Aqualung

Aqualung                                                   1926

Saturday, October 8, 2005-10:50 A.M.

What a difference a week makes.  As many of you know, I was in North Dakota last week, and this week, they were hit with a horrific blizzard that left many motorists stranded and turned the Dickinson State College Student Union into a refugee camp.  I was there a week ago, eating Knoephla and watching movies!  Walking around without a coat!  Who knew I ws missing killer weather by only five or six days!  The same thing happened to me this past summer, although it was a little less dire; I was in Biloxi, Mississippi playing at the Casino Magic hotel in June, and in August, a giant hurricane wiped it off the face of the earth.  I seem to be the herald for disaster, so woe betide if I come to your town.  I'm in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania right now, and they're already stocking up on bottled water.

Thursday night in Fishersville, Virginia was a fun time.  I checked into the Microtel, and as most hotels feature free newspapers for their guests, I picked up a copy of the local paper, and they had a big feature story on the comedy club, Comedy Zone at the Mossy Creek Cafe.  They mentioned me in big type, with a nice paragraph lifted from my official bio...oh, what a star I felt like!

I was reunited with my good friend, Al Katz, and the show was great...the room was almost completely full, and this was despite the fact that the Rolling Stones were performing down the road at an open-air venue in Charlottesville, Virginia.  I'm familiar with that venue, because I was there as part of the George Carlin tour back in 1996.

Last night, it was off to Harrisburg, PA and performances with headliner Mark Klein (www.corpjester.com) and Buffalo's own Matt Wayne.  The first show was o.k. as far as attendance, and I told Mark and Matt that I didn't think I was going to work up much of a sweat on stage.  When I got off, I was drenched...they were one of the best audiences I've performed for in a long time.

The second show was a different story; there were a bunch of prison guards sitting up front, many of whom had never attended a live comedy show and didn't "get" how they were supposed to act; it turned into a running dialogue that had me fighting for my life.  They loved me, and came up to me after the show and told me so, but it was still way too much like work.

After the show, I met up with a young man who had contacted me by e-mail and was interested in talking with me about standup comedy.  We sat down after the late show and jawed for about an hour and fifteen minutes...ask me to talk about comedy, and I'm a kid in a candy store.  He has a wife, two kids, and one more on the way, so of course, I tried to talk him out of the business...comedy is no place for a family man, as I discover every day of my life.

It's piss raining in Pennsylvania today, so I may just stay in the hotel room and catch up on my reading, writing and relaxing.  There's a nice steakhouse connected to the hotel and club called Doc Hollidays, and the food is exceptional, so I may just eat here rather than venturing out and finding something more interesting or economical.  I'll be driving home to Rochester after the second show tonight, and it's about a five hour drive, so a good afternoon nap will also be in order.

Next week is a week off for me, so there may not be anything interesting to report, but I never stop working, so you never know.  I nailed down a return trip to Knoxville, Tennessee, at the Comedy Zone in April of 2006.  Knoxville is one of my favorite places to play, and even though it's under new management, it's still a Comedy Zone, so I'm sure I'll have a good time.

Also, while I'm thinking of it, Campbell's Soups is doing their annual "Click For Cans" promotion, and you can win Super Bowl tickets, Madden 2006 video games and other cool stuff, and you get to vote every day for your favorite football team.  Right now, the Buffalo Bills are trailing badly, so if you want to do your buddy Ralph a solid (which I will appreciate), how about going on there and clicking for Buffalo a couple of times?  You can vote once a day for as many days as you want, and it costs nothing.  Let's go, Buffalo!  Campbell's Chunky - What's Happening  Campbell's will make a donation to the team with the most clicks and donate soup to a hunger relief charity in that community.

Actually, now that I think of it...vote for New Orleans...click for the Saints Monday through Friday, and give Buffalo Saturday and Sunday.

And have some soup...it's good to support companies that do nice things for the less fortunate.

Ralph Tetta

Rochester, NY