Random Acts of Kindness

This guest post is by comedian Kyle Cease. He is currently one of the most in-demand young comics, selling out over 200 shows last year from coast to coast and appearing often on Comedy Central. He is also a great teacher and motivational speaker in the best sense of the word. A big thank you to Kyle for giving me permission to reprint this wonderful true story…

Realize that if you want to mean it when you say you love someone, you should not expect anything in return. Just be happy knowing that they heard it. Don’t do something to get something back. Do it because it feels so good, and you will get a return you wont believe. Check this out.

This entire story is a completely true story. Not one ounce of it was exaggerated.

About 3 months ago, I was in Western Michigan doing comedy at a college called Albion University. The next morning I had to take a cab back. This was scheduled for an hour and a half. My flight was at 10:30, and I needed to be at the airport by 9:30am So I scheduled the cab to pick me up at 8am, leaving very little time for traffic or whatever.

The next morning I woke up, went outside and saw that it had snowed… a lot. There was snow everywhere. Traffic was not going to be moving much….I got in the cab and immediately I noticed the car was an old piece of crap, I stuck my head in, and saw the back of the head of the cab driver. He was probably mid 50s, had really dirty scraggly hair, heard a lot of coughing, and he was SMOKING IN THE CAB! He turned around and was just wrinkles, anger and gray.

We started driving. I asked him how he was doing. He just started complaining. Telling me how terrible his life is. How his back hurts, how he goes through all of these surgeries, he gets fired from everywhere, how he hates his life. He mentioned also that he was going through a divorce, and in a month he has a custody battle over his 8 year old son. “I know that bitch is going to take him,” he said as he slowly weaved through different cars which had spun out. There were police around the cars and it was going to be a while. So since we were stuck in the car together, I decided I would start motivating this guy.

I began explaining to him about focus. I was telling him that his son was the leverage that could push him to make his changes. I mean if he did learn about this stuff, and showed up into the courtroom a month later well groomed with a new understanding, and his ex wife really was crazy, he could get his son back.

WOW. We talked and talked and as we did, I literally watched him sit up differently, get color into his face, and feel more confident. It was amazing. I also realized I was getting close to the possibility of missing my flight.

It got to be 9:28 and I needed to be there in 2 minutes to check in. I was no where near the airport still. So I decided to see if I could check in online with my phone’s internet. I went on Delta.com and found the flight, as I was about to check in, it said, “You must check in online OVER one hour before. Meaning I had about a minute and a half until the machine would cut me off. At 9:29 am, I clicked the check in button, it slowly loaded, then it said, “you are checked in” about 3 seconds before the time switched to 9:30. Now I had a little longer….

We get to the airport at 10:10am. My flight has been boarding for 10 minutes. I don’t physically have a printed ticket still, The doors will close at the gate in 10 minutes. I don’t get out of the car. I was too into motivating the cab driver that I wanted to continue. I was on fire and it was working. This guy was going to get his kid and change his life.

When we pulled up to the curb, he said, “Sir, we are here.” I said, “It’s okay, there will be later flights, I want to keep talking about this.” The guy started tearing up. “No one has ever been this nice to me. Especially a stranger.” I just kept going.

I paid him the fare and added… “Here is a 20 dollar tip. This is your 20. You can do whatever you want with it. You have felt dramatic change in the last two hours. That is not from me. That is from you deciding to take that info in. When I am gone you still have your own choices to make and you really need to see that it is all up to you. So with this 20, you can go into a Borders or Barnes and Noble and buy any self help, continued growth book that you want. You can do this and take your first action towards change on your own. OR You can buy a lot of new cigarettes.”

He understood what I meant. Whatever action he takes is his own decision making that makes him start his own path. I continued. “Then after that, I want you to go home, and write me an email. Write it as if it is one month from now. Write me and tell me about your kid, and how you got him back. Tell me what changes you made, what you bought, what you did when I went into the airport. How you changed. Then, after you write it, I want you to put it in your drafts folder. You can only send it to me in a month from now, but write it today.” Talk about mapquest. I was making this guy see his vision of what to do and what needed to be done. He said okay. I left.

It was now 10:16. The door closes at my gate in 4 minutes, I still had to get my printed ticket, and I had to go through security. I went into the airport feeling great after talking to the cab driver.

I walked in. All airlines except mine had lines of people going out the door. Delta had no lines. I walked right up to the counter. “Hi, I went online and got a ticket but I don’t have the printed ticket.” The lady got my info, and typed it in. “Sorry, but there is no way you will make it.” “Can I at least try?” I asked her anxiously, “Okay, fine.”

As I grabbed my ticket a manager rounded the corner. He looked at my info, approached me and said something I have never heard in all of my years of flying… “I will tell you what. The hotel that is connected to this airport right here has a secret security entrance. Go in there, go to the right, down the stairs and you are there.” I couldn’t believe it, so I jetted. Not one person was in the security line. I went right through, showed the TSA lady my ticket at 10:19am. Door closes at 10:20. “You aren’t going to make it!” I said I would try!

I got to the other side of the security. Out of no where, a cart showed up with a lady driving it. “You want a ride sir?” I couldn’t believe this. They never offer that to non handicapped people. I accepted. She hauled ass to a very far away end of the airport.

I got there as they were closing the gate. I yelled “WAIT!” and they held the door open for 3 more seconds. I went home. It doesn’t end there.

When my friend Kristen picked me up from the airport, I told her all about this. We went into Starbucks and for no reason at all they just offered to give us the food and drinks for that day. STARBUCKS! Just no reason.

I don’t know why all these nice things fell into place. Religious people might say, “Act of God.” Others might say “Coincidence.” I am not religious, nor am I skeptical. Whatever your meaning is, you are right. I like seeing it as an unconditional act of love going out, and then coming back when I didn’t expect it.

By the way, a month later I got a letter from a cab driver. Guess who got his kid back?

Kyle Cease, Comedian

kylecease.com/life-blog/