Back from a great trip through the Midwest, including home state Iowa. Saw lot’s of old friends and family. Ashley was kind enough to meet me in Des Moines (no offense but Iowa in January is a tough sell as a vacation spot:) So grateful all the shows sold out and all the kindness and stories the folks shared after each show. Visited the abused children’s center at St. Luke’s in Cedar Rapids. The finest facility I’ve ever seen. A safe, homey place for the kids and still equipped with high tech medical and evidence gathering facilities. The combination of an excellent staff and smart, caring police made me wish we’d had a place like this when I was young. They also have a great community outreach program, education parents and schools but the most inspiring moment was when a mother and father slid a picture of their beautiful little daughter to me and told me her story. They were as smart and brave as the little one and with the help of St Luke’s, took one pedophile out of the child care system. The last time a parent slid me a picture of their 9 year old boy and his horse, he’d already hung himself. The shame of rape too much for that little angel. Nothing I could say or do would ever make things right but I will keep trying as will the thousands of others around the country who donate their time and money to place’s like St.Luke’s. I know it happen’s to a lot of us but if we didn’t know enough to speak up back then, we can do something about the little one’s now and stand up for the little one inside of all of us who didn’t know what to do. We can move on. They hurt us when we were little but we can’t allow them to have any power now and helping others is always the best way to eliminate that shame. Back to fun stuff. Sundance was great. Continued my bromance with my buddy Shanks. Loved “The Runaways”, Dax’s “The Freebie”, Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s “Jack Goes Boating” and John Well’s “The Company Men”. Thanks to The Sundance Channel folks. Great hosts. Also learned a valuable lesson, a buddy invented those Flip camera’s, which have changed things for the better, even for the paparazzi, so watch what you share with old friends, stupidly assuming that since there aren’t any big camera’s present you’re having a private-public convo. My Bad. I did break the tip record as a waiter at The My Space Cafe (for Haiti) which somehow meant more to me than just about anything. Arnold made me come to the premiere of “The Tipping Point” a very good documentary about nuclear proliferation and a plan former Secretaries of State, Republican and Democrat have for the total elimination of these weapons from the planet. Scary but I like a plan (also, it made comedy night at The Laugh Factory a little hard to get started:). This is my only weekend off until summer so we’re laying around (or maybe it’s just me:) Off to the Super Bowl for Direct TV next week. Like Sundance, the Super Bowl is most fun for catching up with friends you don’t see very often. Finally, Go Hawks! Very proud of our Orange Bowl win (if you lived in Iowa you’d understand:) L,Tom
“Reminder to self: Never let my old buddy MO near a microphone in public, but thankfully the folks at the Des Moines Funny Bone were very kind and Charity, Mo’s FAR BETTER HALF is a great cook so Ashley made me forgive him and we all thank the Good Lord he’s not famous. MO’s on stage banter makes “the situation” sound like Sidney Poitier. It is nice to be back in The Hawkeye State (actually, the folks in Springfield Illinois, from Donnie B and his club goers to the lady that cut me off at 3 double cheese White Castle’s were hard to say goodbye to..and it was -3 degrees!) The moment we landed at The St Louis Airport I felt I’d arrived at that Avatar planet Cameron created PLUS I ‘d just watched Jason Reitman’s “Up In The Air”. You know a movie’s good when you feel sorry for George Clooney. He’s as good as advertised and the whole Midwest vibe is so cool. So real. They give me the benefit of the doubt:) Larry King with Dr Drew Wed night, Cedar Rapids Thurs, Davenport Fri, Dubuque Sat then back to unreality and a final shout out to Conan (Dax was great last night), D. Ferguson and the gang. Love you guys and look forward to many more silly times with you all. L,Tom”
Happy New Year! Let’s all commit to only focusing on relationships, personal or professional where everyone is on your team. Where we’re all fighting the good fight together and not against one another. Although my personal inclination is to pay a lot of attention to negative things and people I vow to let those things and people go. To focus on the people who like me and not search out the ones that don’t. Same with work. Do the leg work but focus on 10 attainable goals instead of 100 possible ones and anyone that doesn’t believe as I do and don’t want to help, can sit out 2010. If I achieve 5 of the 10 I’ll have a fun year and will be able to help more people get to their goals. This means that I’m going to have to say “no” and cut any dead weight, 2 things that scare me to death as a People Pleaser First Class (BTW, I’m doing this so I can provide for Ashley and our future family. If it was just for me I’d never do it:) [click to continue…]
The Avatar Premiere was last week. I liked it even better than what I saw at Cameron’s house. In spite of the fact I’m not in it, I had the singular best movie experience of my life. Guessed it felt like 70 years ago when The Wizard of Oz came out. I can’t believe anyone ever doubts Jim. Wow. I didn’t even mention True Lies 2 until after the show. I have been dropping hints for 15 years and the press still loses it when I do. Who wouldn’t want to recreate a super fun and career saving event where you got to hang with your buddies for a year? I would, Arnold would, Jamie Lee’s on board but I’ll let Jim announce it…I owe him that.
