Comic has special Military Coin with him for Every Show

In every performance, Cowboy Bill Martin does a toast to the military.  And Although he has never served in the military, Martin says he carries a special Military coin on stage for every show that was given to him by a friend of a fallen soldier in Iraq.

"I was doing a show in Oklahoma City a couple of years ago and I spent the night on stage and I felt like I was basically baby-sitting a bunch of drunks," Martin said.  "Oh, there were folks laughing but for the most part I felt like I was at Chuck E. Cheese playing that game where the little gophers are popping-up but instead of a mallet, I am hitting them with heckle comebacks.  And when I got off stage to be honest with you I thought I have had enough of this." 

But that's when a young man walked up to Bill and handed him the coin.  "This kid, I say kid because he couldn't have been more than 22 years old, walks up to me and says, 'Hey Man, I want to give you something.'  And then he says to me, 'I just want to let you know that I had a buddy of mine that I've known from elementary school and high school, in fact we grew up together.  Well after high school, we enlisted the same day in the Marines together.  We went to boot camp together and we went to Iraq together."

"And then he looked at me with said, 'and I wanted you to know that he was killed 3 months ago and I haven't laughed since…until tonight, here at your show.'  And then he handed me this gold recruiting Sergeant Majors coin and said, 'this was his coin and I want you to have it."

That night had a profound effect on the comic.  Martin says, "That night brought it all back in prospective for me.   Suddenly, I remembered that I was only a comic telling my stories and in the vast scheme of things nobody was taking a shot at me."

And ever since then, Martin has hit the stage with that coin in his pocket.  Martin adds, "You see the reason I, and every other comic in this country can say what we want to on stage, is because there are men and women who protects this country for us and secures our freedoms like free speech.   That coin reminds me of that and I try not to take myself so seriously.  And in my show I do a toast to the military, not because I am looking for an applause break, it's because I think I understand what their sacrifice means to me."

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