Cats In The Cradle

Cats In The Cradle                                                 8076  (1296)

Sunday, August 17, 2007-11:10 A.M.

Wrapping up the weekend here at the Comedy Zone in Jacksonville, Florida.

Well, it's Sunday, and I've turned back into a pumpkin.  After a fabulous week at the Jacksonville Comedy Zone, I'm getting ready to shower up and head back to Leesburg to spend the better part of the week with my mom before I head to Palm Harbor, Florida and week four of my Summer in Florida tour.

It was a great week and I had a phenomenal time with all of the local comics and staff here in Jacksonville.  There's a bar next door called the Monkey's Uncle that seems to be the defacto dumping ground for comics and friends who aren't willing to call it a night after the Zone closes up for the evening.  I'm not a drinker, so I had an O'Doul's or two, and one night, they actually coaxed me into having a shot of Jim Beam (the glorious amber proof that God loves us as his children).

Thursday, I had dinner with Erica Simon, who used to work with me at the Comix Cafe in Rochester.  We hung out, shared pictures and talked about the old gang, who we kept up with and what they were doing lately.  She came out with a bunch of folks on the late show Saturday and afterwards, we all headed to the Ale House to rabble rouse until they threw us out at closing time (exactly one O'Doul's and a Diet Coke later).

On Saturday, I sat in on the comedy workshop hosted by Fred Pozin, the General Manager of the Comedy Zone, and a really nice, laid back guy.  I was invited by Billy B., our mc for the week, to come down and check it out, and I have a background in teaching standup comedy so I printed out copies of my class notes and brought them to the workshop.  Fred got ahold of one of the copies, about a 14-page booklet, and after skimming through it, asked me if I wouldn't mind doing a presentation.  Well, I thought he'd never ask!  I talked about 20 minutes and then answered questions for another 40, and then hung out as the fledgling comics took the stage and did their thing, but I only had time to see the first five, because I had other pressing matters to attend;comic books.

I found a comic book shop here in Jacksonville and they had back issues of Teen Titans Go!, a kid's title that my niece and nephew have taken a liking to.  Usually comic books shops will take back issues and mark them up significantly, because as a book gets older, it becomes harder to find.  This particular shop only marked the books up a quarter each, and that covered the price of the backer board and plastic bag they were in, so they were basically going at cover price.  I had merchandise money from the night before, so I took a drive and scarfed up the issues and I'll get them in the mail for the kids on Monday.  It's a little thing that I do to let my brother's kids know that I love them, even if I don't get to see them as often as I'd like.  When I was younger, my family wasn't close with my Mom's brother and his family, and while I'd met my cousins, we haven't seen each other in 30 years, and I regret that.  I don't want my niece and nephew to be denied the company of their aunt and uncle and cousin, and in lieu of that, I guess the comics are my way of "keeping in touch."

When I got back to the hotel after spending time with Erica and her Jacksonville friends, I got a nice message on my room phone from Fred, thanking me for coming to Jacksonville and offering praise on my performance this weekend.  I think that he may pitch me to come in and close a split week, one of those weeks where they get a "big name" headliner who only performs Friday and Saturday, and they need a comic to close the other nights, Tuesday through Thursday.  This seems to be the industry standard, and I'm certainly up to the task, and I need another pinch because it's just the next nice thing that's happened in a month that's going so well, I feel like I'm dreaming.

Yesterday's only downer was talking to my daughter, Harmony, on the phone and having her say in her little, three-year-old girl voice "I want you to come home!" and then trying to explain that I was almost done working and I'd be coming home in a few days (actually a couple of weeks), and then having her say, "But I want you to COME HOME!"  Well, Happy Father's Day to me, because that just about broke my heart.

Yeah, it's all ice cream and lollipops when I'm on stage, making the people laugh, and then afterwards, basking in the glow of their love and appreciation, signing autographs as they take their souvenir CD's and DVD's homewith them, but hardly anyone knows the pain that drives a road comic, the separation from family, the hotel rooms that all look the same, waking up and not remembering what city you're in, and the long, long, long drive home.

I'm coming home, sweetie, in a couple of weeks.  And you know we'll have a good time then.

Ralph Tetta

Rochester, NY