Saturday January 6th, 2007 - Calgary, AB

Two jam packed double stacked slightly wacked stone cold sold out shows tonight. The staff here at The Comedy Cave is extremely nice to me to a fault and the other comics are good guys and think I‘m hilarious. I also sold a bunch of CDs tonight so why am I feeling disappointed? Maybe disappointment isn’t the right word but there is something missing.

Ron White from the Blue Collar Comedy Tour was also here in town tonight at a place one of the comics called a ‘soft seat theatre‘. I had never heard that term before but it fits. Most towns this size have a 1500-2000 seat theatre where bigger acts of all kinds play. It has comfortable ’soft’ seats and usually has a great sound system and is a theatre setting rather than a nightclub. I’ve played those venues a few times and it’s a whole new level.

Back in Milwaukee when I started the place like that was the Riverside Theatre. I got to open for Ashford and Simpson way before I was ready to and I got to experience the thrill of performing in front of a packed house. The bright lights and the big sound system were intimidating at first but when I got my first few laughs it became intoxicating. There is no feeling I have ever felt that would compare to working successfully for a big audience in a ‘soft seat theatre’. The frustrating part is that those shows have been precious few while it blurs together in my mind how many times I’ve been standing there slugging it out with a table of drunks in some smoke soaked honky tonk hell hole in a town I never heard of just to get a few bucks to pay my rent or repair my rattletrap car that I need to get fixed so that I can make it to the next town to do the same thing all over again. It can get discouraging.

Tonight really was fun and I have to remember that and focus on that. I am, and I really am grateful for it. I love working here. But the fact I can’t deny is the two big stars of the show here tonight were ribs or lasagna. Jack the owner runs a restaurant business and the people were here for a great dinner…oh yeah and there is a comedy show afterwards. The people at the soft seat theatre all went there to see Ron White. They paid three times what this audience paid to see Ron and they didn’t get the great meal these people got. If it was a comparison shopping deal this would be the much better show. Is Ron White that much better than me? No way, and he knows it too. I still remember performing at the Chicago Comedy Festival several years ago and having Ron come all the way upstairs at Zanies to stick his finger in my face and tell me ‘Man, you are one FUNNY mother f**ker.’ Those around him told me he never does that so I must have made an impression on him. It felt great to hear him say that and I am very flattered to know comics think I’m funny but at the end of the day Ron gets on his luxury tour bus and I come back to my room to type.

Will playing those big joints make me happy? Truthfully, no. But it will give me career satisfaction and after all these years of playing the toilets that would be nice. I always say I’ve had a job in comedy but never a career. I’m like a career minor league ball player that never got his chance in the major leagues for whatever reason. Who doesn’t want to be in the big time? I surely want my shot. No offense to this place. I’d love to return and work here regularly. I just want the people to come to see ME and not be here just for a meal. I want them to say ‘We saw Mr. Lucky tonight…oh and they served a great dinner too!’