Saturday May 14th, 2011 - Hobart, IN If there’s something better for an aching heart than a kick ass comedy set, I sure haven’t found what it is. Nothing, and I do mean NOTHING feels better than going up in front of a packed house of strangers and letting it rip. It turns everything around, and life is good. Tonight I was booked for a show in Hobart, IN at a beautiful old renovated facility right downtown called The Art Theater. They did a fantastic job and I always love to play those kinds of places, especially when they’re full like it was tonight. This is the reason I exist. Everything about the event was handled extremely well. There were two comedians, an improv troupe and an improv duo on the bill and there was a full house in attendance that thoroughly enjoyed the show. What more could we ask for? It was the way it should be. The guy I dealt with was named Ron Harlow, and he couldn’t have been any nicer. He’s part of the improv troupe called ‘Flash Mob’, and they did a long form improv set after an opening standup set by a funny young Chicago comic named Joe Kilgallon. The audience was there to laugh, and both acts did an outstanding job. Then there was an intermission. I went on right after the intermission and blew the dust out of the speakers. It’s so much fun to go out there and crush, especially when nobody but me expects it. I was only asked to do a 25 minute set, and I can do that in my sleep. I was loaded for bear, and that crowd was red hot from the second I stepped on that stage. I just laid back and let them laugh. That’s a feeling like none other, standing on a stage waiting for the audience to die down with their laughter so the next line can be said that will set them off again. It’s like surfing and catching one mammoth wave right after another. It’s a feeling no comic ever tires of. Closing the show was the improv duo of T.J. Jagodowski and Susan Messing. I worked with T.J. on some recorded comedy bits when I worked at The Loop and know how funny he is. That guy is brilliant, and super nice too. He was one of the featured players in a run of commercials for Sonic restaurants where two guys are sitting in a car making an order. He was hilarious in those commercials, and I have nothing but respect for the guy. A lot of standup comics have disdain for improv people, but I never did. They’re two extremely different skill sets, and neither is easy to master. T.J. is a master improviser, and I love his style. Susan Messing is one of the top people in the field as well and they’re a super team. I’d love to be part of shows like this anytime they’d like to book me. I think the strategy of combining standup with improv works well and I hope they do it more. The audience’s laughter all night showed that they loved us all. Hopefully we can do more shows like it. This was a totally unexpected pleasant surprise. I had no idea what to expect, and I took the gig because I was recommended by my friend Nick Gaza who lives in Indiana. He put the word in, and I got the gig. Everyone was pleased, and we all exceeded expectations.
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