Last week started with my favorite appearance on Conan out of the 30 or so I’ve done. Partly because Conan, Andy and the crew were at the happy go lucky best and partly because of the other guests: a cameo and hug from the sober but sadder, world weary Mike Tyson (the man deserves a break), Cheryl Hines (my favorite) and Adam Lambert (a lot of young people’s favorite). He also seemed like a nice young man, talented but also graceful in the ways of handling his “controversial” appearance on The AMA’s. The fact that he didn’t stick to his rehearsal act got him temporarily banned from ABC, a feeling I knew one time but for a different reason. When your ex-wife is their biggest moneymaker and she makes it clear that it’s a “him or me” scenario, the network has no choice. I survived and so did Adam (The View came to his aid…nothing to do with ratings I’m sure). [click to continue…]
I am on the red eye from NY after a whirlwind of the life of a stand up comedian. My plane has Wi-Fi but I am not able to log onto it, of course.
Since Ashley and I got married we’ve spent some family and friends time in Maui but I wanted to “go off the grid” for a real honeymoon so we headed to Shanghai. And by “real honeymoon” I mean an eye opening, romantic tour of a far off land paid for by Asia Uncut, the finest English speaking talk show allowed to be watched by a billion viewers. We shopped, and it is crowded there.
Ashley surprised me with the only quiet dinner for two to mark my 20th sober B-Day Dec 10. A private restaurant on top of a bell tower that seats 2 and has the view of Shanghai’s massive skyscrapers and 1000 year old castles that we’d seen on TV. Also, the best meal of my life and that’s a life of too many good meals. Twitter, Facebook and You Tube are illegal there but TMZ plays every night on HBO Asia. No wonder people pointed and laughed at me. [click to continue…]
Here are some of my candid wedding photos. Enjoy!
Ashley has given me a lot of hope and confidence. New feelings for a guy who’s well aware the rug can and will be pulled out from him at any moment and whose life thus far has never proven him wrong. Now this is partly my fault. I’ve set up everything, every relationship with this knowledge going in and I’ve always saved a small part of myself to prepare for that day. Which means I’ve never 100% given of myself to another woman but maybe it’s my age, the hard lesson’s I’ve learned or the knowledge gained from being welcomed into the healthy relationships of my friends but for Ashley, I’m ALL IN. My heart, my future, my life are all in her slender, well manicured hands. This doesn’t seem like much of a leap of faith when you look at my hands and where they’ve taken me BUT they have allowed me to survive against the odds and wishes of myself and others but with Ashley surviving life isn’t good enough. I have to live life. Just like she has. [click to continue…]
Just home from Wed night Laugh Factory Show. Once again, sweet crowd and awesome, patient comics. I needed to share my weekend wedding details with my friends (the crowd, the comics, the wait staff). Hope they didn’t mind. Might be bummed at me but they all really like Ashley, so I’m sure they’ll forgive.
At sundown last Saturday, Ashley and I got married in Maui and it was perfect, of course (it’s hard to screw up Maui, but if anyone could do it, I’m your man). Ashley’s family and friends are crazy about her and my friends continue to blow me away with their love and support. We could’ve made some sort of deal with a magazine to pay for the wedding but that would’ve required an intimate, post vows interview but I’m very aware of the fact it was my fourth and Ashley’s first. [click to continue…]
