I had quite a rough night on my way home from the U.P. tour.  First of all, there were a few mix-ups with lodging and showtimes for the last show.  It was fine, though.  The show was very rough.  Small crowd, half of them over 100 years old.  Many playing video blackjack at the bar.  I took a picture of the audience DURING my set (see below) and I don’t even think anyone knew I took a picture.  So I entertained myself for 30 minutes.  Then  I’m driving home and I get a speeding ticket.  I was in the middle of nowhere.  That sucked.  Then I run over a porcupine.  Damn thing jumped out in front of me.  I thought it was adorable how when I called my girl for sympathy for the rough night, her response was, “Ahhh, that poor porcupine.  You’re a murderer!”   Cuuuh-LICK!

I am pulled over on the side of the road because I just needed to write. Not very often to I get this odd bug that I am just really in the mood to write, but I am driving from Duluth, MN to St. Ignace, MI and I am listening to the Jimmy Pardo podcast and it is really striking a chord with me. First of all, I recommend you listen to it. They have 60 episodes now and I am on the 44th or something. It’s great if you travel a lot and its free. Anyway, the reason I am loving it today is because I think I had one of the worst shows of my career last night in Duluth. I have been to this place twice before and it always went well. They have since switched locations and last night was BRUTAL. They didn’t heckle. They didn’t do ANYthing. The first half of my act was met with utter silence. The 2nd half was as if I had walked into a half full coffee shop where a lot of people were getting to know each other and I had decided to start reciting random lines from a play or something. Nobody gave a shit at all. It was depressing. I told the headliner as we passed after my time that I was going to go to my room and blow my head off. Then the first thing out of his mouth on stage is “Give it up for Johnny, everybody. Come on! He just told me he’s gonna go kill himself!” I normally don’t get down on myself and I wasn’t really beating myself up last night as I know I have good material. It works. They just didn’t care for me and I threw it into autopilot when I should have toyed around and tried harder to “get em.” Sometimes, though, it’s a losing battle.
Anyway, I am listening to the podcast, or “Pard-cast” and I really love it when they talk about stand up and their horror stories. The guest on the show I am listening to is Jimmy Dore, who I worked with in Appleton a few years ago. He is hilarious and I actually saw him in LA at the Improv not long ago. It’s so refreshing to hear them talk about doing rooms that I perform at now and hear them talk about bookers that I work with. It just reminds me that I am on my way somewhere and that I’m not just spinning my wheels doing this for nothing. Not that I thought I was, but its nice to have those boosts or reassurances. Anyway, if you want to check it out, you can get it at iTunes or www.jimmypardo.com. Check him out, he’s a great comic if you haven’t seen him.
In other exciting news, we are having our BEST OF show for the Gentlemen’s Hour on July 27th at ComedySportz, Milwaukee. Please come and check it out. A teaser trailer is up at www.thegentlemenshour.com and on my myspace at www.myspace.com/johnnycomic