Another Christmas Song

Another Christmas Song                                       2703

Tuesday, December 13, 2005-2:18 P.M.

Weekend wrap-up report...I picked up the weekend at the Comix Cafe hosting; the regular mc had a miscommunication on the booking, I think, which left an opening I was happy to fill.

Porter Matthews and V.J. Stanley, both former protege's of mine stopped in for guest spots, and added to the frivolity.  Bryan McCree and Keith Lenart, both friends of mine for quite some time, put on wonderful shows and I was happy to be a part of it.

The corporate show was tough, but those shows are always sketchy...it's hard to laugh when your boss is sitting right there.  It's always a repressed attitude.  I had fun though, and did my best, and enjoyed the laughter from the folks who were willing to get into the moment and enjoy themselves.  That's all you can do, right?  At one point in the show, there was a lull, and the group in the other room were laughing and applauding and you could hear them through the partition, and I stopped, and then said "I'm sorry, I just wanted to hear what laughter and applause sounded like."  It got the laugh, as did some other quips and asides, but it's hard dealing out the material that's tried, true and tested for years and getting substandard response.

I did the greatest favor you can do for a friend this morning.  I didn't give him a kidney...I gave him a 4:30 A.M. ride to the airport.

Now normally, you would set your alarm for an early hour and get moving, correct?  I actually stayed up until 4:30, which lately has become my standard operating procedure.  Staying home this month has got my system all out of whack, considering I've only averaged about 12 days home a month for the last five years.  So I got Ray Salah, one of my best friends in comedy (or at all, for that matter), off to his 6 A.M. flight to Las Vegas.  I'm house-sitting for him as well, so if anyone wants to come over and try on some of his things, let me know because I can hook that up pretty easily.

Just a few days more until Christmas, and a headlining week at the Cafe.  I'm excited about it, and glad that I got onstage there this week as a primer.  I'm working with Joe Fico, a Rochester comic who also studied under me and hit the ground running.  Our fortunes seem to be tied together quite often, as we performed in the hit comedy show "The Fat Pack" at the Cafe two summers ago, and by "hit show," I mean we did the show three times and it closed.  It was a fun endeavor, trying to put on a Rat Pack-style show (with Mike Glosek, a comic formerly out of Buffalo as our third), but we suffered from lack of advertising.

It should be a great week, and a great way to get into the Christmas spirit.

Ralph Tetta

Rochester, NY