Apparently I am very popular among restaurant workers.

I went to the Capital Grille yesterday with my partner mentor at work. Capital Grille is a delicious steakhouse in midtown. And upon walking in to have a discussion about legal matters, etc. the hostess said, “Hey, you were hilarious last night!”

There are some great things that you usually want to hear, but sometimes they are in the wrong context. Examples:

1) “Hey, you never call(ed) me!” If stated by a nice looking woman, very complimentary, unless you are accompanied by your current girlfriend.

2) “That’s a positive.” A glass half-full sort of statement, unless heard while getting HIV test results.

3) “Hey, you were hilarious last night.” A great thing for a comic to hear in a city this size (it has happened only a few times), except when walking around with John Kerry eye baggage because you were out until 2 am and are now discussing your legal career with the man who helped hire you.

Turns out I was worried about nothing, but I realized that about 50% of the time I am recognized (4 times total so you do the math) it is by a restaurant worker. But the first time I actually got a free dessert out of it, whereas I only received a compliment at the Capital Grille. In any case, this probably means that I should try to book some corporate gigs for restaurant worker union events.

But this illustrates the difficulty of having a double life. See e.g., Superman, Jim McGreevy. It is like comedy is my superhero alter ego and every so often my cover almost gets blown. As one comic jokingly said to me, “It’s like your co-workers are going, ‘How come J-L is always gone when there’s comedy going on?'” Which actually might mean that I am not funny, but the line made me laugh anyway.

At my old job, they knew a lot about my comedy and if my work performance ever suffered they blamed comedy.

“J-L you look tired.”

“My whole family was hatcheted by a madman and my house was set on fire, so I did not sleep well last night.”

“Bullsh-t, you were doing comedy last night!”

So I was determined not to let the same thing happen at my new job, but if I keep going to restaurants m cover is going to get blown. Maybe I will start wearing my glasses to work and parting my hair differently. It worked for Clark Kent.