still don’t. I hope I get a chance to say thank you in person.

One of the funniest memories I have was Dave’s mom who is a gentle and kind lady get me alone in the corner and whisper to me ‘PLEASE don’t let David pursue this very long. This isn’t what he needs to be doing with his life.’ She knew I was a lifer and hoped that I would somehow talk him out of it. I knew she was doing it out of love but it’s still funny.

Dave did great for himself. He was a firefighter for a while and even when he moved on from comedy we still stayed in touch for a while but eventually our lives just started to go in different directions. Nobody was at fault and I’m not angry about it at all. I am thrilled to hear from him again and I look forward to getting together and renewing a friendship.

From his email Dave told me he’s a dad now and has a wife and three kids and is doing all the things I really wanted for my own life but I don’t think that will ever happen now. I made my choices and the fates dealt their cards and all of that has lead me to where I am.

I’m sad to hear about Ken Swann but happy to hear from Dave Rickert. Life is all about ups and downs and in my world many times they come on the same day. I didn’t expect to have any of this cross my path today so again I never know what to expect in this world.