I bought my ticket to this fundraiser weeks in advance. Because I wanted to see THE comedian everyone said I should see – John Perrotta.

Apparently, it wasn’t meant to be.

After telling everyone I was finally going to see Perrotta, he dropped out. For health reasons.

I was disappointed. But then I learned John had recently been diagnosed with lung cancer. (D’oh, of course he wouldn’t be there.)

ABOUT THE COMEDY SHOW . . .

When the first comedian took the stage, the sound of my jaw dropping was drowned out by the applause that filled the room.

It was John Perrotta!

Mr. Perrotta is known for both his snappy one-liners as well as his ability to improv off the audience in a good-natured, friendly manner.

He did not disappoint.

What’s more, I found him much more entertaining IRL than on YouTube.

Ditto the four comedians who followed:

Ivana Bonetti, an Italian American comedian from Boston, shared the challenges of living at home, dating, and navigating LinkedIn.

Bill Campbell, always the consummate entertainer, talked about the travails of being a dad and his new role as empty nester.

Rockin’ Joe Hebert, New England’s top musical comedy act, recounted the best road rage story I’ve ever heard.

And The Prince of Mystery, aka Skip Daniels, was my nominee for the “Maximum Audience Engagement” award.

All in all, a funny fun time.

Just one thing bothered me.

There weren’t many people in the audience.

I’m not sure why.

Maybe it was poor marketing.

(RVIA printed one 11”x17” poster. And did a few social media posts.)

Or maybe the reason why had nothing to do with advertising.

I read somewhere people just don’t enjoy socializing anymore.

Geez.

I truly hope it’s the former not the latter.

What do you think?


NOTE TO READERS: John Perrotta is fondly known as the “The Italian Don Rickles.” John Perrotta’s Comedy Factory puts together comedy shows for any occasion. The neighborhood improvement fundraiser was John Perrotta’s first show since surgery. (Visit bit.ly/3ZTUowR to read about John’s journey.)