Saturday April 9th, 2011 - Waukesha, WI Once again, in the heated head to head bloody battle of theory vs. reality - theory takes a good old fashioned pillar to post ass whipping and gets stomped on like wine grapes in an unceremonious one sided rout. I thought theory had a chance, but again I took a beating. I wish I had a buck for every time I had to play a situation out I didn’t want to. I have an uncanny knack to make the wrong choice, and it’s obvious I did it again by committing to help a hotel in Waukesha, WI get a weekend comedy club started. I totally misjudged it. The fact is, Waukesha and the surrounding area has both the population and potential to support a live comedy venue in one form or another. It would take a smart marketing plan and a willing venue, but I truly believe it could be done if everyone was on the same page and working toward one goal. I don’t think that’s the case here, and I’m ready to can it. We did two shows tonight, 7 and 9pm. The early show had about a dozen people and its never exciting to do shows for audiences that small. They weren’t bad people, and in fact they seemed to really enjoy both Mike Preston and myself, but neither of us were thrilled. We’re both pros so we did our time and smiled through gritted teeth. What fun is that? The 9pm show was much better. We had two large groups of about 20 each, and it was by far the best show of the weekend on all levels. The audience loved both Mike and me, and I even did a little extra time for them because I knew that they were really enjoying it. I wanted to give a little extra with hopes they’d come back, but deep down I know this just isn’t what I want to be doing with my life right now. It’s way too unstable to put any major effort into this, as there is never a guarantee I’ll be able to pull down steady money or even be assured the space will be available every week due to wedding receptions, etc. A comic friend of mine Sal DeMilio in Detroit runs a similar room and he’s gotten his shows cancelled more than once for other events. I know, I’ve been the one he’s had the unpleasant job of postponing. He’s always felt horrible about it, but I never blamed him. Sal is as honest as the day is long, and works very hard at putting his shows together in that venue. When ownership comes along and tells him he’s got to move a date around, it can’t be avoided no matter how much he gets frustrated. I feel for the guy, and there’s no guarantee it won’t happen with this room either. I’m the one who’d be the odd man out. My spider sense is tingling and I’m going to listen to it for a change. My other projects have a much bigger potential payoff, and those are definitely where my focus should be. I will do my best to finish out this four week commitment I made, but after that I’m done. Live and learn, and that’s what I’m doing. No hard feelings on my part, I tried it. I hope there aren’t any from the hotel. It’s going to take a lot more work than I first thought, but with nurturing it could be a fun little room eventually. In theory. In reality, it’s not for me.
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