home at last, home at last!

four weeks on the road and i am home! man, that was a long one but on the other hand it was quite soul-satisfying since i think i reached new levels of comedy. each town got at least one MAGICAL show, those that reach far and above what i do on a nightly basis, where the audience and i are in a separate universe, cut off from the rest of the world and its cares, its problems, its worries and its responsibilities, where old material is done in new and improved ways and new material flows forth from my mouth with no pre-thought whatsoever. the "zone" as sport players call it. where i can do no wrong and every word, every phrase, every pause, every emphasis is just exactly perfect. when i have shows like these it is though i am, in a way, a part of the audience and what i am hearing is brand new to me as it is to them. when you have crowds that flat ass will not let you off the stage you know you are doing something right.

i am never so happy, never so fulfilled, never so one with the ONE as i am in these shows. they keep me alive and they keep me healthy. they restoreth my soul. they are when i am my fullest me. they are a reminder of why i do what i do and that i am doing what i am supposed to do. they are performance art, a word painting that is just for those ones in front of me at that time, never to be duplicated, a one of a kind show. magical and mystical, they will always remain in my memory and the memory of those who were there.

now that i have said all that, i am going to close this post and will start writing again every day about this or that or something in between.

go dodgers!

There's no place like home...

(view of the straposphere from in front of the house)

off to louisville, so long to bloomington,

rainy day in bloomington and i am off to louisville as soon as i get myself gathered. shows here went very well, one of the comics who was with me was blown away because i did two entirely different one shows. the first show, the crowd was small but almost all of them had seen me before so it was like a "conversation with ron shock" more than so-called 'material.' i just sat up there and told stories, some of which are hardly ever in a show. over the years i have done some incredible shows here, this small club in the back of a pizza joint seems to bring out the very best in me.

they had the best house m.c. in the nation, a young man named brad. well, a couple of months ago, brad went a did a guest spot on a thursday night at the funny bone here in town and the owner of bear's place (actually the new owner, the old one would have never done something like this) fired brad because of that. now, brad had never been told he couldn't perform at fb, and bear's does monday night so ... why the big uproar? apparently the owner is what is commonly called a "dick." brad is not a full time comic, on the contrary he works with disadvantaged youth here in bloomington, so not only is he the best house m.c. in america he is truly a GOOD GUY and the world is rather short on that species. some of the girls who work there or had worked there told me the owner would make passes at them and when they objected he told them that if they didn't like it they could try to sue him and he had better lawyers than they did. hmmmm, i think the word, "dick" fits. maybe "prick." maybe "bastard". maybe "s.o.b." maybe...well, you get the point.

this club, bear's place, is one of if not the longest running one-nighter in america and i have been playing it off and on since 86. i don't know exactly when the new guy took over but one of the many things he did was to no longer give the comics a free pizza between shows. (now it is half price but what does a pizza cost to make? a dollar maybe? it is the principle of the thing) the food is no longer as good as it was before..(bear's place was once so good it got national press) i would stop coming here but that wouldn't punish the prick, it would just disappoint my many fans here so i kept my mouth shut at the club but if this blog gets back to him, i will probably be banned....but, what the hell, the truth is the truth. and, one other thing, brad was so popular here that when he left, business went way down, this prick has pissed off many and many of that many won't come back to his club regardless of who is playing.

oh well, now that is off my chest...

kobe missed more freethrows last night than i would have. ratings?

anyway, gotta go, rock and roll, thanks for reading, maybe next time i will have something worthwhile to say.

more indy dates for the old man

at last, a usuable computer. at the hotel in indy, the computers would not let me go to my blog because it contained "objectionable material." i didn't bother to ask anyone just how they determined this and, even more important, who did it because i was going to hear that home office did it and they, the local people, have no control over this. oh well.

indy went very well. the crowds were never large but with only the exception of second show saturday, they were very good. first show saturday was balls to the wall good and the owner/booker of the club was at that show and she wants me to play that club 3 times in a year and also wants me to be the new year's act for next year. back when i played indy multiple times per year i had a nice little following there and both ruth-anne and i both think it could be done again. while going to indy in the dead of winter is not all that appealing, it is nice, and an honor, to have a club like you and want you that much especially in today's economic times. not only that there are a lot of comics out there and to get 3 weeks in a year is a coup.

