Eric's Hope

Last night was the 2 shows in Sanford for the fireman named Eric and his medical condition. It was a short bill, myself hosting, Chuck Sanborn and Kevin Knox. I hadn't seen Knox before, but to say he's a ball of energy is an understatement and that's not just his stage persona. I was MC for the evening which I hadn't done before, but I really enjoyed it. There were 2 shows at 7:00 and 9:00 and I'll handle them separately.

7:00- The crowd had a lot of elderly people in the audience, and what kept ringing through my head was Tim telling me I should avoid my darker material, especially my Vagisil joke. It made sense, so I went with my safer stuff to open up. The crowd laughed, but it was a constant and steady laugh, which for a packed house I wanted to go for the throat, but I resisted. But when Knox got up there, he eased into it a little bit and then went full bore. There was no holding him back once he got rolling. His brand of energy is what sold the audience. He did a great job, and Chuck had a great set for himself. I think the demographic of the audience was working in his favor for the first set.

9:00- We had an awesome surprise, Eric's (the guy the benefit was for) niece came up to me between shows and asked if she could do a set. Of course I couldn't deny her, she was just this little thing and very excited. She was 12 years old I understand, and shorter than me. I warmed up the crowd and introduced her and the crowd went nuts. She had a good 4 minute bit about the first ever baseball game, and it was good. Then I did my first half of my material. I started slow, like I saw Knox do, then I got a little more risque. I ended up using the Vagisil joke and it did great. I had much better crowd response than the first set, probably because I could get into those jokes more. I played a little more with the crowd, and it was a great night. Chuck came up and did his thing, and Knox blew the place out a second time.

I almost called Tim to cancel out of last night's show during the day. I'd come down with a really rough cold and had pretty much lost my voice for 2 days straight. I didn't think I'd be able to perform, but I'm really glad I could. Eric seemed like a real stand up guy, and just they way he took it all in, I myself was inspired and honored to do the show and help raise money for him. I also took the money they paid me for the set (not much) and gave it to the group to give to Eric. Knox also was inspiring, he was diagnosed with cancer 18 months ago, but you'd never know it. He's into eating healthy and as he says "kicking cancer's ass", and I have to be honest, he seemed like one of the healthiest people I'd ever met.

Last night meant a lot to me. It was a night I didn't care how my jokes fell, or how the crowd reacted. It just felt good to get out there and do something for a good cause. And when Eric shook my hand at the end of the night and thanked me for everything I did, I was blown away. He deserved it as far as I know, and he probably deserves a whole lot more.

Upcoming shows: Next Wednesday the 26th in Portland, and the Sunday after that on the 30th in Portland. Both are at the Comedy Connection.