Countdown Entry #41
 
2:33 PM, Wednesday, July 21st, 1999:
 
That's a great title.
 

This was a roller coaster. Good news - I booked 3 gigs. Bad news, I thought I had every Saturday night at $250 a pop until football season. Turns out the comedy group they have in was already booked and he didn't know that. AHHHHHHHH. I got so excited at work. Ran around the building twice. Heh.

 
Alrighty, so here’s how it works. They don’t do shit on Saturday’s during football season ‘cause hey..why. they got the crowd they want. Here’s what he wants to do. There are 5 STRAIGHT home games this year. After that (october 9th – my 24th birthday) he wants to put me on 3 Thursdays in a row with adds in the lantern on Tuesday. It’ll be $5 at the door and the lantern add will give them a free appetizer if they bring the ad. So they get their money back. Now here’s the kicker. He will pay the $5 for the hotel guests. They get in free. So If I can get them to come down, (for free) I get $5 for them. I could really end up making some dough here. Flyer every door. Giddy up. The dates are 3 months away which seems like a lifetime unfortunately, but WOW. October 14th, 21st, and 28th. How’s that for cool. He gave me the size of the ad and I’ll design it. I feel a bit guilty. He asked me what would be more beneficial: the money towards the Lantern or the money towards CD101. I told him the Lantern. It simply is. Period. Especially for the campus crowd. What the hell is the Campus competition for the paper? The Other Paper? It’s perfect. I’m pretty pumped. This should work out very well. I will contact him on August 11th about the show at Fats. He told me to give him a ring so he could see it. Whew. 3 more gigs for the 4TVS…and he gave me the tape back! I told him it was for him, but he just told me to keep it. That helps.
 
The class acts guy is driving me crazy though. Here's the notes from my lunch with him:
 
7/12/99 1:00 PM – my therapy session. I don’t feel great after it. He understands what im dealing with…so that’s nice. He’s definitely pushing this as performance art. And I do agree. He gave me one big piece of advice. Christmas sets. He said I could be working everyday from thanksgiving until christmas. I’ll dig that a bit. I will make 3 christmas sets. If I can do about an hour, that’d be nice. Kids will love it. Finally an avenue where kids can see the show. That makes me happy. Talked for a good hour. Told me about the ohio arts council. And if Im a member with them, OAC will pay 30% of the fee for the venue. Kind of cool. Everything was vague. He said Shadowbox could be a great place. Saying I could be the interim stuff between their acts. Or an opener. Also, the golf gig isn’t completely dead. He hasn’t heard anything actually. So that’s kind of nice. He’ll definitely help me out..OOH and Wexner center stuff. Again more performance art oriented things. He really hasn’t altered my path other than making the Cristmas sets. I really can’t afford that luxury until I have about 15 sets under my belt. Then I can throw away 3 christmas sets. Whew. That’ll be awhile. It will be done though. You just cross your fingers and hope to hear from him.
 

Here's the thing. I've been to Shadowbox, it's awesome - but they produce their own shows. Nonetheless on his advice I called Shadowbox, did all the legwork got them the tape, called a dozen times and got: "im not sure exactly what you want me to do…" I explained that Mike thought they could use me in between stuff, but they said everything is IN house. (sigh) She told me to show it to the guys at eventco. So what was mike thinkin? And what exactly is a booking agent supposed to do? I know I haven't signed anything yet, but he could've gotten that info from Shadowbox a lot quicker than what I did for a week. Ugh. The Christmas sets are a good idea later in the summer. I'll keep in touch with him.

 
Oh and I just have to vent about a guy at "Houlihan's" Jesus.
 
"Eric saw it and he said it wasn’t that great."
 
I’m completely speechless. Here it comes, he Polaris Grille type blow up: Are you fucking kidding me? By far the most professionally produced presentation they could’ve possibly seen for any type of act, and they say it’s not that great? And Bruce (the GM) didn’t even watch it? HOW CAN YOU RUN AN ESTABLISHMENT AND NOT BE ABLE TO TAKE 5 MINUTES OUT OF YOUR DAY. HOW. HOW. HOW. Say it’s not right for our establishment…say it’s whatever, but to say the tape isn’t that great is just ignorant. I'm a bit arrogant, but it's totally true. Only someone who didn’t see the tape could say that. (sigh) I'm officially done with restaurant/bars.
 
Alright, Brian Boru's up next...I checked out the bar and, well, not too great. I have a feeling it's gonna crash and burn. Not a young crowd at all, and I'm gonna come off annoying to the regulars who just want to drink and listen to rock. The drunks sure do enjoy a good beat down though, so Jar-Jar will be a hit.
 
Adam
 
 
JULY 1999