My Date Is Here!

Tuesday February 3rd, 2009 - Chicago, IL

March 10th, 2009 - a date which will live in infamy. Or mystery. Or sodomy. That is the locked in taping date for me in Los Angeles for The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. I received word today after a long process of going back and forth and I’m very excited to finally have it locked down. It’s been a long time coming and I’ve earned my opportunity.

Having even one shot on national television adds credibility to a lifetime of struggle but it sure doesn’t guarantee anything other than being on TV for four and a half minutes. It’s not a guaranteed career maker and it’s not even a guaranteed money maker. I have to foot my own bill to get out there but I knew that was part of the deal when I signed up for this.

This is a chance to get a nice up to date tape from a show that’s currently on the air and that should be used to up my price in doing more corporate type or theatre shows. A lot of comics have credits on shows that have long gone off the air like ‘Comedy On The Road’ or ‘An Evening At The Improv’ or ‘VH1 Standup Spotlight’ or any number of others.

Comedy shows come and go on television and I never got into that mix. I never pursued it because I never felt I was ready for it but now I totally am. I’ve learned my craft and am sure of who I am on stage and even though I probably passed up some good money at the time I’m glad I didn’t do any shows back then because I would have looked like an idiot.

I won’t look like an idiot on March 10th. I know what I’m doing. I might not change the face of broadcast media forever but I won’t lay butt dumplings in my shorts either. I know how to do four and a half minutes of standup comedy and I have a month to prepare for it.

To be honest I don’t even remember what I sent in the set I submitted. I remember I did go back and forth a few times with the talent booker but only on the use of references that mentioned corporate brand names. Sometimes that’s part of the joke even without being a negative but those are the rules and that’s what I have to follow. I’m not worried about it.

I’ll dust off the set I sent in and start working on it immediately. I have a month to work on it and polish it and that’s exactly what I’ll do. I will be ready when the red light flashes on the camera and I won’t blow it. I’m going to enjoy every second of the experience and just have fun. I’m not at all over my head and nervousness is not an issue. I can DO this.

I would love to be in great physical shape and tan and look good on camera and dress in hip trendy sexy clothing to make every MILF housewife in America want to mail me their underwear but none of that is realistic. I’m a 45 year old white guy from Milwaukee with bad genetics who’s lucky to be still standing after all I’ve been through. I’m not Brad Pitt.

But I have to believe Brad Pitt can’t get an audience to laugh and if there’s one thing I’ll be able to do it’s that. I’ve been on local and regional TV many times before and I haven’t embarrassed myself then and I don’t plan on doing it now. I will show up in L.A. with my four and a half minutes ready to go and hopefully get my chance to finally start a career.

This is a whole new era in how entertainment works. It used to be a comedian got a shot on national television and it opened up doors. The Tonight Show was the king of them all and if Johnny liked you that was it. Overnight you’d be in a new league and bookings and money would roll in like drunks out of the cold in winter. It doesn’t work like that now.

With the dawn of the internet it now seems to be every comic for his or her self and that isn’t necessarily a negative thing at all. On one hand it gives talented people a chance at a larger audience but on the other it gives hacks a chance to pollute the market and water it all down. Any frat boy with a camera daddy bought him can paste his puss up on the net.

There were always hacks and non talents in comedy but they weren’t as able to get seen by a mass audience as they are now. It really does come down to marketing though. I wish funny was the only currency for who gets rich in comedy but that’s never going to be true. I can’t waste my time worrying about it though. I have to hustle up my own batch of fans.

Examples of other people I think have really done this well are Brian McKim and Traci Skene who have an online publication called “Shecky Magazine”. It’s a website about all things comedy that’s been going for years and they bust their ass doing it and are fair and balanced reporters of what’s going on in the comedy world. They’ve built a good name.

The site is www.sheckymagazine.com and they were onto the internet game years ago. Kudos to them for doing it right. Another site I just discovered yesterday is one co-owned by Bruce Baum called ‘The Outernet’. What a great name. Why didn’t I think of that? It’s a site about comedy and comedians and I found out about it through a myspace bulletin.

That’s another thing comedians need to be aware of now that wasn’t an issue years ago. All the social networking sites like myspace.com and facebook.com and the rest of them are all being inundated with comedians looking to give free tickets away for the late show Friday in Wichita. Still, a lot of people have really built followings through these sites.

How do I stand out from every other comedian good or bad? I used to think it was to be funnier than most of them but that isn’t necessarily the case anymore. It’s becoming a big viral marketing campaign and I can either fight it or accept it. I choose to accept it and am going to approach this as a contest to see how many people I can get to come see me live.

Bruce Baum is a guy who I admired when I started because I used to watch him back in the ‘70s on the show ‘Make Me Laugh’. I met him a couple of times when I lived in Utah and he was very nice and very complimentary of my show too. He’s very smart by being a part of the evolution of comedy and starting his website. It’s at www.theouternet.com.

If I’m going to be a player at all I have to keep cranking out comedy and also keep up to speed on my social networking and regular networking too. Being on television doesn’t at all hurt me in that area so I’ll knuckle down and get ready to go out to L.A. and do my set.

While I’m there I also want to meet with the Jeff Foxworthy management people and start a relationship with them too. This is my time to shine and I couldn’t be any more excited.