I started doing comedy in the fall of 1992. I can remember that summer I was on my way back to Illinois for a family vacation. We had left at the early hour of 4:00AM. I had been driving for nearly 4 hours and finally reached my entrance to I-70 at Oakley Kansas.

I was a big fan AM radio, specifically 850 KOA out of Denver. I was listening to the morning show anchored by Steve Kelley. They had done a story on the Comedyworks open mic night. I was astonished when I heard the voice of Mark Bollenbach talking about his comedy experiences.

To say I was surprised was an understatement. At the time I was running a computer service company and I had been buying computer equipment from Mark for a couple years. He had never said anything about doing comedy and I had never heard him say anything I thought was all THAT funny.

After I listening the only thing that came into my mind was I'm funnier than he is and continued my drive.

But the thought stuck with me. And over the next couple months I started to get the thought in my head that I wanted give comedy a try. But I kept it to myself.

You see I have some real self image issues and my biggest fear was that I would disclose this thought to someone who would respond with "You? Stand up comedian?".

There was no way my fragile ego would be able to take a comment like that. I knew myself well enough to know that something like that would be enough to stop any thinking I had about being a comic right in it's tracks.

But I finally did get the nerve to mention my thought to someone in passing that I thought may be supportive. His name was Steve Wilcox. Steve owned a local restaurant called Red's Deli and was a very popular local musician. I figured if anyone would understand my idea, it would be him.

When i told Steve I was thinking about doing comedy he told me he had tried it. He told me that there was comedy club in Colorado Springs called Jeff Valdez's Comedy Corner. That they had a open mic night and a workshop where you could learn to be a comedian.

I was not prepared for that kind of information but it was good news. Not only did it give me more information, it gave me direction. I now knew there was a comedy club in Colorado Springs and more importantly I knew there was a way to learn. I only needed one more thing.

Courage....

I had to figure out some way to get past how frightened I was of failing. How would I react if things didn't go well? What would I do if someone I knew saw me and didn't think I was funny and then tell other people I knew?

All of those things would just crush me emotionally. But the thought that I could actually do it remained in my head. I took the first step and called the Comedy Corner to find out when their open mic was.

It still took another to months for me to get the courage to go to my first open mic/workshop. I got to the club an hour before the workshop was supposed to start. I sat in my van and waited for people to start showing up, but no one ever did. When I finally got the nerve to go to the door and ask I was told that the workshop had been cancelled for the summer. It would start again in the end of September.

But I wouldn't return until November......