The Audience Decides

Saturday June 6th, 2009 - Chicago, IL

I give up on trying to figure out the entertainment game. I thought I had at least a hint of a clue as to what works and what doesn’t but after a lifetime of being around it apparently I don’t. It’s not my call though and never has been. It’s the audience. They’re the judges.

Today was another round of Jerry’s Kidders on WGN radio and I thought we stunk it up and down the halls and through the speakers. The timing felt off the whole time and all of us stumbled over a line at least once. There were a couple of dead spots and I just felt that this was far from our best performance. After the show I tiptoed out of the studio quietly.

On the way out of the station people were coming up and telling us how funny we were. There’s an engineer named Ben who’s a very nice guy and has run the board for us before and he made it a point to come up and say “Boy, you guys sure were on today. Hilarious!”

I smiled and shook his hand and said thanks and so did the other guys but I felt like this was one of our weakest showings. Ken Sevara had to leave so Tim Slagle and I went over to a place called The Reagle Beagle and had lunch until Jerry got off at 1:00. The place is named after the bar on Three’s Company and has a very hip ‘70s TV theme. We loved it.

I didn’t bring it up with Tim at all and we just hung out and talked about comedy. He’s got a very funny CD entitled Europa and I highly recommend it if you like smart comedy. His website is www.timslagle.com and tell him I sent you. He’s a very unique comedian.

Tim was able to get Jack Davis from Mad magazine to do his CD cover and it’s really well done. I was a huge Mad magazine fan growing up and it adds total credibility to me when I see that artwork even though I know Tim personally and know he’s a funny guy. I have to believe the comedy buying public would be impressed even more. It’s a winner.

I want the same thing to happen for me with the Pedro Bell artwork on my new CD. It will definitely be unique and those who know it will appreciate it but I think a lot more people know what Mad magazine is than know about Funkadelic records. Too bad but I don’t care. I’m glad I did it and would do it again. Still, Tim’s looks great. Go get one.

Tim and I talked about the state of comedy and what’s next for us both as comics and as Kidders. As we waited for Jerry I started to get calls and texts saying how funny our show was today and I couldn’t believe it. I don’t think I’ve ever received this many thumbs up.

Then I got home and found some emails that said the same thing. I answered them all as quickly as I could and thanked everyone for the nice comments but I still felt it wasn’t the stellar showing I know we can do and have done in the past. I kept that to myself though.

Times like this always remind me of something James Wesley Jackson said a long time ago that I never forgot: “Let the audience enjoy you however they want.” How true that is. It doesn’t matter what I think. All that matters is that the audience likes it. Today they did.