One more gig.

It was early in the morning as I battled my way to my seat in the 7.20am flight from Las Vegas to Miami. In the front of the plane was David Brenner who's long term one-man show had closed the night before. He looked tired,happy and unhappy all at the same time. I had a long running one-man show in Vegas as well and knew just how he felt. Sliding into the first class cabin just before the door was closed was comedy actor Tom Poston most famous for his roles in Bob Newhart's television shows. He looked like he had lost one last blast of his money airport gambling. I reached my seat just in time to have someone drop items from hand baggage from the overhead bin. Doing a double take, I realized that the guy doing the dropping was Kelly McDonald. Kelly is an old comedy friend and fellow alumni from The L.A. Cabaret. Four comics on one flight is unusual even by Vegas standards. Rather like a full house and even fuller than I thought. Kelly and I had been introduced by the Dean of comedy, Big Daddy himself, Jeff Wayne. “Hey, Kelly” I said ignoring the shower of cd's on my head. “Heading for a ship?”
I remembered that Kelly had been looking out for an old mutual comedy aquaintance named Joey Villa. Joey had recently been very sick and the last time I had seen Kelly he had been treating him with a kindness and consideration that unusual in this business. Both of us had known Joey Villa for over twenty years while working for Royal Caribbean Cruise Line as entertainers. Now, if you never knew Joey then there isn’t much I can tell you about him in a few paragraphs that can even give a hint of what a piece of work was. He was a one of a kind. When comics get together they will trade Joey Villa stories for hours on end. One thing that I did know was that Joey had been nice to me when he didn't have to be, and obviously to Kelly as well.
“How is Joey doing?” I asked Kelly. “Is he still with us?”
“Oh, he’s with us,” said Kelly and he pointed at a blue bag in the overhead bin. “I am taking his ashes to scatter into the Sea.”
I paused a little and thought about it a while. For decades Joey had opened his show singing ‘I’m going to live till I die’ before keeling over and falling flat on the stage. Now he had lived and died and was waiting in the overhead compartment for his bows. “You’re a really good guy Kelly” I said and meant it. I was very pleased to be there on Joey’s last gig.
RIP funny man.