Wednesday May 30th, 2007 - Chicago, IL/Milwaukee, WI

He and Drew and Dan pretty much let me come up any time I want. I sure don’t want to abuse the privilege and I always ask before I come in but if I’m in town and have a gig to plug they are always open to having me in and sitting in on their show. That’s very classy.

Radio is a blast when it’s like that. It’s like playing with someone else’s kids. I get to go home at the end of the day but the kids stay there and bug the parents. Same thing with all of the radio minutia I don’t have to be part of. Radio can be very petty have a lot of things going on behind the scenes that listeners never know about. I’ve been involved in that for way too long in way too many places so to get to hang out and have fun on the air and get to leave immediately after the shift is over is a much appreciated treat. I had a blast today.

I am also easing in as a semi regular on the show and now listeners say hi by name. The ratings are up at the whole station and it’s a very upbeat atmosphere in there. I love to sit in with the guys anytime and they always make me feel like part of the family. It‘s a kick.

If I had this kind of freedom on the Bob and Tom show I’d be a lot richer than I am now but that bridge is still burned apparently. I still can’t figure out why it was that bad but it’s their call and apparently that’s what the verdict is. I wish it would just blow over and they would give me another shot but I don’t know if that will ever happen. I can’t just wish the future though, I have to DO something. Driving up to be on the show today accomplished that. I can’t change Bob and Tom’s mind apparently, at least not at this time. That’s life.

I’m not down about it at all. I have been a polarizing personality my entire life. I have a way of making people feel rather strongly about me one way or the other. I’ve had quite a few change positions over the years and that’s gone both directions too. It’s just how I am built I guess. I’m loved or hated but very rarely do people react to me with ‘He’s just ok.’ It’s usually a long emotional diatribe one way or another but there is no gray area at all.

The D List in Milwaukee loves me. Bob and Tom in Indianapolis threw me out of their studio and said they’d NEVER have me back. I’m the same guy but with polarized results from different people. Comedy bookers are the same way, as are friends and women too.

Driving home today I thought about all of this. Zanies Comedy Club in Chicago holds me in high esteem as one of their all time favorite comedians onstage and off. I have my own key to the place, and the owner is close friends with Jay Leno and Jerry Seinfeld as long as they’ve been performing. He told me ‘Those guys never had a key. YOU do.’ It’s a real honor to have it as it’s proof I’m 100% trusted. I don‘t drink so I won‘t steal booze and I have proven myself to be trustworthy onstage and off. I‘m one of their very top acts.

That’s why it amazes me how vilified I am in my home town of Milwaukee which is 90 miles away on the map but light years away on most everything else. There is a club there I won’t mention by name but I can’t even buy a ticket there because the owner and I have had some skirmishes back in the early 90s. Those stories are of comedy legend and I will not get into them here because I don’t have the time or space. I also am banned forever in Appleton at a club there because of what I allegedly did to the club owner in Milwaukee.

I’ve never even MET the owner in Appleton but he told the booker that I’d NEVER get booked up there no matter how funny I was. That’s a shame because I hear it’s a very nice room and crowds are excellent but I won’t get a chance to play there because they look at my picture and see sixes on my head. Again, I’m the same guy but get polarizing results.

I can’t count all the long time friends I’ve had that say ‘I did NOT like you the first time we met. But then you grew on me and now we’re close friends.’ I don’t know what I do to get that reaction, I’m just myself. I’ve always been that way and apparently there are some of the public that isn’t fond of it. Like I care. I try to be nice to everyone and that’s all any person can do. The ones that don’t like it can stay away from me and we’ll all live a life.

That’s not reality though. The disgruntled wanker from the class is still at it as of today. Whatever might ’gruntle’ his sour attitude is anybody’s guess. Now he’s assigned the task to himself of collection agent also and is barraging Warwick with emails demanding he is refunded his money for the classes HE chose not to attend because he didn’t like my style as a teacher. He wants ANOTHER teacher and he wants Zanies to provide it so he can be ‘free to learn in my own comfort zone.’ Right. Well guess what? I am the ONLY teacher Zanies has and that in itself is an honor. I’m the only one they let teach classes. That’s the thing this putz doesn’t understand. HE is the problem here, not me. But he still persists.

I’m not trying to imply I’m the only person that has clashes with others. We all do. But I must say that mine are very much black and white. They either love me or they don’t. I used to relish it when they hated me and enjoy getting in their face about it but now I am too old and too busy to care about any of that anymore. I really am getting better as I get older and if the peanut head student would have just come to me and told me he wasn’t a fan of my style of teaching I’d have gone out of my way to try and make it right with him.

Now I wouldn’t go out of my way to sprinkle my name in urine on his head stone. He is a dented can in his own way and his ‘dental retardation’ is not an energy I need in my life so I will just ignore him and move on with what I’m doing. He has his own tweak and I’m not a therapist paid to fix it. I am a comedy teacher paid to exploit it. He wouldn’t let me.

I still have a long way to go. I am a wack job and I know it. I make no pretenses about it and don’t apologize for it. ALL good entertainers are wack jobs in some way and I have a challenge to turn mine into a positive. I already have in many ways but I would love to get some money coming into the mix. I think I’m close and I will continue to work on all that

I’ve been starting lately. I move out in a couple of days and have a chance to make a fresh start once again. Even with a few blips lately, I’m still in a good mindset. I’m improving.