A Marketing Improvement

Saturday January 24th, 2009 - Milwaukee, WI

OK, now I’m starting to finally get my head out of my aspirations and it REALLY feels fantastic. I’m walking on air right now and even though that air is about -4 degrees I’m in a high flying space knowing I’m taking concrete ACTION and doing something to change my various scattered pipe dreams into solid realities. Today I took a giant step forward.

It’s no secret that much of my problem in being where I am in comedy is due to a sorry lack of marketing on my part. I can make excuses and sometimes I do but even if there’s a valid reason it still doesn’t hide the fact that I have not sold myself to match my abilities.

I’m discovering by default over the years that I have a whole lot more talent than I ever imagined. I can do this. It doesn’t really take a whole lot of effort either. I’ve always been able to pull off good shows in most situations without breaking a sweat. I’ve had quite the rough ride in other areas but for the most part my performance skill has been very solid.

Had I had a better plan and gone to L.A. and stayed there years ago I most likely would have landed something tangible by now. I lived there for a year in the mid ‘90s and loved every minute of it but the circumstances weren’t very conducive to making the big push.

I was living on fumes and going through my infamous bank robbery accusation hell and I wasn’t able to focus on my comedy like I’d have liked. Still, I was starting to meet some people and my roommate at the time was writing for Grace Under Fire. I was almost in as the backup audience warm up guy and that could have started me up the big time ladder.

Living in L.A. wasn’t intimidating at all and in fact I really enjoyed it. I was around lots of people I’d known from the road and lots of other people from towns I’d played and the energy of Los Angeles and I matched up very nicely. If I had a reason to go back I would.

What amazed me about Hollywood was the vast lack of talent everywhere. Just because someone lives or showcases in L.A. does NOT mean that person has talent. I was amazed to see how little actual talent there actually is out there among the vast numbers trying for a spot in the sun. Many people get by on persistence, fortitude and oh yeah - marketing.

They know how to find the right people who can make decisions and they schmooze all of them until they’re either one of them or get what they want from them. I’ve seen some total zeros in the talent department get hooked up on the Hollywood circuit and kick ass.

Many of the mediocre to piss poor feature acts I saw as I came up in the ‘80s went out to try their luck in L.A. and played the game correctly and won big time. I sometimes see their name flash on the credits of a sitcom and know they found the magic success route.

Not all of them had no talent but many of them had mediocre to sub par natural ability at best. They took what they had and showed it to the right people who could take them to where they were trying to go. I admire their ability to make a plan and work it to the end.

Jimmy Pardo is a great example of someone who played the L.A. game extremely well. Jimmy is originally from Chicago and just a couple of years younger than me. He’s funny and I don’t at all think he’s without talent but instead of spending years on the road scene hacking it out in hell holes like I did he went to L. A. and ran his own political campaign.

Jimmy hung out at the Improv and mingled and met the right people and he made it hip to like Jimmy Pardo. It was a sales job and he did it splendidly. I’m sure there were many nights he was broke but probably stayed around buying drinks to keep the party going and hanging out with the right people. This all takes hard work and I am not poo-pooing it.

I have a huge respect for how Jimmy Pardo handled himself and whenever I cross paths with him I tell him that and I mean it. He pops up on Comedy Central and other places on TV and he’s got a fan base and now I hear he’s parlayed that into a ‘Pardcast’ that puts an extra income in his pocket for talking and hanging out with his friends. Good for Jimmy.

I respect Jimmy Pardo as a brilliant marketer. I happen to think he’s a funny guy but it’s not at all important what I think. I think I’m a pretty funny guy too and in fact I know I’m able to work the same places Jimmy Pardo does but he’s becoming a name and I’m not.

Well today I did something to combat that by driving to Milwaukee to sit and meet with my friend Donna Gurda who was Tom Green’s marketing force for many years. Tom and Donna were a wonderful team and everyone knew it. Tom was the talent but Donna had a knack for off stage things that was uncanny. She always made sure the details were done.

Tom passed away in 2007 and Donna is understandably heartbroken but a person can’t just pine away life and not do anything. She mentioned she might be interested in getting together and discussing if she could possibly do anything for me and my career. I jumped at the chance and it’s been a lot longer than we both thought but tonight was the night.

We went out to dinner at a Chinese place she and Tom loved and she said it was a good feeling to start getting out again. I can’t imagine how difficult it was to go through all that they both did because Tom was ill for a long time. It drained them both and as a friend the first reaction is to leave it alone. I don’t want to pick scabs by asking stupid questions.

After dinner we talked at length about what role she could play with what I’ve got going on right now and we both agreed she could help a lot. She’s a whiz at all the things I can’t stand like spread sheets and contract negotiations and she is extremely competent at all of it. She is a tough but fair negotiator and she always operates with class and good ethics.

She knows I work hard too and I sat there for an hour and she brought up several points that made perfect sense to me that I’m just not doing right now. I need a revamp of every off stage facet of my career from a new website to new pictures to a new promo pack too.

We both saw the potential of what this could lead to and it just felt right. She is a part of show business I’ve never been good at and I know we can be of great help to each other.