Today I spent Father’s Day with my three sons, and I really enjoyed it even though we didn’t do anything too extravagant. All we did was go to see the movie The Fantastic Four.
I managed to restrain myself from making a comment that my father would have made: “We are the Fantastic Four because we’re all together!” I remember when my father would pick me up to take me driving while I still had my driver’s permit. Whenever the song “Nice to Be with You” by Gallery played on the radio, my father would start singing along, “Oh, it’s so nice to be with you / And I love all the things you say and do” pointing to me. I mean he was incredibly happy to take me out driving.
Now that I think of it, I should have told my sons that we are the Fantastic Four. They would have groaned, but they would remember this day years from now.
Tonight, I went to the presentation of a new book by Marcia Farr titled Rancheros en Chicagoacán. Well, you will be surprised to learn that Mexicans vary in language and culture from region to region. This book deals with the subject of Mexicans from the state of Michoacán who live in both Mexico and Chicago. The host of the event was thinking of using the Monarch butterfly as a logo for Casa Michoacán since it travels freely from Michoacán and the U.S.
I arrived at the Casa Michoacán ten minutes before the event was supposed to start. When I sat down, the only two men in the place who were conversing in Spanish greeted me in English. I’m sure why, but they did. I, however, greeted them in Spanish. Somehow, they didn’t find this at all unusual. When some women entered they all automatically greeted me in Spanish. More people came, but the organizers decided to wait a little longer to give the latecomers a chance to arrive.
They started a half-hour late. Even the author Marcia Farr was late. I guess she really adapted well to Mexican time while living in Michoacán. (Whenever I have a party, I tell everyone that the party starts at 4 if I want everyone to come at 5.) I did get to eat and have a glass of wine while there. And they gave me a free T-shirt!
Well, I did it again. Last night, I went to another comedy club. That’s two comedy clubs in two nights. I’m scoping out comedy clubs for my imminent return to the stage as a standup comedian. I went to Riddles Comedy Club in Orland Park because they have an Open Mic on Thursday nights. As I bought my ticket at the box office, I asked about going on stage for Open Mic night. Well, I was told that if I performed, I wouldn’t have to pay the $10 cover charge. I must admit that it was very tempting to take them up on that offer. How hard would it be to just go up on stage for five minutes and then not pay a cover charge? I’ve been on stage so many times before. I could have winged it if I really tried. But, no, I wanted to prepare a little more for my return to the stage. I have some jokes that I’ve been writing and polishing. I want to do my absolute best when I go up on stage again! So, I told them that I would just observe, but I promised them that I would perform next week. They tried hard to convince me to perform, though. And I was really tempted to go on stage. And it wasn’t just to save myself ten dollars, either. So now, I’m working on my act for next Thursday night.
Well, observe, I did. I had been to Riddles Comedy Club about five years earlier to see a comedy show and I really liked the club. So last night, I just sat back and enjoyed watching the comedians. You see, I really love watching comedians in action. I love to laugh even more. I think I will feel extremely comfortable there. Everyone was so considerate and understanding with the new comedians. Hopefully, they will be as merciful when I perform next Thursday.
Hear that whirring in the air. The cicadas are here! I’ve seen their exoskeletons, their dead carcasses, and live cicadas in flight. I love Chicago, but I especially love my new neighborhood.
I live on the south side in Beverly. (Some politically incorrect acquaintances tell me that I live in a black neighborhood, when in reality the neighborhood is actually integrated quite well. In fact, this is the best and safest neighborhood in which I have ever lived after a lifetime of living in Chicago.)
So I get to experience the cicadas in full force for the first time in my life. When they surfaced 17 years ago, I merely read about the cicadas in the newspaper, but I didn’t actually see any. I lived in the famous south side neighborhood of Bridgeport where I didn’t see a single cicada because, in Bridgeport, they don’t want nobody nobody sent. So that meant no cicadas were welcome since they already have enough skeletons in their closet.
In Beverly, I’ve been seeing cicadas for the last month or so. And I’ve seen them in some compromising positions! I’ve seen them undressing by crawling out of their exoskeletons and I’ve seen them mating by backing up into each other, which looks very painful if I look at their mating from the human point of view. (The last time I backed up into a female, she slapped me.) I’ve stepped on a few cicadas while running, but not on purpose. Well, I’ll enjoy the cicadas while I can because I won’t see them again for another 17 years.
Last night, I went to a comedy club for the first time in a very long time. I went to Bill Brady’s Barrel of Laughs in Oak Lawn, Illinois. I remember Bill Brady from when he was at the Comedy Womb. I can honestly say that Bill Brady is just as funny today as he was back then. I had meant to write my own standup comedy routine to perform last night, but I never actually finished editing my act, so I went to observe the new talent on Open Mic Night and hopefully learn from them. Well, I’m not sure if I learned any practical lessons since all these comedians reminded me of my past experiences on stage. At least, I observed that performing standup comedy sure has changed for the better! The atmosphere was very congenial and conducive for training new comedians. They had a sign on the stage that prohibited heckling the comedians! Now that’s what I call coddling the comedians.
Since I was a young boy, I have had this secret desire to be a standup comedian and I’m trying to get my nerve up to go on stage again after a brief hiatus of about 21 years. I’m not sure what ever attracted me to standup comedy in the first place since I stuttered and spoke broken English until I was in high school. Whenever I saw comedians on television, I always watched them with affectionate laughter and listened to their every word, memorizing their jokes so I could repeat them later. Since I live in Chicago, which is a breeding ground for all kinds of comedians, I eventually tried my hand at standup comedy with mixed success. My main problem was my stage fright that always hindered me from being comfortable before a large crowd, but not painful enough to prevent me from performing. I worked on improving my comedy act and eventually performed on a local cable TV show no one had ever heard of, including me, until they asked me to be on the show.
Before I ever actually performed standup comedy, my friends Vito, Jim, and I went to some comedy clubs to observe the comedians. We planned everything for our first performances. We tried working together as a team at first, but we were too much of individuals to work together as a team. Eventually, we each wrote our own act that we would perform individually. We helped each other writing jokes for each other and polishing each other’s act. This was all fun and nerve-racking at the same time! Although we never mentioned it to each other, I know we really dreaded our first time on stage. We memorized, rehearsed, and then performed our acts to each other before our debut. We didn’t all perform for the first time on the same night because we performed when we had managed to control our stage fright enough go on stage. I believe Jim, the bravest of the bunch, performed first, followed by me and then Vito. Needless to say, we each made a disastrous debut! But we were extremely proud of ourselves for following through with our plan and going on stage.
Now that I think of it, I’m starting to not only feel that same fear again, but also that same hunger for success again. That’s why I plan to go on stage soon. But first I must fine tune my jokes.
Chicago USA 