i have always been good about keeping myself booked. incidently, i never use an agent, i do my own booking and except for a very short time in the 80's, always have. i want to have a possible 30 weeks of work for me out there on any given year. not that i will work that many weeks because i won't as long as rhonda has a job but it is could to have for that "just in case" scenerio. know what i mean? i lost the trop in vegas but have replaced it with two other clubs and will probably get back in the riv and possibly in planet hollywood. i picked up a guy who has 4 clubs, okla city, tulsa, wichita and little rock of which i am working okc this year and will get all 4 next year. i get 11 weeks in texas next year, 6 in houston, 2 in san antonio and then ft. worth, dallas and arlington. i also picked up providence, rhode island this year and 4 casinos in northern california. of course, i will be in hilton head a couple of times per year, chattanooga once, louisville and lexington, sacramento and san francisco punch lines, ( i am s.f. week-before-christmas-act each year which is cool because rhonda can with me and san francisco does christmas right) sarasota is once a year as is (i think) mrytle beach but i may not get back in there, i felt as though i wasn't sure just how much the owners like me. i am also going back to anne arbor next year. i would like to have more clubs in the west but i don't. i ought to take shot at portland, vancouver and seattle but probably won't. once the economy is back on an even keel i will cut back to around 20 weeks per year plus a new years somewhere or another and that will be plenty.

my grand-daughter, paris, came over from purdue with her boyfriend to see the saturday shows. no, i don't change anything or censor myself in any way with her in room. she is a very impressive young woman, bright, insightful and quite pretty to top it all off. i told her that her grandmother, my first wife, was crazy and i know that she had made my daughter, stefanie, crazy as well and that i had been worried that stef would have then made her, paris, crazy as well. paris told me that thought had occured to her as well so she has been in therapy for the last couple of years. lol.

am in bloomington staying with friend of ours and will perform here tomorrow night and then off to louisville for the rest of this week.

another friend of mine, glen morshower, has major role in the new TRANSFORMER movie and he and i are going to the opening up in reno when i am performing there. glen is on 24, friday night lights and did have a reoccuring role on west wing. he is the person who got me started on hold-em way back when. OH, and something cool, in the movie glen plays a general named MORSHOWER. they liked his name so much they used it for the character...how cool is that?

hope to see amos chang this week, he is a poker-playing comic who used to be a cop. once they put us on the same bill as cops and robbers and did some nice press about it.

anyway, dat's all for now, folks.

on the road again

it is the first of june, summer just starting. dogs are out in their room chewing on bones, pool was inviting so i took its offer up and now i am taking a break from packing for a 4 week road trip. (speaking of dogs, i give maverick, the great dane, cow femur bones and he EATS them. listening to that dog's jaws literally crushing a bone the size of our leg bone, if not a little bigger, is one of the reasons i don't worry about rhonda when i am on the road)

george burns has always been my idol in comedy for what he said way back when; "i can't die, i'm booked." that is what keeps me healthy, keeps me happy and i truly believe keeps me alive...i am booked. solid for the rest of the year. matter of fact, when i get back i will start booking 2010.

all that being said, i will only be posting my feeble ramblings on here every couple of days or so because my traveling computer is on the blink but i should be able to use the clubs or the hotels...we shall see. not that i have anything to say anyway.

i will be in indy this week at the downtown crackers club, bloomington indiana on monday and then louisville comedy caravan through that week and then off to dayton for wiley's, which is one of my favorite clubs. it pays very little and the crowds are small but the owner is one of the all time good guys, the staff is great and the crowds, though small, are as hip as any you could want..they come for comedy and they know the difference. dave chappel used to come in there to watch my show. there is another club in dayton but wiley's gets the best comics because they also know the difference and would rather work for less than work a corporate club which is only in the business of selling liquor and doesn't really give a shit about the comics or the show per se as long as those drinks are flowing. then i fly home for ONE day and then off to reno for catch a rising star. all in all it makes for a long month but some good money, good clubs, good friends to see and good times to be had. my grand daughter, paris, is coming to one of the shows with her boyfriend. she saw me for the first time early this year in mrytle beach and now is hooked on comedy.

well, my friends, be well, be safe and for those who play poker may all your flops be good.