Did a little stand-up for a Serve Our Youth fundraiser last Friday night. I was the opening act for a guy from Des Moines by the name of Dolph Pulliam who was on the Drake basketball team when they went to the final four in the sixties, and then spent about twenty years as a newscaster in Des Moines for KCCI channel 8. Before he took the stage, I made sure to relate my story about watching him interview my great uncle Johnny at the Iowa State Fair and told him it was the biggest thing that'd ever happened to our family up to that point. He seemed pretty amused at that.
The guy is an amazing speaker. Born in Mississippi with eight (I think) other siblings, his parents died in a car wreck when he was young. He moved to Indiana with an aunt, got into basketball, and the rest is history. It was one of the best talks I've heard in a long time. He was down to earth, funny, and inspiring. The kind of guy who makes me wish I was a far better speaker.
Brother-in-law Kyle went with me to the dinner/fundraiser since Andrea was busy with some youth stuff. The meal was fantastic, and we had a pretty good time entertaining one another. I learned that Kyle is a praise band drummer that secretly loathes most of the music he has to play. I'd have to agree on a lot of points, but he's also a pretty stinking good musician and songwriter when he puts his mind to it, and hopefully it will inspire him to write some of his own music.
I travel to Michigan this weekend to speak at a Youth Rally at Gunn Lake Community Church. Mark Elgersma's riding along with me, and I'm expecting it to be a pretty good time. Hopefully Dolph will have inspired me a bit to bring my own game up a notch.
Till next time,
Jason
And yeah, I should try to take a camera along to finally get some pictures up on this blog.
Thursday, April 27, 2006
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
I'm a big chump . . .
I missed a show yesterday. No real excuse really - Andrea and I are trying to put a bid down on a house, and yesterday we had about six hours of unexpected meetings come up. They all had to do with money, lawyers, septics tanks, loans, and other pleasant things. So we both pretty much skipped work for the day and sat through meetings.
Well, about 9 PM last night, a sudden, sickening feeling stabbed into my stomach as I realized that I'd forgotten all about doing a poetry reading in Knoxville, IA over the lunch hour. I'd set it up about two or three weeks ago, and even though it was only a fifteen minute show, as far as I can remember, it's the first show I've ever missed in more than ten years of performing.
Now, granted, there was a show five or six years ago that I missed as well. A young lady called me up and asked me to do some comedy for a class reunion in a certain Iowa town that I won't mention. I agreed, and she said she'd be in touch with me as the date got closer. All the info I had on her was her first name, the date, and the name of the town she was in.
Long story short, she never called me back - until the day after the reunion, when she asked me why I'd missed. I told her she'd given me no real info on the show, her full name, or her phone number, and she'd never called me back. I told her that I had no real desire to drive around the town looking for a reunion on the day of the show, and she quickly apologized for forgetting to call me back. Other than that incident, I don't think I've ever missed a show.
It was something I'd taken quite a bit of pride in, especially after hearing others tell me about how speakers/entertainers had burned them in the past by being late, canceling at the very last minute, or not showing up at all. In fact, I've gone to great lengths to make it to everything I've been booked for.
Once I agreed to speak for a youth retreat on a saturday morning, do a stand-up show five hours away on Saturday night, and then be back at the retreat to speak on Sunday morning. So esstenially, I spoke, jumped in the car and drove five hours, spoke again, did an hour of improv with friends, jumped back in the car around midnight and drove another five hours, got to the retreat, slept for two hours, then got up and spoke.
I agreed once to speak for a huge outdoor worship service in Sioux Falls, SD on a sunday morning. About a month after I'd made the arrangements, my brother announced he was getting married the night before, about six hours away, and wanted me to stand up with him. I agreed, went to the wedding, stayed for the reception, got in the car about 10:30 PM, and got to Sioux Falls at about 5:30 in the morning. I slept for about an hour and a half, and then headed to the service and spoke.
I once got severely sick, had a bad fever, lost my voice and had to spend two days straight out in the sun running a fundraiser for the youth group. And when I say I lost my voice, it was gone. All I had was a thin rasp. I'd agreed to do some stand-up for a seeker service in Des Moines on what was the worst day of my illness, and so for about ten hours before the show I just chugged and chugged cups of hot tea with honey. I made it to the show and performed, although it was what I would consider one of my worst shows ever, but I made the obligation.
