Perisho The Thought

Sunday October 19th, 2008 - Kenosha, WI/Lake Villa, IL

Another really strong positive vibe today and it lasted from beginning to end. I am on a big upswing lately and am enjoying every minute of it. Yesterday’s seminar in Cincinnati really put me in a good space mentally and knowing I helped people always feels great.

I got a nice restful night’s sleep and started today with a vibe hangover from yesterday. I felt the same good feeling I felt yesterday so I ran with it. I could analyze it but that might take me out of it so why not just let it ride as long as it’s going to go? I feel like a surfer.

Gary Pansch called and asked if I wanted to meet up at the Iron Skillet Truck Stop up in Racine, WI. He works for the owner at another gas station and gets free meal coupons all the time and he’s very generous to share them with me. Gary is a very funny comic but he is also very shy and never pursued the road full time. He’s also a very talented cartoonist.

I showed Gary my new binder with all my comedy class notes in it and asked if he’d be willing to do some illustrations for it and he said he’d love to do it. I am now thinking the smart thing to do is flesh this out into an entire book and not just a little booklet that gets passed out to students in classes I teach. If I do this right I can get it all over the country.

Vince Vieceli is a Chicago comic who works at either Barnes and Noble or Borders. It’s hard to tell them apart unless you work there and most people don’t. Vince does and he’d have the inside scoop on how to arrange book signings and get published and all I’d need to have happen to get that done. We’re supposed to have a lunch soon to start it all going.

After lunch with Gary it occurred to me just how much down right fun I’m having right now. I love pretty much everything I’m doing and even though I’m still not the zillionaire I always pictured I am very grateful for the smart choices I made in my life. Even after all the stupid ones I’ve had come back to fricassee my fanny I’m still hanging in the big race.

The comedy business is shaky all around but I’m still booked and making a living at it. I am squeaking by but I’m surviving and I’ve got more coming up. Jerry’s Kidders on WLS is still going and even though I don’t get paid for it yet it’s still a chance to be on a station that is one of the most respected in America. If nothing else being on the air there is FUN.

It’s also fun to be on The ‘D’ List with Drew Olson and Dan Needles up in Milwaukee. I am treated with respect by all the staff and usually when I’m on the air even listeners are very nice and say something like ‘Hey, I love it when you’re on - you make me laugh.’ To hear that makes my whole day and I can’t think of many times when it hasn’t happened.

The WLIP experience with the Mothership Connection show is also a total blast. We’re starting to really hit stride with it and tonight was another very good show. Scott Markus has really taken to this and is a fantastic partner in many ways. He runs the controls and is also very sharp on the air too. He also brought our other host Lara Schaefer into the mix.

She has settled in very nicely and really adds to the on air mix as well. She fits in with us.
That’s three radio shows that I’m at least a part of that are nothing but pure fun. No, I’m not making a plugged nickel from any of them but I enjoy myself every single time. There are three different programs on three different stations in three different towns but they’re all in my wheelhouse and I hope to still keep doing them whether I ever get paid or not.

Another show that I have a blast on is the ‘Stone and Double T’ show on 104.9 ‘The X’ in Rockford, IL. Those guys also get it and when I go on there I can riff and just be myself for as long as I want. They know I will deliver and they let me do what I want. That’s all I ever asked. I know what I’m doing as an entertainer and creative freedom is what I need.

I’ve had SO much frustration in and around radio that sometimes I feel scorched and am a total downer about it but these four situations are anything but that. I enjoy myself doing all of them and now I just have to find a way to turn a buck so I can support a radio habit.

It’s amazing how a place like Kenosha can be pure fun and Bob and Tom could be pure hell. That’s ‘the’ radio show every comic in America wants to be on because they’re in so many markets. I think it’s over 200 now and they have literally MILLIONS of listeners.

Getting kicked off that show was one of the most insulting and hurtful things that I have ever experienced and I’ve experienced a lot. I still don’t know what I did to make them all so angry and even after a sincere apology both verbal and written they still blow me off to this day. Just recently I tried again to at least mend fences and I received ZERO response.

That nothing said a lot of something and they must still be pissed off but what else can I do but move on? Would I love to stick it to them someday? No, I really wouldn’t. I’m not looking to do anything other than have fun in life and that show was never fun. They were always very tight assed in there and everyone was on pins and needles. Who needs that?

It was also like that at the Loop in Chicago for most of the first year. We got reamed for any and every little thing and after a while the thrill wore off and it was a grind. I want my life to be fun and if it’s not I want to find something that is. I have. Bob and Tom can kiss my pasty white ass. They’re probably millionaires in money but they’re bankrupt in fun.

If my little whatever it was has upset them that much this much later I guess that’s not a good place for me to be. Would the exposure be nice? Sure it would but to have to worry about every little thing I say offending them isn’t worth getting up early in the morning to do. I’d rather drive up to Milwaukee to hang on The ‘D’ List. That’s a WAY better vibe.

The one thing that sticks out in all of this was the email I received from my friend Jerry Perisho out in L.A. who just survived prostate cancer. Jerry is a comedy writer and wrote an outstanding book about his whole cancer experience. It can be found on his website at www.jerryperisho.com. Jerry is a super guy and my respect for him has always been huge.

Jerry told me he reads my diary and follows my ups and downs. He told me to enjoy the journey of life because there is no destination. It’s all in the journey. Man is he ever right.