TV Party

TV Party                                          2376

Saturday, November 26, 2005-10:56 A.M.

Good morning from snowy Buffalo, New York, where yesterday we were treated to about six to eight inches of the white stuff.  Pam and Harmony and I were coming back from our shopping trip when the snow really started to fall, and I got back to the hotel just in time to comfortably get ready for my 8:00 show at Witz End comedy club.

On the way to the club, a 4-block walk from the hotel, I came upon a guy trying to push a car out of a snow-filled parking lot.  Now, I'm wearing dress shoes, have no gloves, and I'm pretty tired from walking from the parking garage back to the hotel in unplowed snow, and then the three blocks towards the club in the unplowed snow, and I'm thinking "What Would Jesus Do?"  So I helped the guy push the other guy's car out of the snow.  We did it, through the regular pattern of rocking back and forth, and got the car dislodged in about three minutes.  I felt good, but realized that the answer to "What Would Jesus Do?" is that He'd levitate the car and cause all the snow to turn into mist.  Sometimes an answer like that just isn't practical.

So I help the guy get his friend's car dislodged, and he goes over to the car to get in, I thought.  Come to find out, he was a homeless guy and the guy in the car was paying him to push the vehicle out of the snow.  And he didn't even break me off a little taste!  I didn't realize what was happening until I noticed that the guy was walking behind me toward the club instead of enjoying a nice warm ride.  I still feel I did the right thing, but c'mon already.

At the club, we had a decent showing for the early show, but they were stiff and tentative, just like the crowd on Wednesday.  I think the holiday has a lot to do with it, because last night I decided to stay on script, and my material that is polished and usually gets the best response, still got a good response, but not anywhere near what I'm used to.  And lest you think I'm being Captain Ego about this, the material was written so that it would work all over the country, and I've gone great lengths to make sure that I could test it anywhere and everywhere.  I'm confident in my act, and that's why I felt so tragic and helpless on Wednesday...I'm just not used to doing so poorly.  Headliner Mark Anthony from Cleveland also struggled to gain the full attention of the crowd, and he's one of the better acts out there, and that validated me a little.  It was ugly all around.

So with plenty of snow falling outside, Buffalo television was running a snow advisory that warned against unnecessary travel, particularly in the downtown area.  Consequently, we had two people show up for the second show, and I knew we were going to cancel, so I told Mark that we should go up to their table and talk to them a little bit, to soften the blow.  We did, and they were very nice, and we schmucked around with them...I did a chunk of my Amish material in our conversation, and they liked it., and Mark (who didn't realize I was going into a bit) wound up giving me a couple of tags that I'm going to use.

Hopefully tonight will be better...if you have to cling to something, you can do a lot worse than hope.

Talk to ya later.

Ralph Tetta

Rochester, NY