Wednesday February 8th, 2011 - Fox Lake, IL/Toledo, OH/Lexington, KY The degree of variation in all aspects from day to day as a road comic is staggering. Last night I performed in a meeting room of a Best Western hotel for electrical contractors that had a median age of about 55. Barely 24 hours later, I did a show in the student lounge of the University of Kentucky in Lexington for college students who were in their early 20s. The only thing in common these two audiences had was they were residents of the same planet. Neither group had any knowledge of the other, and similarities were very few and far between. But that didn’t matter. I was hired to do a live comedy show for them both. That’s not the first time by far something like that has happened. Gigs come along when they do, and quite often they arrive under completely different circumstances. A seasoned professional is able to adapt and find a way to entertain all crowds so as to earn a payday. Many times, the dynamic between an audience and performer fails to connect. Everyone in the comedy business has experienced that horrible feeling, and I’ve had it often myself. It goes with the territory, especially when starting out. It’s a part of what forges the craft. I’ve learned my craft well, and was able to pull off shows for both audiences and it was actually quite fun both times. Historically, I’ve not done well with college aged audiences at all, but these people were fantastic. They come to see a show and they’re really into it. This was an amazingly long day, so a hot show at the end of it made it feel worthwhile. I got back home late and only had time to sleep for three hours before getting up to drive to Toledo, OH to pick up the opening act Tim Rowlands. Tim is a comedy juggler and an even longer tenured road warrior than me. It’s always easy to travel with a fellow lifer. I estimated being able to get to Toledo by noon Eastern Time, but was a bit late because of my old habit of trying to avoid toll roads. I took US 20 through Indiana rather than that money sucking I-80/90, and I paid for it in time. Tim was cool about it, as he could relate. Then, he took extra time trying to find a parking space for his car at fellow comic Steve Sabo’s apartment complex. Steve offered to let one of us park our car in his extra spot for a few days while we were on the road. Tim has an old Buick LeSabre and we agreed we’d be more comfortable in my Cadillac, even though it would suck gas. That was our choice. This is the kind of trip that reminds me of the old days. Two road dogs out on a run in a big old gas gargling American road yacht. Total mileage for the day was 597, and we got in to Lexington less than an hour before the show. We got to the hotel, but of course there were no reservations for us and we had to wait a half hour until they could get confirmed. This is all the life of a road comic, and it can be very unforgiving at times. We checked in and took the fastest showers we could, got to the venue and did our shows for a crowd of college students who loved us both. It took years of paying dues to be able to do that.
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