Years back, when I was doing road comedy bar gigs, a headliner would make a few hundred bucks a night, if that. Youd hope to string three or four or even five nights together. Of course you were driving all over hells half acre to get there. They put you up in the cheapest (crappiest) hotel in town and if you were lucky, a free crappy meal (or in the case of Lucys Bar and Lounge in Carlsbad, New Mexico, 15% off). No travel expenses were ever paid out. But as a comic, you kind of enjoy that sort of life style because youre on stage. My longest road trip ever was four (4) months straight. I drove out of Orlando, Florida in July one year and wrapped up in Seattle, WA in October. I put 180K on that car in about three years. Then, gas prices started going up and in a lot of cases, the gig money went down. I remember calling a booker once before a trip and asking him if he could kick me a couple more bucks a night to compensate for the rising price of gas. This is what he told me: John, I will tell you what I tell all the comics when it comes to these high gas prices. Sell more tee-shirts after your show! Im not paying the comics any more money. Such is the life of a road comic. But you do it, because you dont just love being on stage; its your passion. Whats the alternative? Get a real job!? That aint happening. But you want to keep doing what you love, but now theres children to provide for. Theres iPads they want at Christmas and bicycles on their birthdays. They want those new pair of DCs. They want to eat every day. They want a parent thats going to be available to go to that school play at 11 in the morning. But most dads cant be at the school play because its 11 in the morning and they have to be selling insurance down at the office or turning cogs on the assembly line at the plant. I really thought about all that today when speaking with a booking agent for this gig I am doing. Not only am I getting a really nice hotel and I am making literally ten times more for a one hour show than I ever was for a crappy bar gig back in the day, but the agent asked me what my expenses would be to and from the show so I could get all my travel paid for as well. I never gave up on doing what I loved. I never gave into societys norm or what my old man was telling me I should be doing - which is what he did: provide for his family by working 9-5 at the plant and being miserable, desiring to follow his true bliss of being a full time musician. Everyone of us gets to define our dreams and know that we really can follow our bliss. Give yourself one option and one option only: and thats to live your life on your terms and most of all, know without any doubt, you can do what you want, have what you want and provide for your family all at the same time. Its not either or. Im grateful that I can do something that my father couldnt do; mostly only because I think he was just too afraid to try. He was a successful welder, but a really talented musician. Why couldnt he have been a really talented and successful musician? We all get to love living life. Not tolerate it. Not just try to endure to the end. We get to love living life everyday. And the proverbial icing on the comedy cake: you get to live that life with the person, or my case, woman, of your dreams.
Posted on: Thu, 02 Oct 2014 04:50:50 +0000
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