So the fact that I missed a show yesterday - a show that was about twenty-five minutes from my apartment - for no other reason than I just forgot, I feel absolutely horrible. I called and apologized profusely, and the lady I talked to was very nice about the whole thing. I promised to make it up to them at any time, and she said that was nice. But I still can't get over the sick feeling. My perfect streak is broken . . .
This Friday night I'm the opening act at a Serve Our Youth fundraiser banquet for Des Moines' own Dolph Pulliam. I'm going to be very early for the show . . .
Till next time,
Jason
Well, about 9 PM last night, a sudden, sickening feeling stabbed into my stomach as I realized that I'd forgotten all about doing a poetry reading in Knoxville, IA over the lunch hour. I'd set it up about two or three weeks ago, and even though it was only a fifteen minute show, as far as I can remember, it's the first show I've ever missed in more than ten years of performing.
Now, granted, there was a show five or six years ago that I missed as well. A young lady called me up and asked me to do some comedy for a class reunion in a certain Iowa town that I won't mention. I agreed, and she said she'd be in touch with me as the date got closer. All the info I had on her was her first name, the date, and the name of the town she was in.
Long story short, she never called me back - until the day after the reunion, when she asked me why I'd missed. I told her she'd given me no real info on the show, her full name, or her phone number, and she'd never called me back. I told her that I had no real desire to drive around the town looking for a reunion on the day of the show, and she quickly apologized for forgetting to call me back. Other than that incident, I don't think I've ever missed a show.
It was something I'd taken quite a bit of pride in, especially after hearing others tell me about how speakers/entertainers had burned them in the past by being late, canceling at the very last minute, or not showing up at all. In fact, I've gone to great lengths to make it to everything I've been booked for.
Once I agreed to speak for a youth retreat on a saturday morning, do a stand-up show five hours away on Saturday night, and then be back at the retreat to speak on Sunday morning. So esstenially, I spoke, jumped in the car and drove five hours, spoke again, did an hour of improv with friends, jumped back in the car around midnight and drove another five hours, got to the retreat, slept for two hours, then got up and spoke.
I agreed once to speak for a huge outdoor worship service in Sioux Falls, SD on a sunday morning. About a month after I'd made the arrangements, my brother announced he was getting married the night before, about six hours away, and wanted me to stand up with him. I agreed, went to the wedding, stayed for the reception, got in the car about 10:30 PM, and got to Sioux Falls at about 5:30 in the morning. I slept for about an hour and a half, and then headed to the service and spoke.
I once got severely sick, had a bad fever, lost my voice and had to spend two days straight out in the sun running a fundraiser for the youth group. And when I say I lost my voice, it was gone. All I had was a thin rasp. I'd agreed to do some stand-up for a seeker service in Des Moines on what was the worst day of my illness, and so for about ten hours before the show I just chugged and chugged cups of hot tea with honey. I made it to the show and performed, although it was what I would consider one of my worst shows ever, but I made the obligation.
So the fact that I missed a show yesterday - a show that was about twenty-five minutes from my apartment - for no other reason than I just forgot, I feel absolutely horrible. I called and apologized profusely, and the lady I talked to was very nice about the whole thing. I promised to make it up to them at any time, and she said that was nice. But I still can't get over the sick feeling. My perfect streak is broken . . .
This Friday night I'm the opening act at a Serve Our Youth fundraiser banquet for Des Moines' own Dolph Pulliam. I'm going to be very early for the show . . .
Till next time,
Jason
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Lazy Blogger!
I admit it. I'm not holding up my end of this blog thing. I've been extremely unmotivated as of late and I can't really tell you why. But after some prodding from good friend Dustin, here's an update on the last few engagements I've been on . . .
1. Kiwanis! I went and read some poetry to a group of Kiwanis here in Pella a couple weeks back over their lunch time meeting. I'm not sure if they were expecting what they got. I think they were used to reports from park and rec commissioners, local ministries, and Pella politicians. What they got was half an hour of pig, dog, and farm poems. I had a great time and it lead to me getting two other shows. One for the Kiwanis in Knoxville (they meet over breakfast . . . oogh) and one for a hospital in Knoxville.
