On the Road Again

The last few days I've been on the road. It wasn't all show business but it's reminded me of my early years in stand-up comedy when I spent a great amount of time on the road driving from town to town. Looking back on it now I realize that those adventures were something that was perfect for that time in my life, but I guess I've turned into a relative homebody. It's not that I don't like to leave home, but I can't go away for as long as I used to. I like to go away and get back to the family ASAP.

This week has been full of fun and excitement. Monday I had a callback for a commercial, Tuesday was my final shoot day on the film, "Morning Glory" and Wednesday I performed on a comedy fundraiser at the Palace Theater in Hamilton, NY with Jake Johannsen. The fundraiser was organized by one of my castmates from "Morning Glory", Matt Malloy. Go ahead click on both of them so you'll be able to visualize who I'm talking about.

The comedy show was lots of fun. I got to perform for a very appreciative crowd and I got a chance to work on some of my new material. There was even more excitement offstage after the show in the small town of Hamilton, NY. Hamilton is a small town with a population of about 2,500 and is also the city which houses the campus of Colgate University. So in other words it's very small and everyone knows each other. When I arrived I think I doubled the black population. That can be quite a daunting responsibility for a black man, but I handled my responsibility with poise and class. I wasn't in town for 5 minutes before someone mistook me for the other black guy in town, JoeBaker. Joe is a Hamilton native and a coach in the NFL with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and just happened to be visiting his hometown at the very same time that I was there. I heard about Joe as soon as I got to town and was looking forward to meeting him. As luck would have it, Joe was in the first row at the comedy show. We connected immediately in that "you're the only other black dude in town" way, that only another brother can understand. It was like we were long lost brothers. We had more in common than just being the "Lone Negroes" we also both have white wives and drive the Volvo S60. No wonder people mistook us for the same guy!

The other point of excitement while in Hamilton, NY is that I received a ticket for running a stop sign. The kind of stop sign that only a Hamilton native would have seen. Needless to say I was a little nervous when I was pulled over by the towns most notorious cop(the other 3 are very nice I hear). He made me step out of my car and do various sobriety tests. Since I was determined to not be too far over the legal drinking limit, the officer let me off with just a ticket for running a stop sign and gave me the option to come back and fight the ticket in court. I figured I should cut my losses and just take the ticket and get out of Hamilton. So much goes through your mind when you're pulled over in a small town and asked to step out of your car by a police officer. I thought of all of the bad things that could happen but most of all I thought of how my behavior could reflect negatively on the remainder of Joe Baker's stay in town. I'm sure that by now Joe has had to explain to all of the town's people how it wasn't him who was pulled over for running a stop sign. So I shared all of that to say, Joe I'm sorry for misbehaving in your hometown and bringing you shame. If there's anything to gain from this experience I think it's this, always be on your best behavior because what you do doesn't only reflect on you it could also affect the other black guy in town!