My career as a stand-up comic lasted roughly 40 minutes. I was not "discovered," I was not paid and I was not the least bit interested in a return engagement. The only good thing about failing at stand-up comedy is that — by definition — no one is laughing at you.
Back in the ’80s, I got talked into doing a stand-up routine as part of a charity benefit. The Los Angeles Daily Journal had a wonderful writer named Milt Policzer who admired my column.FN:1 He was putting together a benefit at a comedy club in Encino, and he asked me to do 20 minutes. It was for a good cause, and it was a chance to meet Fritz Coleman, his headliner who has been the weather guy at the Los Angeles NBC station for 31 years, and whose ability to make even weather entertaining impressed the hell out of me. I said yes.
