Thrilla In The Villa

Thursday September 4th, 2008 - Lake Villa, IL

Home is where the heart is. To me it’s where the comedy show is and tonight it was in my neighborhood. The Blackthorn Grille in Lake Villa, IL tried a live comedy show and I was the host. I lined up six other comedians and together we gave them a fantastic show.

The problem is only about half of the people there were quiet enough to hear it. This is a bar/restaurant and tonight it was more bar than restaurant. We had a lot of things going against us like bad weather which cancelled a scheduled car show and a wine tasting party for a singles club that brought about 50 people who were very chatty for the whole show.

This was not easy at all. It’s too bad because the manager Eric Feldman couldn’t be any nicer. He loves entertainment and has been around theatre and it shows. He treated us all very well and those are the kind of people anyone would love to work with. He wants the shows to continue every Thursday but we couldn’t keep bringing in hot shows like this.

Ken Sevara from Jerry’s Kidders drove all the way from the far south side to do it and it took him over two hours to get there. Steve DeClark drove down from Milwaukee and so did my former student Russ Martin. That was very nice of both of them. Russ is like a kid and even though he started comedy late in life he loves it and I love to see his enthusiasm.

J.T. Newton lives out in the sticks even farther than me and he showed up as did Mike Preston who lives in Crystal Lake and Scot Wickmann who lives near Jim McHugh and it escapes me exactly where they live but it took a while to get out here. They all kicked ass.

I don’t think anyone but us knew exactly how difficult it was to pull off a show like this but we did and everyone in management and staff was thrilled with us. I don’t know how this will develop or how long it will last but it’s close to my house so I’ll keep working it.

One of my former students Mike Land came out and that was super nice of him to show up. He gets up at 5am but he still made time to come out because he wanted to support us. Thoughtful people like that are why I’ve taught my classes as long as I have. Enough said. I don’t want to go off on any more tangents on the dark side. That’s not very productive.

What was productive was me getting up early today and going straight to the DMV and registering my new old Toyota. I was there so early there were no lines and I actually had to fill out my paperwork at the desk because they called my number so quickly. Amazing!

That alone was worth noting because I don’t think it’s ever happened before. I was very surprised to see nobody there and it felt like heaven to be in and out of there in minutes to head over to the auction to drop off the Honda so they can run it through next Saturday.

Then I went to the Gurnee Mills mall and again took a nice long power walk. I’m doing it every day and striving to make it a habit. I’m only four days in and can’t get cocky but I am making a conscious effort to get exercise and eat better. Slowly I make my life better.