Comedy Memories

I'm going tonight to hang out with an old and dear friend, Don Reese. He's performing this week in Grand Rapids and we always get together when he's anywhere near here. Being on the road sucks and it's always good to have a buddy around to spend the day with, share a meal with, and just talk to. Don is one of the very best road comics in the country and was one of the first comics I ever opened for back in 1990. We've been fast friends ever since.

Last night I just happened to be glancing at the blog of Randy Kagan, a very funny LA comic who was one of Mitch Hedberg's best friends. Last year when Mitch died, a lot of his fans showed up on my blog to mourn him with me. He was one of the truly unique voices in comedy, one of the rare guys who didn't follow any rules at all. Reading Randy's memories of Mitch brought a tear to my eye. But then I came across an entry from just before Mitch died that brought back some good memories. He wrote:

I hung with Lewis Black and John Bowman at the Wiltern Theatre in LA on Feb. 5th. The show was sold out to the gills ... incredible. Lewis was hilarious and his opening act John Bowman was just as funny. I know Louis a little bit and I know John real well. We used to be roomates in the day. There was a fancy VIP after party with some real tasty food. The guy who plays Monk was there, Steven Weber, as well as the woman who does Lisa Simpson's voice (I'm bad with names) [Yeardley Smith - ed.]. A rumor went around that Don Rickles was there, but I didn't see him. It was a fun weekend hanging with those guys. They invited me to a Super Bowl party. Also fun. I think I drank too much. Three days in a row. Not my usual style, but I hadn't seen Bowman in years. So we had some catching up to do. John is one of my favorite people.

That brought some memories flooding back. John Bowman grew up just a few miles from where I am right now, and he was a legend in Michigan comedy by the time I started doing comedy. The first time I met him was at the comedy club in Lansing. I was just starting out and was emceeing there for the week and John stopped by to do a guest set. So we're sitting there before the show and the owner of the club comes in and introduces him to me and tells the headliner, "John's gonna go up and do 10 or 15 minutes before you go on stage tonight." The headliner, whose name I forget now, evidently knew John. He said, "If John goes up before me, I'm getting in my car and leaving. I'm no following him on stage." So the owner laughs and says okay, we'll put him on stage after the headliner - this is very rarely done.

So during the show, when I wasn't on stage, I sat and talked with John in the back of the room. He seemed like a nice, normal guy, just pleasant conversation. The headliner was on stage and he had about 15 minutes to go and John excused himself to go get ready to go on stage. A few minutes later I went to use the bathroom and as I walked past the office I hear some odd sounds coming from inside, so I ducked my head in. And there's John, standing on his head up against the wall...and singing something that sounded like demented opera. I thought this was rather odd behavior, but I went about my business.

So the headliner comes off stage and I go up. Now usually at that point I would have wrapped up the show - thank you for coming, come back next week to see so-and-so, don't forget to tip your waitresses, goodnight folks you've been a car payment. But this time I had to introduce John. So I said, "Folks, we've got a real treat for you tonight. The show isn't over. One of Lansing's favorite sons has returned for a few days and stopped by the club, so please welcome to the stage John Bowman."

A roar goes up from the audience, I turn to my left to see John running, full speed, at me. I slide over next to the wall and he flies right by me, drops a bag on the stage, runs out onto the front two tables, one foot on each of them, reaches down and picks up this guy in the front by the tie around his neck and yells, "Are you ready to have some fun?" I'm not sure who was more surprised, me or the guy in the front row - let's just say that when Bowman gets on stage, he tends to become...well, possessed is the word that comes to mind.

He did 15 minutes on stage with virtually no prepared material that I could detect and he absolutely destroyed this room. Just leveled it. John Bowman has Robin Williams-level talent, and in much the same way. I've seen him do 45 minute shows without any material at all. He has an insanely high energy level, which I usually am not a fan of, but he pulls it off well. He's just very, very funny. And after that show, we worked together a few times and hung out quite a bit.

Some time later, we did a show together at a biker bar in Flint, Michigan - and yes, that's every bit as bad as it sounds. We had a bunch of mutual friends there partying it up during the show, including his girlfriend, her roommate (who managed the Lansing club at the time), and one of my roommates. In the middle of my set, a waitress walks on stage with an entire tray filled with shots of tequila and says, "These are for you." Uh, no, they're not. I rarely drink and I certainly wasn't pounding tequila, so they sat there on the stool until my set was done.

I introduced John and he comes up on stage, which spelled the end of the tequila shots. Now you have to picture this: John is about 5'6 and maybe 130 pounds, soaking wet and carrying a brick. He drank the entire tray of tequila shots, which probably amounted to about 5% of his total body weight. He then noticed that the club had a movable spotlight and he decided to see if the guy working the spotlight could follow him - as he jumped from table top to table top, spilling pitchers of beer in the laps of bikers large enough to have him as an hors d'ouevre. Let's just say it was an ugly night.

The last time I saw John was about 3 1/2 years ago when the Lansing club hosted a benefit show for the immortal Ted Norkey (funniest man on the planet, but throat cancer ended his career before he could become a star). A lot of the old Michigan comics came back to help Ted out, including John, Heywood Banks and many others. It was great seeing him, and he's still pretty much mentally disturbed but very, very talented. And to brign it all full circle, my buddy Don was there that night and we're going to see Ted Norkey for dinner in a couple weeks (Ted has recovered. He can't work anymore, but he's still the most bitter and brutally funny guy I've ever known).