Hello and thanks to the dozens of people who keep checking in here and those who have reached out via social media asking for any upcoming show dates. I need to get better at posting when I have stuff coming up!

The reality of 2026 for me comedically, though, means there’s not a ton coming up show-wise. And that’s for two reasons:

1. The day job has been very difficult and stressful with 10+ hour days regularly
2. I made a promise to myself to stop taking road work that costs me money

I try to avoid talk of “the biz” but frankly, there are a lot of venues that have raised their ticket prices, raised their drink prices, raised their food prices, and then…opted to pay comics the same (or less!) as they have for 10+ years. Bookers I’ve worked with for a long time are offering gigs, and now instead of barely breaking even on a day of 7+ hours of driving to perform, I’d be losing money to do the show.

So I’ve gently pushed back, asked to bump that pay up by $50, and then…silence. Nothing. They just book somebody else willing to do the show at a loss.

And I’ve heard other comics say, “that’s why you need merch! Bring merch to sell after!” And obviously, that’s why we all got into comedy – to create and sell trinkets we haul around covered in the catchphrases we wrote so a person would want the beer koozy we packed into our carry-on bag.

Buuuuuut as belts get tightened I’m starting to hear comics say the merch ain’t movin’ like it used to. So you drove 4 hours to do a show for $100 and no hotel room, and the room was half full (because they didn’t promote, hey by the way can you promote on YOUR social media, we don’t have any budget for ads) and those folks didn’t feel like dropping $5 on your “HEY – that’s MY pee!” sticker? Welp, tough shit, kid. We’ll try and have you back next year. You should have been here last week, the crowd was great!

I crunched the numbers late last year, and it was pretty sad…most of the time with comedy now, the best financial option is to stay home. I’m not saying I was ever hitting it big with comedy paydays, but it was at least breaking even most of the time. Not anymore.

So, I’ll keep you posted on when I have stuff coming up. I’m keeping closer to home, with a few possible travel things coming up, but it’s gonna be less than any year before this.

But I appreciate seeing people still visiting here. I will do better at posting/adding stuff.