These Threats Go Good With Iced Tea

Tags: amateur comedians, bullying, Saskatoon, Saskatoon comedians, stand-up comedy, The Stand-Up Diaries, trevor dean, Trevor Dean comedian, trevor dean saskatoon

For the first time in months, I can honestly say that my life is stress free.  Don’t mistake that for me being happy, because the two are mutually exclusive from one another.

I am stress free because I am taking the summer off from comedy in order to develop a new half hour set that will hopefully get me back into the pro comedy club circuit in the fall.  I might sign up for an open stage night once or twice during the summer, just to keep sharp.  I also have the free time now to just relax and recharge my batteries for a few months.  I can finally enjoy some of the things Saskatoon has to offer in the summer, and getting out and experiencing things like Marquis Downs, Folkfest, The Exhibition, etc. might lead to new material on those subjects.

For those of you who have been following along over the last several months, I don’t need to remind anyone of how much of a circus/gong show/soap opera my life became, both personally and within my comedy career.  Thankfully all that shit is now behind me and I can focus on getting better on stage.  The people who laugh at me behind my back are gone.  They used to be friends, now they have become critics and are gone from my life.

There are things in my life outside of comedy that make me unhappy, to varying degrees.  Some of it I’ll be able to use on stage, and some of it I won’t.  I’ve had enough of certain people causing drama and bullshit over these last several months.  They lead to sleepless nights, really bad sets on stage, fractured friendships, weight loss (like anybody can tell) and erratic mood swings.

Also, I have disabled all comments on my blog.  People who sent hate filled diatribes from fake e-mail addresses are a thing of the past.  Now if someone wants to hate on me, they have to send a message to my Facebook page.  This means your name will be attached to your comments.  Sometimes I might post the stupid comments just to show everyone the type of b.s. I have to put up with.  Other times I just might delete them and have a laugh, at their expense.  For someone to think they are doing the world a favour by posting comments that are hateful, false and just plain dumb, that’s pretty sad.

I am still in the process of figuring out who believes in me, who believes in me to my face, and those who believe I am setting myself up to fail.  That is a never-ending process, and that’s too bad.

As for that certain person I had a dinner date with and wrote all that material about, that material has gone into the garbage.  I deserve to be treated better than that, not talked down to and at least given the benefit of the doubt.

Now I think I can see why some people keep going back to their ex-relationship.  Don’t get me wrong.  By reengaging the relationship you are following one of the basic principles of Jesus’s ministry, because he was about restoring humanity, with God and with each other.  Lots of single people in the world today have their guard up, and very rarely give the other person the benefit of the doubt.  It’s like we have to be perfect, can’t really show our true selves too quickly because the other person will ask too many questions and get scared.

Sometimes going back to what you know gives you faith and hope that things can be better.  The other person knows who you are, inside and out yet they still choose to see the good in you first.  The bad in you, your faults, mistakes you’ve made, things you aren’t proud of, well those are just opportunities to learn and grow closer to form a stronger bond than you had before.  When you get through the struggle together, you come out of it a new person, better than you were before.  You appreciate the process of the struggle that God took you through in order to change you for the better.  God always said He will take what was meant for your harm, and use it to your advantage.

Friends, that is a great promise to rest upon.  I know that the struggles I currently face in comedy, and in my personal life will turn me into a new person, better than what I was before.  The question is, do you go through those struggles alone where it’s just between you and God?  Or do you have somebody close to you, who loves you, believes in you and will stand with you, helping you make sense of things?

That point is a good one to ponder on a night like tonight, with just you, a lawn chair and some kick ass sweet iced tea.