Tennessee Ya Later

Saturday October 25th, 2008 - Nashville, TN

This week flew by. Tonight is my last night in Nashville before heading back to do the Mothership Connection radio show on WLIP in Kenosha tomorrow night. If it wasn’t the biggest show we’ve ever done I’d be here another night working with David Alan Grier.

Thankfully Brian Dorfman is cool about it and is letting me blow off the Sunday show. A lot of club owners wouldn’t be that nice about it and normally I wouldn’t mind doing it but we’ve got some strong guests lined up for the show and I want to be there to enjoy it.

I accomplished my objectives here this week. I got back in the mix with Zanies and had an ok week. I still don’t like the audiences here as a whole but they do keep me humble so I don’t get cocky. I may do great everywhere else but when I come to the south it’s tricky.

I met David Alan Grier and we got along very well. I gave him my card and told him if I can be of any help on his new show I’d of course be glad to do it. That kind of thing has always been very uncomfortable for me to do. I just don’t like to ask people for anything.

Looking back on it I should have asked people like Jeff Foxworthy and Drew Carey and Frank Caliendo and several other people to keep me in mind but I just feel uncomfortable with the whole idea of doing that. People sure did it to me when I had my radio jobs and I felt uncomfortable hearing it too. I know most of them only wanted to better themselves.

There’s nothing wrong with bettering one’s self but trying to ride coat tails is a different story. I always feel that I am imposing on someone and if they wanted my help they’d ask me for it. Maybe that goes back to my childhood or some tweak in my head that makes it such a difficult thing for me but it is. I have to learn to overcome it or I’ll never advance.

David Alan Grier’s is a very intelligent and funny guy and those are the kind of people I always want to be around. Even if I didn’t get paid I’d still enjoy writing stuff for him and the show just like I enjoyed working with Jerry’s Kidders on WLS. But after a while there comes a point when a buck needs to be turned. I am at that point now. I need to get paid.

I took some time to explore the city a little since it was my last day in town. There are a lot of great used record stores here and a few decent thrift stores too. I like to take a lap in all of them whenever I come to town and just see what they’ve got. It’s very educational.

There is one that has a huge old comedy section and I got lost there for an hour looking at vinyl recordings of people I never knew recorded them like Paul Lynde and a very early recording of Joan Rivers. I don’t have a turntable anymore but if I did I’d have gone nuts.

I also treated myself to a place called ’Bar-B-Cutie’ which is a local barbecue joint that has been here since 1950. I had a nice rack of ribs and it was delicious. I had fun on a nice sunny fall day and the week of shows went fine but I’m ready to get out of here. Nashville is probably never going to be one of my strongholds but for this week it paid some bills.