"Fantastic!" is all I'm thinking. I've made no secret that these kinds of shows are my guilty pleasure, and if I could figure out a way to make a living doing them, I would. I've just got to figure out how to get them to pay first . . .
2. Vriendship Villagebochendootch . . . Okay, I don't know how it's spelled, but it's a retirement community here in Pella that's actually called "Frienship Village" but they spell it the Dutch way to confuse Irish poets. I read some poems there too, this time to my ideal audience of 70 to 90 year-old retired folks. I love these shows because they always go the same way. I read poems. They laugh more than they should. We have coffee time afterwards. They ask me two questions in this order - "You're from Prairie City? Who was your grandpa?" I wouldn't have it any other way.
3. Church stuff - I took part in a five part monologue last week in church, and then we did it again this morning at Central college for a Lenten breakfast for the students. It was basically five biblical characters with five different monologues on why they think Christ deserved what he got. I was Judas. Gotta love the bad guy roles.
This Sunday morning I'm in charge of the Sunrise Service sermon. Why do they call it the sunrise service? Yeah, oogh, six a.m. I'm doing it with father-in-law Joe B. again like we did last year. I'm expecting it to be just as much fun.
Coming up,
I do some stand-up next week in Des Moines for a Serve Our Youth banquet. I know, I know, I've said it before, I'm trying to shy away from straight stand-up. But listen! The main speaker for the night is Iowa newscasting legend - Dolph Pulliam! As soon as I heard that, I was on board. Dolph interviewed my great uncle Johnny Taylor way back when about milking cows at the Iowa State Fair. I figure if I can get Dolph to laugh just once, my life will be complete.
I'm also heading to Michigan in a few weeks for a Sunday night youth rally. I don't know much except that Mark Elgersma is going along for the ride, and they emailed and told me that the praise band is riding in on Harley's. It sounded too good to pass up.
Till next time,
Jason
1. Kiwanis! I went and read some poetry to a group of Kiwanis here in Pella a couple weeks back over their lunch time meeting. I'm not sure if they were expecting what they got. I think they were used to reports from park and rec commissioners, local ministries, and Pella politicians. What they got was half an hour of pig, dog, and farm poems. I had a great time and it lead to me getting two other shows. One for the Kiwanis in Knoxville (they meet over breakfast . . . oogh) and one for a hospital in Knoxville.
"Fantastic!" is all I'm thinking. I've made no secret that these kinds of shows are my guilty pleasure, and if I could figure out a way to make a living doing them, I would. I've just got to figure out how to get them to pay first . . .
2. Vriendship Villagebochendootch . . . Okay, I don't know how it's spelled, but it's a retirement community here in Pella that's actually called "Frienship Village" but they spell it the Dutch way to confuse Irish poets. I read some poems there too, this time to my ideal audience of 70 to 90 year-old retired folks. I love these shows because they always go the same way. I read poems. They laugh more than they should. We have coffee time afterwards. They ask me two questions in this order - "You're from Prairie City? Who was your grandpa?" I wouldn't have it any other way.
3. Church stuff - I took part in a five part monologue last week in church, and then we did it again this morning at Central college for a Lenten breakfast for the students. It was basically five biblical characters with five different monologues on why they think Christ deserved what he got. I was Judas. Gotta love the bad guy roles.
This Sunday morning I'm in charge of the Sunrise Service sermon. Why do they call it the sunrise service? Yeah, oogh, six a.m. I'm doing it with father-in-law Joe B. again like we did last year. I'm expecting it to be just as much fun.
Coming up,
I do some stand-up next week in Des Moines for a Serve Our Youth banquet. I know, I know, I've said it before, I'm trying to shy away from straight stand-up. But listen! The main speaker for the night is Iowa newscasting legend - Dolph Pulliam! As soon as I heard that, I was on board. Dolph interviewed my great uncle Johnny Taylor way back when about milking cows at the Iowa State Fair. I figure if I can get Dolph to laugh just once, my life will be complete.
I'm also heading to Michigan in a few weeks for a Sunday night youth rally. I don't know much except that Mark Elgersma is going along for the ride, and they emailed and told me that the praise band is riding in on Harley's. It sounded too good to pass up.
Till next time,
Jason
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