My Material Works In L.A. Here Is The Proof

Tags: comedy, determination, Dope Fades, Saskatoon comedians, stand up comedy, The Stand-Up Diaries, trevor dean, Trevor Dean comedian, trevor dean saskatoon

Sometimes in life, people will not help you. They don’t see your wins as their wins. They will do everything they can to beat you down and try to suck the life out of something you are passionate about.

I know firsthand, because it has happened, and is still happening to me this day, 5.5 years into stand-up comedy.

The local comedy community does not support me and has not done a single thing to help me. They have not given me opportunity to do anything outside of the open mics. No out of town shows. No paid gigs. No corporate or fundraisers. I cut the widest swath of any local comedian on social media. How many other comedians in this province are on their own website (which is always current), Facebook (2 fan pages), Twitter (2 accounts), Instagram and YouTube?

I’m the ONLY comic who does them all.

I do Carnac. As you know I have been subjected to slanderous comments accusing me of stealing material or ideas. None of this is true and is legal, if you brush up on your Canadian Copyright Law.

I am on Instagram. I put in my intro that I am Los Angeles bound. Now comics from Los Angeles are following me.

But there was one that followed me this past week that was a game changer.

It’s called Dope Fades. It’s on Twitch TV. The concept is simple. A guy in L.A. does a live show on their website from his living room, with an audience of 20 people or so. They get comics to connect via Skype to do their material right from their living room, with nothing more than a computer and webcam. You can see and hear the audience react to your show. Lately I’ve had this inkling that I should do comedy from my living room, and the right opportunity was lead to me.  God inspired for keeping the faith? You bet!

This show didn’t go as smoothly as one would hope, but the spontaneous feel of the show makes for hilarity. We did a test call on Skype and I was told Carnac would be on halfway through. Then they announce the last guy. They forgot about me!

I messaged the host and he apologized and put me on. For some reason though, Skype on my computer wouldn’t connect. So I had to use Skype on my phone. This made opening the envelopes challenging, so I had to use my teeth. It got some laughs everytime I did it! Find Dope Fades on Twitch TV or go to the Carnac the Mediocre Facebook fan page for the link.

You need to watch Mikah’s set. I won’t give away what happens, but she does the set from her basement and……Well you will have to watch the part where the audience…..I can’t give it away. But it’s hilarious!

She sent me a tweet that said she enjoyed my material and found it to be original. I also got good, solid laughs from a Los Angeles comedy audience, which had me worried a bit since they were all young people. But I delivered the goods. The laughs prove that my hard work paid off.

So here is a question to the other comics. Instead of trashing me, who not work together and share the success and share the opportunities that arise? I would gladly share these opportunities with others but why would I bother considering how they talk about me on social media and behind my back?

Comics are supposed to be a collaborative bunch who works together. Why do you feel the need to bash me on stage or social media, especially when I try to do right and help others, and especially since I don’t make it a habit of bashing comedians on stage.

Bashing another comic on stage makes you lose credibility and makes you out to be a bully. What makes another comic wanna take shots at me unless they are scared or jealous of what I’m doing? There are five local comedians, that’s right, FIVE that like bashing me on Facebook or on stage.

That’s pretty sad. I don’t deserve it and have done nothing to earn this. If another comedian gets laughs it will push us to be better.

Instead of bashing me, why not reach out and help me or work together? I thought that fellow comics would want to help others succeed but that isn’t the case. When you have headliners wanting other headliners as their opening act, I believe it’s the sign of a fundamental flaw in the structure.

The worst part is, nobody wants to share in the successes they have. But that’s okay. With these new opportunities that arise for me and when I go to L.A. and they ask about the comedy scene here and who is good to watch, I might conveniently forget that there are any decent comedians worth mentioning, aside from me.

Except one.