LIFE CHANGE

Published by Rick on Tagged Uncategorized

It was 25 years ago this month, that, by admitting to myself that my career was over in LA, and had been for a while, I made a gamble on a new location to find a different audience for what I believed was a unique act that still had some legs. My situation was not great. I would maybe get one spot a week from The Comedy Store and The Laugh Factory, usually going on after midnight, so there was little to be gained from that, and I’d get the odd suburban gig that might pay me $100-$150 or so. I was helped along by Steven Alan Green, who I knew when he was a regular at the Comedy Store. Steven had already established himself among the UK comedy scene, and was encouraging me to come over to UK for a show he was producing at Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Steven has also, for the past four years, been my partner on the Comedy Dish podcast we do every Wednesday.

Because I had a black mark on my passport due to a problem with immigration and customs four years earlier, I was worried whether or not they would let me in. By the same token, I knew enough about the Festival that since there were so many acts coming over from abroad strictly to work there, I figured work visas were not necessary. My flight in early August was from LAX to Heathrow, and then a connection from there to Edinburgh. It wasn’t totally smooth sailing, as the customs people held me for close to an hour before someone from higher up declared that since Edinburgh was an international festival, work papers were not necessary. When it was determined that they would let me board the flight to Edinburgh, I had time to celebrate with a beer!

Arriving in Edinburgh, I linked up with Steven and several other performers from LA, most of whom I knew but hadn’t seen in at least ten years. Meanwhile, Steven had me booked to do a promo show in an open air venue in the central part of the city. Only problem was, it was freaking Scotland, so while the sun was shining when I got in at the airport, a couple hours later, when we were doing that outdoor show, it was pissing down rain. Not a problem for us performers, as the stage was sheltered, but the audience was not! They were clustered in little sections wherever someone had an umbrella, but nobody within about 30 feet of the stage. So it wasn’t a great promo for the actual show, but there were enough well known performers on the bill that there was still a good turnout for our two nights of concerts at an 800-seat venue, The Queen’s Hall.

Most importantly, my act went over really well, or it certainly felt that way. I kept getting a bit more confident that this big island was where I should be. I got some freebie showcases in and around the city, and went down to London for the remaining 5 days of my journey. I got to perform for the first of maybe 50 times at Downstairs at The King’s Head, doing a ten-minute showcase the last night I was there.

So how could I expound on this epiphany? I do know it was a complete downer when I got back to LA from this escapade and found myself back at a local yoga studio doing my custodial gig. As I was sweeping the floor, I said to myself this doesn’t feel right. It had been a year and a half since I had split with my second wife, who was, and still is, a yoga teacher. It was time to break that connection. I gave two weeks notice, but then had to figure how to get back to England.

Steven told me of the person I needed to contact, a man named Jon Keyes, a north Londoner who was in with the immigration people and handled acts from Australia, Canada, and US. I had his email address, told him who I was, and asked him where should I send a video. He responded right away, and the video was off the next day. What I didn’t expect was to hear from him less than a week later, saying, “This is the only video I’ve seen in the last six months that made me laugh out loud. When would you like to come out?” Since it was now the end of September, I said how about end of October. So the time elapsed from first email to first gig was about six weeks!

There was a bit of tension, as it became the day before I was scheduled to fly out and I still had no notice of work papers. Steven was advising me not to go, or I’d have the same problem I had in ’96. Then at about midnight, I got an email from Jon saying the papers will be there at customs when I arrive. I was scared of worst case scenarios, but when I asked at Heathrow, they were very nice and said yes it’s here, but then they had to ask why there was a big X on my passport. I said I was naive when I came here before, didn’t realise the situation, but I’m legal now. They stamped my passport, and thus began my journey, which this first time around had me working every night of the 12 days I was there, including the final night being my birthday, where I performed in Cork, Ireland.

Jon kept me working for much of the next 12 years, by which time I was in my 60’s, and suddenly driving 200+ miles for a 30-minute gig didn’t appeal to me that much anymore. Who knew I would move from doing stand-up to being a pub quiz master? And doing it now almost as long as I was doing stand-up here? The adventure continues 25 years on.

August 3rd, 2025



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