Another One Bites The Dust

Another One Bites The Dust

Thursday, February 10, 2005-4:45 PM

 

Today was supposed to be the first day of a three-day stand in Broadalbin, NY (it's near Saratoga Springs in the eastern part of New York State, just off the NYS Thruway....I didn't know either until I got booked there for the first time).  I got the call today from Mike Irwin, the house booker and fine comic in his own right.  He graciously informed me that my pay won't get cut because of the cancellation, and that's actually refreshing.  It's really not the norm in this business, which makes it really tough on us lower-level circuit comics.  If a show cancels for weather, lack of reservations, act of God or man, we usually take it in the wallet.  No show, no dough, regardless of whether we are present, willing and able to perform at the time.  I had a weather-related cancellation last month, two shows in Pennsylvania.  Actually, the booker was doing me a big favor letting me know on Friday that I should just head home after the show, because there was a huge storm coming Saturday morning (this was January 21st, 2005-BIG storm across the middle of the Eastern United States).  I drove home overnight, got home around 5 AM after about a 4 1/2 hour drive, safe and sound.  I woke up warm in my own bed with a blizzard raging outside.

So I got out of a 4 hour drive today, but I'll have to do it tomorrow, but by that time, snow should stop falling and the roads will be nice and clean, especially the NYS Thruway.  It better be....the way they take those tolls, their toll-takers should be wearing handkerchiefs over their faces.

Last year, I had two weekends all year cancelled that I couldn't replace.  It happens.  If I wanted to be an optimist, I could say that it's my two weeks vacation, only there's no pay.  It's hard that it always comes down to the money; but I have a wife and child, it's not like I'm a guy just out of college who can hang around in the condo and sleep on the couch the week that I'm unemployed.

So I'm going to take advantage of the night off to go through a mountain of 2004 papers and receipts in anticipation of filing my annual tax return.  You gotta make a good thing out of a bad thing whenever you can, and actually, getting cancelled tongiht was a good thing because my pay's not getting cut.  I will miss the opportunity to do a show tonight; that's how we all got into this business, the high of getting on stage.  Maybe I'll just play my CD and listen to the laughs and close my eyes and pretend I'm on stage, even though it was recorded over a year ago.

Today's lesson: be thankful for what you have, and make a good thing out of a bad thing.

Ralph Tetta

Rochester, NY

Check out my homepage at http://hometown.aol.com/yuksonme/myhomepage/profile.html