Saturday December 23^rd, 2006 - Sheboygan Falls, WI

Another good day today and I’m loving it. During the NFL highlights ESPN’s Chris Berman says ‘One is an accident, two is a trend’ when describing a football team’s wins. Yesterday was a good day despite the circumstances and today followed suit. I could not be any happier about that especially this time of year. I was really feeling low for a while.

Doing this run of the north woods was not on my priority list but in retrospect it was the exact thing I needed at this particular time. Last night in Negaunee was a slump buster for sure. Yes it was in the Upper Peninsula but they were still people and they laughed just as hard as anyone can laugh and whether or not it was my last time there I felt like I knocked it out of the park. The hotel wasn’t the greatest but it had a bed and a shower and after the show as I laid there staring at the ceiling I could think of one thing - my sincere gratitude.

I have struggled so hard over the years and my dreams of being a strong comedian have come true whether I think my career is where it should be or not. When I started out I had one goal and that was to become a strong headliner. I assumed that everything else would work itself out if that happened and I couldn’t have been more wrong about that but I did achieve the goal I set out to accomplish and I don’t want to ever lose track of that. I put in my time and worked and worked and never gave up and all these years later I have an act and nobody can take that away from me. Even the people who think I’m a total weenie do not say I’m not funny. They may not like me and they may not book me but they NEVER say I’m not a good comedian. As down as I may get at times I have to remember that this is what I always wanted when I started. Now that I have achieved it it hasn’t done for me what I originally thought it would so now I need to tweak the goal a little for a new result.

We got to the Odyssey Fun Center in Sheboygan Falls which is a bowling alley that has a comedy show once a month. Again, I’ve been here many times before and it has been a lifesaver as far as money goes when I really needed it. The crowds have usually been very full and sometimes very loud and drunk too. This isn’t one of my favorite places but I did it because it was part of the package. This and Negaunee, MI are a set and I couldn’t take one without the other. I was a little worried when we walked in and saw an empty house.

This was Christmas week and they took it in the shorts but there were 58 people that did show up who were there to laugh. I gave them all I had and those people got a great show.

Hopefully I won’t have to come back here again and this was my big finish. All the time I was on stage I kept thinking about how I couldn’t have handled this situation at all when I started but now it was easy. I did 55 minutes and had tons of material left over and I had a good flow the whole time. I didn’t focus on the people that didn’t show up or the bowling going on or the smoke on the stage, I only focused on giving those people my BEST show and that’s what I did. It was the right thing to do in this situation and when I got paid the bar manager said ‘Wow, what are you doing HERE?’ I told him ‘Working my way out of show business.’ He didn’t laugh and said ‘No, I mean it. You need to go get FAMOUS.’

I feel like I have graduated from playing these hell holes and now I am getting people that finally agree with me. Now I need to find ONE of them who can give me my big break.