Just back from last night’s launch of a brand-new comedy venue and I just realized something: I am a comedy guinea pig.
A humorous lab rat. A performing test monkey.
Allow me to explain. It seems to me that when someone is starting up a new comedy show, in a weird setting, I get the call.
It’s not like the calls I’m getting are people saying, “Hey, Paul, we’re thinking of starting a new show in Elon Musk’s volcano lair for his powerful friends and there will be free flame-throwers and rocket ships for the comedians.”
No, it’s always more like, “Hey, Paul, we’re going to start a show in a country on the State Department’s DO NOT TRAVEL list. We want you to go first. Don’t worry, there will be two guys with shotguns that follow you everywhere.”
As always, I’ll do the gigs because I’m a whore. And perhaps I should think of it as a compliment? Still, I can’t help but remember that sometimes when ranchers send their cattle across rivers which may have piranhas in them, they send across a wounded cow first. You know, to test the waters.
Launching a comedy night in a rowdy college’s lecture hall? Get Ogata.
Starting casino shows in a former Portuguese colony run by organized crime? Get Ogata.
Testing out a show in a remote mining village on the third-largest island in the world? Get Ogata.
That’s me. Your wounded cow.
But this injured cattle is here to report that last night’s show in the frigid barrel room of a Temecula winery turned out pretty great! So please let me direct you to Aces Comedy for your laughter needs should you be near Southern California wine country.
Actually, keep sending me the requests. I may have found my true calling.