I started comedy nine and a half years ago. I have done shows now for tens of thousands of people over the years. I’ve done shows to tryout for bookers and comedy clubs where my performance meant work or no work. I’ve done benefit shows for people with horrible illnesses and conditions, terminal diseases, and to help with bills. I’ve never done a benefit show of my own in this almost decade until now. Here’s why I’m doing it.
This past year I saw two different Facebook posts that stuck with me. One was the pushup challenge highlighting awareness of suicide rates among veterans. The other was a post about a man having to give up his dog when he was called to active duty. Something clicked in my head.
My uncle Tom served in Vietnam as a helicopter mechanic. His job was to stay behind and disable the bird so the enemy didn’t use it against our own troops. He got this job because he could fix anything and would have been an engineer, if the war hadn’t chucked a turd in the swimming pool of life. He started his own building company and worked as hard as is humanly possible to work. He built the barns at the Muskingum County Fairgrounds, several restaurants and just about every pole barn that stands around Zanesville. He got up at 4 and worked until the sun went down. He gave money to anyone and everyone and knew more dirty jokes than Gilbert Gottfried. His voice was so deep, it made mine sound like an eight year old girl’s and people have told me I sound like a white Barry White. When I was in college, my parents built a new house. Me and three other frat bros carried buckets of cement one at a time and they were so damn heavy it took us five minutes to carry them 20 feet. My uncle had one in each hand and almost ran across a sagging 4×4 in seconds, lapping us. He loved cigarillos, his Harley and laughing at my Grandma’s very animated stories.
He got cancer – prostate cancer, the same that took my Grandpa before I was two, but earlier. I’m convinced Agent Orange, the jungle eraser that they dropped in Vietnam to clear out the foliage at the very least didn’t help. He had to drive from south of Zanesville, while running his business and go all the way to Dayton for treatment, because that’s what we do for our vets. Chemo and cancer treatment affects everyone differently and it was rough on him. It made him sicker than a dog, but he beat it back. He said he would never go through that again.
In June 2011, I got a call from my sister at work. She was a wreck. They found Tom in his car with a bullet in his heart. He had found out weeks earlier his cancer was back and didn’t tell anyone. He kept his word. The cancer didn’t take him.
When everyone went their separate ways after the funeral, in the quiet time when work bereavement is over and life forces you back into responsibility and you don’t have time to call or be around your family, friends or significant others, the thoughts and feelings surge back up, especially right after. In that time, my dog was the only one there. He didn’t have much insight, but he helped quite a bit. I won’t go into more about Bean in this blog, but this year was his time, too, as it is for all of us eventually. I realized what he meant to me in the darkest hours. I kept thinking this summer about those Facebook posts I saw over and over. I decided to try and help in whatever dumb way I could.
Dogs on Deployment finds foster homes for those called to service to their country. Pets for Patriots helps vets with PTSD adopt shelter pets. They do more, but that’s the brief rundown and I decided in honor of my uncle Thomas Wayne Coen and my pal Stringbean (who was a stray found in 2004), I would use my limited shitty skill set known as humor to try and raise some money to help our vets/service members and stray pets without homes, two groups that really need and deserve our help. So if you want to help, go to http://www.shadowboxlive.org/shows/tuesdays and get your tickets to the show at 8 pm tonight in Columbus – or hell, just buy a ticket. They get the money even if you can’t show up. All proceeds go to these two groups. If you want to help more than $10, please go to https://www.crowdrise.com/pets-and-vets-comedy-benefit-show/fundraiser/petsforpatriots and give there. TONIGHT IS THE LAST NIGHT TO HELP.
I’m short of goal and the show isn’t sold out – I will appreciate the ticket sales, donations and even social media shares to get the word out with an appreciation I can’t verbalize. I’ve done hundreds of shows for me. This is for something else, more important. Now enough with the sap, get your ass out to the show. I’m doing a headliner set and these shitty jokes ain’t going to tell themselves! (I need to work on my segues from sad to funny…and my show promo). Thanks again for all your help.