I grew up in a middle class blue collar town, where sending your child down to the neighbor’s house for two eggs and a cup of sugar was the norm. As a child it seemed like I was always looking forward to the next town event or holiday just to get to a state of euphoria. Then one day early on, the men…Dad, Uncle Bill and I were hanging out in Dad’s man cave (this term won’t be used for 30 years). The two brothers started to talk about a terrible part of their childhood, that I had a hard time believing. They then erupted into a laughing, crying frenzy that went on for a full two minutes, which left them breathless and speechless. I then realized that the Liss Moto, “If we don’t laugh – we cry”, was controllable. And that you can create your own happiness and not have to wait for the next uplifting event.
It wasn’t until I was in my young teens that I remember scribbling down my first funny thought or joke. I would continue through my teens to always carry a pen and paper in my shirt pocket, so not to miss a funny thought. Even to the point of sleeping with it next to my head every night until my phone had a “notes” section. At sixteen I made my first life changing decision. I was going to be a stand-up comedian. I was going to grab a backpack my life savings and just figure it out on the road. That decision was squashed within two days when I realized I was going to have to sell the idea to my parents. For the next three decades I worked on my material at every family party and friend get together.
Fast forward 25 years and I see a friend advertising his first comedy show on Facebook. Dawn and I bought the first two tickets. I watched the show happy for my friend and sick to my stomach…wishing I was one of them. Not looking for fame and fortune, just wanting to make people laugh. I told my longtime friend that I had been writing since my teens. He told me to put my material together and get back to him. Five years later and hundreds of pieces of material written I contacted him and said, “I’m ready”. We met a few times and reviewed my material over omelets and Chinese buffets. When I had three minutes of material memorized we went down to Ortlieb’s Bar in Northen Liberties. It was March 6th 2017. I threw up three times before I left my house and once in the middle of the street only two houses away from my house. I signed us up; we were numbers 16 and 17, out of what looked to be forty plus in line. Three trips to the bathroom and I was walking up to a stage in front of a room filled with other comedians sitting in green stacking lawn chairs. After my set I got laughs, handshakes, positive comments and the desire to do it again.
…Always trying to replicate the sound of my Dad and Uncle Bill laughing and crying till they were breathless and speechless.