This past Saturday I was in Baltimore to open up the shows for my comedy homie Jason Weems‘ first DVD taping.
As a lot of you know I have a very large family. 13 aunts and uncles and a whole heap (yes I really typed that) of cousins just on my dad’s side. And a bunch of my cousins — 6 of them — came out to the show. My cousins Martin, Margie, Marsha, Morris and Malynda (below) are all siblings.
I’m an only child but over the course of my childhood several of my cousins lived with us off and on. Morris (second from right) probably stayed with us the longest. And though he already had four sisters of his own, he got another one when he moved to Jersey.
I terrorized him. Once, I was being a brat before my school bus came to pick me up and I locked him in the basement and forgot. He missed work and there was no phone or TV or anything down there. It wasn’t a full basement. Just a storage freezer and a furnace. Poor thing. Another time I scratched his WHAM! Make It Big album — his prized possession at the time — when I wasn’t even supposed to touch it. I knew I was wrong so I volunteered to use my allowance money to buy him a new one. See, I wasn’t ALL bad. I could go on and on… We haven’t spent much time together since then — cause I was a kid and he was a grown ass man. So he still kinda views me as a bratty 8 year-old some 20+ years later. ;) It was so nice to have him there and see what I’m doing and what I’m like now as an adult. Such a treat to see him laughing.
My cousin Martin is an artist. He painted this abstract piece for me — see that’s me on a stage in a theater — and gave it to me after my show.
How sweet, right? I’m so happy to have a Martin Goggins original.
The older I get the more I appreciate my family and how supportive they are. And I want to make sure I do everything I can to support them in their endeavors. Thanks for all your love and support. You guys have no idea how much it means to me.