Gratitude Attitude

• Lori Palminteri
• Uncategorized
• September 11, 2023

It didn’t ruin my summer, as summer is my favorite season and I never fail to beach like Ken, surf as much as possible and spend every free moment fleeing to the ocean— but the pressure I was simply putting on myself for self producing my debut comedy album added a extra cloud of anxiety on my already neurotic brain. In the grand scheme of anyone’s life, I wasn’t investing/gambling a significant amount of money. But. It’s a lot of money for a freelance writer scraping by in Queens.

“I need this to work out,” I kept telling friends and fellow comics.

Nick Griffin, who’s recorded multiple specials and over a dozen late night sets said, “it will. You’ve done this hundreds of times.” Still, I struggled to believe him.

Even Jim Norton assured me the stakes were actually pretty low. “It’s just another show,” he said, “you can always do another show.”

Still. I don’t put myself in Griffin or Norton’s league. Despite their ease that this would all be fine, I remained dubious and worried.

However. I did all the steps. I invested in a social media person. Got new photos for album art. Hit up every comic I knew who ran shows to run sets. Friends and fellow comics helped me plug it. My friend/director, Josh Petrino, helped involve a producer and pushed his contacts at Smodcastle and people in the NJ area. Luckily, I got a little financial help from crowd funding and other shows to cover pre-production costs. And then it was just keeping my head from spiraling, which, if you don’t know me, is easier said than done. And some people in my inner circle had to deal with me freaking out from time to time and getting crazy text messages at odd hours. Yes. It’s a real delight to be friends with me, I’m sure. Artists are definitely odd birds.

Alas. As predicted by pretty much everyone else but me (haha), the taping was a smashing success. It was a rather ballsy move to just do one show, though I’m well known for having big balls. We ended up selling out between the combination of my fanbase and people who just love comedy/Smodcastle. We actually feared we may have to turn people away. James Mattern, who is the best warm up in the biz and you can see him almost every night at the comedy cellar, kicked off the show and I wanted Mattern from the start because I know if anyone can get a crowd, he can. Friends and funnier motherfuckers than me, Dennis Rooney and Michael Somerville, had killer sets and then it was just a matter of me doing what I’ve done for almost 14 years (minus like two years hiatus because of the pandemic).

I was touched to see how many people traveled a great distance for the show. Additionally, the texts and calls from some of my favorite comedians who I admire who admire me back, mistakenly thinking I’m fearless, made me less like a pariah in this world. It’s nice to know, I suppose, that other people didn’t doubt me even though I was grappling with so much doubt all the time.

Of course, this venture isn’t over yet. There’s still post production stuff, but the album “Weird Enough” is coming. I look forward to it’s debut. And more so, I look forward to retiring some of that material and working on something else.

But I am filled with gratitude by all the support of so many. Yes, I am self producing, but I am not and could not do it alone. Thanks everyone for continued support. I’m not going to list people, because it’s too many people and this isn’t my fucking Oscar speech, okay? You know who you are. Here’s to more comedy. Because as far as I’m concerned, there will never, ever be enough comedy.