Cinderella Man

Cinderella Man                                                8747  (1957)

Saturday, August 18, 2007-11:15 A.M.

Boy, I will be one happy camper when summer is over.  Comedy in the summer BLOWS.

You can tell that I'm not that much into the summer as I've only been blogging once a week or so....that's a far cry from my original goal of "every day" which I quickly learned is a ridiculous goal.

So last Friday, Steve Natarelli and I ventured up into Niagara Falls, on the U.S. side, and did guest spots at Fatboy's Comedy Club, where I was actually supposed to be headlining for money all this past week.  The show drew exactly six people, and then some more folks trickled in, including a group of folks who were just going out to get a drink, not necessarily looking for comedy, but to commemorate the one year anniversary of their mother's passing.  Fun times, eh?  With six people in the audience, we decided to do some time for them anyway, because they made the trip out and nobody wanted to cancel.

"Evil Jim" from one of the Buffalo radio stations went on first after mc Bernie Rice rolled out ten minutes of the "I'm getting killed over here!" stock lines.  I don't know how much time or money he had invested in the club, but he wasn't making any of it back that night.  Jim turned in a short set, not very emotional but almost like in a "let's get this thing over with" sort of way.  I went up, same crowd, and did half an hour like I was taping a live album.  I started out doing some improv, but they really wanted to hear jokes, so I did my act, peppering it with conversation.  The thing I was sure they wouldn't buy was exactly what they wanted.  Live and learn, I guess.

Steve did his show and then closer James Middleton, who supposedly has been around forever but who I'd never heard of before, did his 20 minutes and got off, and then it was back to Rochester for Steve and myself.  It's important to get those comedy repetitions in or the muscles of the mind go soft.

Sunday I made the scene at Boulder Coffee Company and my wife got a little cranky that I was going, thinking that it should be a "family night."  Well, I've had so much time off this summer, *every* night is a family night!  I need to WORK!  I'm starting to feel like one of those humps in the movie "Cinderella Man" lined up at the docks and they only need nine guys, but there's 150 guys standing there.  Enough, already!

Anyway, the set was good enough....I found an old set list, circa 1995 or so, and I blew the dust off about half the bits and they still played.  I need to start investigating some of my old tapes and see if there are bits that I've forgotten or that have fallen into disuse and can be rejuvenated.  New material is great, but I've already done the work on a lot of stuff over the last 19 years, and I shouldn't let that work go to waste.

Tuesday, I hosted open mike at the Comix Cafe, and it was a "fuck or fight" crowd, complete with two young, drunk heckler chicks sitting in the front row, except for when they were running outside to smoke.  It was disruptive for them to keep getting up so many times during the show, but at least it was a small respite from the one girl's constant yelling out of "Hey-YO!" which the last I looked was an Ed McMahon catchprase from the old Johnny Carson show which went off the air when this bitch was six years old.  One of the open micers brought his buddies from work, and they basically talked through everyone's set and then left as soon as he was done.  There was absolutely no ettiquette to be found, and very exasperating to say the least.  The kid was all juiced that he had friends coming, but that's the worst thing you can do when you're new in the business...friends in the audience don't help, they make you nervous, and when you bomb (and all new guys bomb), you have to hear it from them at your day job/school/wherever you know these humps from.  Not a very good combination.

Wednesday, I was running errands all day and had settled down to get ready for some dinner, when the bell rang for Yours Truly as a call came in from the Comix Cafe.  Seems their regular host, WCMF's Tommy Mule was on vacation or something and couldn't make it, and how soon could I be there?  Showtime was 8:30, and it was five after eight, and I made it there with three minutes to spare.  It was nice to pick up the extra money, especially since my pay for running open mic Tuesdays had been cut.  Well, the Wednesday show was more of the same from Tuesday, almost like the Tuesday audience had trained the Wednesday people how to act, and even though we were working on the main stage, in a room with proper lighting, pre-show music and the like, they were still a little rowdy and inattentive, until I started shouting at them, which got them focused.  Matt Bergman, our feature this week, and Bob Jay, our headliner, both turned in admirable sets but the 140 folks in the room were a tough sell.

One of the funniest moments of the night was after the show, I was hanging out in the lounge with Matt as he was peddling his comedy CD to interested audience folks, and traffic at his table was so light, at one point, a guy playing billiards nearby set his beer glass down on Matt's table while he was shooting.  I guess since it looked like nobody was using the table that there was no harm done.  Matt laughed it off and I promised him that this would go in the blog, and here it is.  Ta Da!

Friday I returned to the road for my first actual sleepover gig in what seems like months (actually five weeks) and headed out to Reading, Pennsylvania, home of the Reading Comedy Outlet.  It's a five hour drive from Rochester, unless you count construction delays, and then it turns into six or more.  I ran into a hassle on the route 80 heading east and decided to four-wheel it on some back roads, and lucked myself into a route that dove-tailed right into 61 south, which heads right into Reading.  I had plenty of time to get ready for the 9 PM show, treating myself to a shave and a hot shower...my back insisted on reminding me that six hour drives are a young man's game, and I'm not in that age class anymore.  Hot water always seems to do the trick for me, though, and I'm suspicious that a lot of it might actually be in my mind.

We had a decent turnout for the show, and afterwards, headliner Auggie Cook and I compared notes; it seemed that the crowd was awfully fickle as to what they would respond to, and I noticed early that dirty material was not so much what they wanted, so I worked away from it, and actually still wound up doing some sexual material, but "walked around" the topic, which they appreciated.  I had applause breaks and silence in the same set!  It was very weird, to say the least.

One last note....gas here is $2.56!  I paid $2.69 when I got off of route 80 and thought I was the king, and then saw it at WaWa for 13 cents cheaper!  I'm tempted to go buy a very large gas can and fill'er up for the ride home back to Rochester, home of $2.94 unleaded and you have to be a wholesale club member to get THAT.

Alright.  One more show tonight and then it's back home for a couple of days before I return to Florida, and some decent-paying road work....plus, my second airline flight of the year....whoo-HOO!  Cramped seat, recycled air and luke-warm beverage service, HERE I COME!

Up The Irons!

Ralph Tetta

Rochester, NY