Wednesday April 27th, 2011 - Park Forest, IL/St. Charles, IL/Fox Lake, IL If nothing else, at least when it’s all said and done I can say I tried a variety of things in this life. Hopefully, it’s not all said and done yet. Today I drove 94 miles one way on I-94 to Park Forest, IL to visit my friend Dave Rudolf. Dave is a musician and has a super nice high quality recording studio in his house where he records CD projects with his band. I’ve known Dave for years, and he’s always offered to produce any kind of CD projects I might think of, and I’ve always meant to take him up on it. Today was finally the day we started, and it was very productive. I brought along a few notes and we did a short version of my comedy class which packed in the basic details of how to get started as a comedian. I recorded a full length twelve lesson six cassette course with Jerry Agar in 1997 called ‘Be Funny Make Money’, which was quite a learning experience in itself. Cassettes were the norm back then, even though it sounds antiquated now. Times have really changed. I’ve been meaning to do an updated version for years, mainly because I’m a much better teacher now, not to mention better comedian. I’ve learned a lot of hard lessons during that time, but it will all be excellent for teaching purposes. I’ve lived what I’m talking about. The difficult part is getting it all recorded smoothly. That’s not an easy process, though it would seem to be quite simple to a casual observer. All that needs to be done is turn on a microphone and talk into a recorder. Not so. I’d forgotten how complicated it can be. There are equipment levels to check to make sure the sound quality is consistent and all kinds of other technical stuff I have no interest in whatsoever. I just wanted to get it done, which is what I wanted last time too. It took us about three and a half hours, and we did it. This is a no frills recorded version of many of the same things I teach in my beginner’s level classes at Zanies in Chicago. The fundamentals of both writing and performing are stressed, but I don’t go into great detail. This is an introductory course for the beginner so he or she can avoid rehashing the same old mistakes that get made over and over again. I threw in few anecdotes and I think it came out pretty decently. Dave said it did, and he has no reason to lie. If it stunk, he’d have told me. He made some excellent suggestions to add to the mix, and we worked together very well. I hope to work with him more, but it’s a major project just getting to his house. He’s closer to Indiana than I am to Wisconsin. It was 94 miles to Dave’s house one way, and then I had a show at Zanies in Pheasant Run Resort in St. Charles, IL tonight. It was like a road trip miles wise, even though I was able to sleep in my own bed. This entrepreneurial stuff is hard work, but it’s worthwhile. I now have another product I can sell, and that never hurts. I should have had this years ago, but I just never got to it. Hopefully I can keep recording more with Dave, and have it all recorded at some point. It may be slow, but at least I’m forging ahead. This was good.
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