WEST DES MOINES, Iowa — The pandemic has impacted every corner of life in Iowa, including live entertainment. Three of Iowa's top comedians are getting back on stage these days, but not before the pandemic brought things to a halt.
John Bush had been a comedian for nearly thirty years when lockdowns first started to take affect.
"We went down to the buffet--me and the other comedian--to eat breakfast, and they say theirs no more buffet, and I said, 'Oh wow! This is real,'" recalled Bush of one of the last performances he had in 2020.
Willie Farrell, whose been a comedian for more than four decades, had his last show before the lockdowns in Las Vegas.
"I was actually one of the last shows in America to play. I had a 10 o'clock show at the Strat on March 17, and they closed pretty much everything up before then," said Farrell.
Bill Blank recalls a similar experience.
"I had a show on March 14, I believe, and the lockdown happened the following Monday, and all my shows that I had lined up after that all were cancelled," said Blank.
The next few months for each of them looked a little different.
Bush, for example, got a "day job," as he called it, in June while also working on an online comedy show. He's still doing both to this day.
Farrell, meanwhile, had a months-long battle with COVID-19.
And Blank worked a number of jobs to supplement his income, while also working on a podcast.
These days, each is trying to get back on stage as much as possible.
"This weekend I was in Lincoln, Nebraska doing my first gig since March 13 of last year, and I had a lot of new material about my day job that I've been working. And that was really cool," Bush said.
After 10-months off the stage, those shows, he said, went well.
"This weekend doing four shows I felt a lot of love on stage and this is really fun," Bush said.
Farrell is picking up more gigs, too.
"Laughter is contagious. There's nothing better than looking out into a room where there is just face, after face, after face," he said.
Blank plans to continue to do comedy after starting back up last September, but he's not convinced things will ever be quite the same again.
"I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to make a living again…at least not to the standard of living I have now," he said.