Tuesday March 15th, 2011 - Fox Lake, IL Birthday over - old age officially settling in. With it comes some wisdom, and hopefully that will help me make better decisions than I did in my maverick youth. I still want to be a maverick, but in a much subtler way. I want to pick my spots and have a purpose now. I had two pleasant surprises today, in an already positive mood. Answering hundreds of birthday greetings tends to put a person in a happy mood, or it does me anyway. One after another, it was a funny note or a shared memory and I spent several hours catching up on all of it. That’s a great problem to have and if I’m going to get swamped, that’s the way. The first surprise was from Pedro Bell’s new assistant Tym Stevens. Pedro did my CD cover art for ‘Hard Luck Jollies’ and did so many classic album covers for Funkadelic in the ‘70s. He’d been having some health issues and his last assistant never finished the job he was told to do, and I never got a colorized finished version that I could use to reprint. Well, that’s no longer an issue. I got the files today where Tym not only colorized it all, he updated the line art and made it reproducible and computer friendly and he also made a new logo for ‘Mr. Lucky’ which resembles the Shaft logo from the ‘70s. It’s outstanding! I couldn’t be happier with all of it. Now when I reprint the next batch of cds, it will look like a Funkadelic CD ‘Harcore Jollies’, which is what I wanted in the first place. The logo of my name looks like the Funkadelic logo, and the ‘I’ in Dobie looks like a microphone. If nobody else gets it (and unfortunately few will) I do, and I think it’s fantastic. It’s my tribute to Pedro Bell’s unique style, and to be able to do this project at all was a stray idea that came to life and is now reality. It’s all now exactly how I pictured it, and I’m thrilled. I had to wait a while to get it, but it was totally worth it in the end. Tym said he wanted to wait until my birthday and make it a surprise, which was unbelievably thoughtful. I am beyond excited, and even though I still have copies of the other printing left, I’ll make the next one look ten times better. Again, I’m probably the only one that cares, but that’s ok. The other surprise I received was finding out Giggles Comedy Club is closing up in the Milwaukee area. That’s the place that bounced a check and totally treated me and a lot of other working comedians very poorly. I’m surprised it took this long, but I’m delighted to hear of they’re closing if only for the fact the insanity of how they operated it will cease. I’ve had all kinds of bad experiences with Milwaukee clubs over the years, and this is a little bit of payback knowing they won’t be able to do it anymore. The damage is done but at least it won’t spread. It was like when my father died, I wasn’t sad when I learned of it. I did a lot of favors for those people, and they crapped all over my name and tried to put a dent in my reputation. I’m not perfect, and never claimed to be - but I do help others and give of myself way more than the average Joe. Their mean spirited slight was a big insult. The agency who booked the comedians there had a hand in it too. They sent us there but knew the club was bouncing checks the whole time. It was all a big ugly mud pit and I for one am delighted it’s closing. I don’t have to mock them or send a dozen dead roses like a radio person I know of once did. They’ll get the message when they’re asking if their new customers want fries with their Whopper. Hopefully they’ll just get out of show business. Actually, comedy clubs at that level are pretty far from show business. They might be in the entertainment business, but on a very low level. Those people couldn’t create any kind of entertainment if they wanted to. They pimp the talents of up and comers and we take it, dented cans most of us are, because we need attention that badly. Will it lead anywhere? NO, and this is ringing proof. They managed to stay open for a few years, probably a lot longer than they should have, and when things got bad at the end they screwed over those who kept them in business - the comedians. That’s happened way too many times and I’m sore from taking it in the poop shoot from vermin like this. Let them go deliver pizzas. Because of their actions, a lot of comedians including myself may have to do that exact same thing. There are so many mismanaged comedy clubs around that are now closing up that the business itself is in serious trouble. The cycle is playing itself out, and it’s a bitch. I’m getting better in my old age about reacting to this kind of thing. In the past, I’d have looked to stick it in their ass in any way possible and as high up as I could. Now, I see I’m wasting my time even thinking about lowlife maggots like that. They were never involved in comedy for the same reason I was anyway. They wanted to sell beer. I wanted a career. The truth is, comedy clubs are not where to make a career. They’re a training ground for comedians to learn the craft, and then it’s time to go somewhere else and get ‘discovered’ and take it to the next level. I was never able to do that, and became frustrated at the club level because it never propelled me to where I thought I wanted to go. It wasn’t meant to. It’s crystal clear to me now, but I wasn’t able to see this just a few years ago. Maybe it’s part of the process of getting older. I’m losing my youth and boundless energy, but I have a new perspective of things I never had before and can see situations in a whole new light. The people who ran Giggles were not nice to me at the end. They disrespected me and a lot of other hard working honest comedians too. I honestly don’t wish them anything bad personally, I really don’t. I’m just delighted they’re out of the business. It’s like flushing a toilet - one time won’t do it forever, but it makes the bathroom smell a lot better for now. Life is downright DIFFICULT. Period. At any age. When idiots make it harder, I can’t see why it has to be tolerated. This went on far too long, but hopefully it’s over. In fact, I have a chance to book a new venue not far from where Giggles was. How about that? The karma train has a circular track. Choo choo! What goes around, comes around. I’m far from perfect myself, but I do try to treat people with respect. This was a satisfying day.
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