A Horn Of Plenty

Monday October 20th, 2008 - Chicago, IL

My Monday marathons get longer as I keep adding more things to do. Between WLS in the morning and a Zanies show at night I now have started teaching classes again too. It’s a good thing the classes are at Zanies to save on travel but it still makes for one long day.

I’ve been debating for a while now whether I really need to do all these things in a day but if I enjoy it (and I do) why stop? I can rest when I’m dead and even if I’m not making big cash it still could lead to that in the future. I think I’m going to ride it out for a while.

The WLS situation is as good as I’ve ever had it in radio minus a paycheck. Jerry is my friend but so is Kipper McGee the program director. Most program directors in radio are two faced backstabbing liars but that goes with the territory. They have to protect all sides from being attacked and they get it from both management and air talent. That’s not easy.

Kipper and Jerry are friends first and good ones at that. We all look out for each other’s best interests and I truly believe if any of us have a fault it’s being too generous. We have had a lot of fun with this project and there’s a mutual respect on all sides. It’s been a treat.

Treats don’t pay bills though and that’s an issue. We’re scheduled to perform at Zanies in St. Charles November 13th and that will be a big test to see if we can draw flies. I hope we can get some people but there’s no guarantee of that. The station is going to run some commercials for us though and that’s a payment plan if indeed it can put fannies in seats.

All we can do is keep showing up every Monday until then and do what we do. Today it was free flowing and fun and I thought we all got off some good lines. Everyone had their chance to shine and that’s how it’s supposed to be. Will that draw a crowd? I don’t know.

After lunch with the Kidders I drove to Lyons to meet with a former comedy student of mine named Eddie Horn Jr. Eddie took my class several times many years ago and I have always really liked him. He’s a human dynamo and has positive energy flying out of him.
He was in the music business for years and then tried improv and comedy for a while. It was always fun to have him in class but he wasn’t really a true standup. He liked to do his characters and voices and that’s fine but he never focused his efforts on just doing jokes.

We’ve been in and out of touch for years and when he heard about the Uranus project it piqued his interest. He has been politely nudging me for a while now to get together for a brainstorming session and I’ve wanted to but everything else just kept getting in the way.

Today was the day I decided to make it happen and I’m glad I did. Eddie is now making world class puppets of all things and selling them all over the world. He wants to connect these puppets with Uranus Factory Outlet and I totally think it could work. We bounced a lot of ideas around over beef sandwiches and I felt a really strong vibe. I have a feeling it will lead to something that’s very creative and different. This could be a day to remember.