Making Critics Eat Crow – The Recipe In One Easy Blog Posting

Tags: amateur comedians, comedy, comedy scene, comedy writing, core values, determination, Saskatoon, stand-up comedy, The Stand-Up Diaries, trevor dean, Trevor Dean comedian

The date was towards the end of May, after my birthday in 2013.  I don’t remember the exact date.  This particular set was one week after the successful comeback set (the first one constructed with the help of my comedy coach).  This set started bad, had some promise in the middle then fell flat yet again.

I was pretty much screwed at that point.  On the one hand, I knew that I wanted to continue comedy, but on the other hand I didn’t have a place to perform in Saskatoon anymore.  I didn’t know what to do.

Luckily with the help of the Regina comedy community I was able to make a return to the comedy stage after a nine month absence at the Food Bank benefit held at the University of Regina.  That entire set I wrote by myself and got the consistent audience reaction (laughs) that I was looking for.  It was that show which helped me to mend fences with some of my critics in Regina from my early days, with some mentioning that I showed remarkable improvement from the early days.  I learned then, the best way to get the respect of your fellow comics is to get laughs.

I’ve done about a half-dozen sets since the food bank show, and each time I told somebody that I did comedy I always get asked the same question.

“Do you ever perform at The Park Town Hotel (The Laugh Shop)?”

I always had the same reply to that question, and I repeated it so much that I started to take on a self-defeating attitude about it.  I usually replied that “it’s way out of my league” or “I’m not good enough to be part of a legitimate comedy club like that one.”

After a while it started to bother me, until I had a chat with my comedy coach in Los Angeles.

I mentioned that very conversation I had with people before who asked if I performed at The Laugh Shop.  My coach stopped me and said “dude, you can totally do that.”  I had several years of MC experience running karaoke, I also did radio right out of high school and I was doing stand-up comedy for over 2.5 years.  While everybody else seemed like they were getting the breaks, the big crowds or big opportunities, I was having to travel 2.5 hours to Regina for stage time yet again.

When my coach reaffirmed his belief in my ability, I quickly remembered what my core values were.  Of my main ones, the one that always sticks out to me the most is that of determination.  I knew who the booking agency was, so I decided to call them and make my best sales pitch to inquire about hosting a show.  I asked what sort of qualifications one needed to become an MC.  The answer I got floored me.

The agency was interested in having me submit a package to them.  Now this meant I needed a bio, which I didn’t have.  I had the professional photography done, a decent set to send them.  The only thing missing was a bio that made me sound like a pro.  My coach helped me put one together.  Then, once I sent it in, all it took was a couple of weeks to receive confirmation that I will be hosting at The Laugh Shop in the coming weeks.

Now, the obvious question is how did this happen?  I went from being laughed off the Saskatoon comedy stage only to be welcomed back onto it 1.5 years later.

The biggest things that helped were working with the Regina comics, in addition to continuing the work with my comedy coach.  He mentioned that I never gave up, even when things were tough, and started to build relationships with positive people in the comedy world who could help facilitate my development.

If it wasn’t for my comedy coach, there is no way I would still be doing comedy and if I was, I would still not be very funny.  For some reason, when the right person enters into your life that you seek out as a role model or mentor, and they tell you that you can succeed, it makes all the difference in the world.

However, if you read the next posting, you’ll see that having determination and perseverance aren’t the only things needed to be a successful comedy MC.  There is a lot to consider that goes into the position, and I will outline my thoughts on this in the next post…..