Bring It On Home

Bring It On Home                4042  (174)

Sunday, March 26, 2006-7:30 P.M.

Dear Penthouse Forum,

I've read your letters for years, but I never thought it could happen to me.....

Finishing up the weekend at Wiseacre's Comedy Club in Tyson's Corners, Virginia, I can say that it was a very good week.  I made some new friends, got in contact with some established acquaintances, and had some good shows (on Saturday, to go along with the subpar situation on Friday).

Headliner John Marks turned out to be quite the draw, with a good number of his family and friends from the area in attendance for the 8:00 Saturday show.  I cleaned up my act a little, wanting to set the stage well for him, and wound up having a good time.  There were some folks from the Rochester area who identified themselves early in my show, and we had a cute little give 'n' take with that.  The room was hot, being packed with so many people, and I came off stage sweating like Marion Barry with a coupon for Arm & Hammer baking soda.

Second show, it was a relatively sparse crowd, with a lot of college-aged folks and I took the opportunity to cut loose.  For some reason, there were a number of cute girls in the 5' 2" height range who couldn't resist the opportunity to hug yours truly after the show.  My wife is 5' 2", so maybe it's just a short girl thing, but I enjoyed the attention nonetheless.  I told one girl that she was so cute, I wanted to take her on Spring Break to Arubua.  It got the laugh, which is all I was looking for.

Before showtime, I got a call from comedy buddy Annette Lorenzo, who was off on tour in Pennsylvania for Hysterical Management.  Annette was a replacement act for a room down there, and when she showed up at the hotel, they didn't have a reservation for her, because she wasn't the original act.  I assured her that unless the booker made a big mistake and double booked, the best thing to do, since the other guy wasn't there, was to explain the situation to the desk person at the hotel, check into the room, and if the other guy showed up, pay for the room and sort it out later.  As it stood, the other guy did indeed not show up, Annette got herself settled in and had a good show.  A mentor's job is never done.

The ride home overnight wasn't bad...I was bound and determined not to get stuck in D.C./Baltimore beltway traffic, which is horrible during all daylight hours.  It still took me the better part of seven hours to make it home, and I rolled into my driveway about 20 minutes to eight.  I have a feeling that if I left this morning, even early, I wouldn't have fared anywhere near as well.  I got about four hours of sleep before my family started to interfere with me, and I got another couple of hours in before I decided that it was too sunny and bright to sleep.  I'm pretty tired, but functioning, which is good because Pam and I still have our income taxes to prepare and file, and I'm not a fan of waiting until just down to the wire, especially because we have money coming back this year.

This week is a little weekend jaunt to Corning, New York, courtesy of Summit Comedy, where I'll be performing with Miss Gayle out of Pittsburgh, PA.  We've worked together before, and she's a sweet lady and a good comic.  It's not a big-paying gig, but I've figured out a long time ago that I'm not in this business for the money, so it's nice to at least be able to work with nice people.

I hope your week is low-pressure, high satisfaction and that money is not the object.  Enjoy your friends, family, and all of the good things in life that you can't put a price tag on, including enjoying what you do.

Ralph Tetta

Rochester, NY