Dreamweaver

Dreamweaver                                    2034

Tuesday, October 18, 2005-2:38 P.M.

I'm back on the comedy horse again, after a week of inaction.  I'm looking forward to my road trip to Greensboro, North Carolina, and even though it's a 700 mile trip down and an even longer trip back home (there's a one-nighter in Fayetteville, North Carolina on Sunday night that pitches me slightly to the southeast and adds 100 miles or so to the return trip), I'm restless with the anticipation.  The Comedy Zone in Greensboro is a good room for me; I was special-requested there for New Year's Eve last year, and they wanted to have me three times this year, but a scheduling cock-up eliminated my July 4th weekend date.  Still, I enjoy the place, even though there are some comics who would rather not play the club.

You see, there's a guy who acts as the house mc at the Greensboro Comedy Zone, and his name is Chris Wiles.  Chris has a bit of a reputation in the field as being a joke thief.  Now, I don't know if this is true or not; I worked with him for a full weekend and I didn't hear anything familiar in his act, but that doesn't mean anything unless I've heard every bit that every comic out there does, and I haven't.  I will say that Chris was very kind to me, being the out-of-town talent and all, and the crowd loves him.

Now, the first time I worked this club, I featured, and Chris was destroying me left and right.  I couldn't figure out what was going on, although there was a slight "yankee" factor that I seemed to be battling, like as soon as the host indicated that I was from New York, I was the enemy and was to be hated, or at the very least, ignored.  I fought like a wild Indian to get the audience, engaging them directly, flinging my material at them like a machine gun, and still walking off stage to considerably less response than I'm used to.

When I got paid for the week, I told Paul, the manager, that I was sorry I didn't do better, and he indicated that he thought I was great and wanted me back.  I assumed it was kind words, but I found out later that he really meant them.  Apparently, I fared much better than the usual feature acts who passed through Greensboro, who all get destroyed by having to follow the local hero on stage.

The difference was that I didn't complain about having to follow Chris, I kept my professionalism, did my show, and kept working.  The last time I was there, New Year's Eve, Chris had his own show at a local auditorium, and my mc was a kid from Tennessee, who wasn't much of a challenge to follow.  Chris will be there this weekend, and I welcome the chance to follow him, now that I know what I'm in for.

The gig on Sunday is kind of a knife fight, two shows on a Sunday in a college/military town, but I've always done well there, even though they don't buy product much...it's a nice hotel, there's a good buffet restaurant in the same plaza, and it's good money.

I shouldn't even be awake right now...I have my sleep study tomorrow night to think about, and I need to get back on schedule.  I'll check in on Wednesday and let you know how it worked out.

Sweet dreams, my friends.

Ralph Tetta

Rochester, NY