the hilton head comedy club two week review

i had never opened a room before though i have closed a couple over the years and this has been a combination of nerves, fears, hopes, dreams, plans, last minute changes, unforeseen problems, small crowds, no advertising, some advertising, bigger crowds and BIGGER CROWDS. it looks as if my two good friends, mike and john, are on their way to having a successful club here in hilton head, south carolina. last night, our first show was around 80 people which was, far and away, the biggest crowd of the two weeks i was here. they finally got some ads in some small surrounding newspapers and will have a big feature article in the main paper next week. every day our crowds got bigger, mostly through word of mouth. one night last week we had only 9 in for the show and i got a standing ovation from them and then last night for our biggest show i got another one. good shows is what will get this club over the hump and, thankfully, i nailed every show, big or little. i felt more pressure here than anything i have done since i came back to comedy because these are my friends and i do so want them to succeed. mike has put most of his money in the business and john left a very good excutive job to do this. they are "all in" to use a poker expression.

they will succeed because this island, though small, is populated by upper-middle class people who, even in the recession, have disposable income and there is absolutely nothing to do in hilton head, south carolina after the sun goes down for adults. oh, there are drinking and dancing clubs galore down on the south end of the island but they are geared to very young adults; a 45 year old couple is not going there. there is a small jazz club on the island and brothers and sisters, that is all. the most common thing we heard from the customers was "we really need this here on the island."

the crowds that have come to the shows have been VERY bright and VERY well read...hell, they even got a latin joke plus a geometry joke. it was a pleasure to perform for them.

they have a lineup that is over the top with talent, todd paul, pat godwin, a. whitney brown, chris bliss, kenny rogerson, tim walkoe, russ nagal and others are in the first six months.

so anyway, today i head home to vegas where i start tomorrow at the trop.