Robroy has not always been the steely eyed card shark you see standing before you today.
At 23, I was about as far from that as you can get. Emotional, insecure and a lousy liar, I wasn’t even sure if I was going to be okay in life. This was back in Chicago. I was teaching creative writing by day while earning my MFA by night. At the same time I was trying to fit in with a talented group of very funny writers and actors I’d met at Columbia College.
One night, they invited me to a game of Texas Hold’em. The five players were:
- Tom Bell, future writer for “Storm Chasers”
- Dino Stamatopoulos, future writer for Conan O’Brien
- Andy Dick, future actor on “NewsRadio”
- Mike Stoyanov, future actor on “Blossom”
- And me.
The pressure was on. Tom dealt, and we all peeked at our cards. While the guys frowned around their cigars and squinted at the board, I tried to follow suit, so to speak. Tom glanced at me. “Your action, sir.” I was up.
“Raise!” I said. Everyone stared at me. Play stopped.
“Does that mean you want to, like, raise?” Andy said. Dino giggled.
“Oh.” I put in three white chips, blushing.
Mike looked at me from under his green visor. I could feel him trying to size me up. “Let me ask you something, Rob,” he said. “Are you a poker man?”
“Heck, no,” I said. “I’m an ice cream man.”
What that means, I don’t know, but everyone laughed. So I was okay.
Read ‘em and weep, gentlemen!
(Read my column, “Working Life,” in the Baltimore Business Journal)
· Andy Dick, future actor on the TV show “NewsRadio”
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