Why Comedy & God Are Feared Equally
Tags: comedy writing, Saskatoon, Saskatoon comedians, Saskatoon comedy, stand-up diaries, standup diaries, The Stand-Up Diaries, trevor dean, Trevor Dean comedian, trevor dean saskatoonI have been on dating websites and dating apps, maybe more than I should be admitting. I have chatted with a lot of single women. Now I’m at the point in my life where I am proud of who I am, proud of the fact I may be imperfect but authentic.
Usually one of the first questions a guy around my age gets is about children, and whether or not I have any. Well uh, sorry, but whether or not I have children doesn’t define me, and I think the first few questions asked of a single person are meant to define you in the eyes of the other single person. Then the conversation turns towards church, because I put on my profile that I attend church. I usually get the same response. If you go to church, I cannot date you, let alone meet you. End of discussion. Goodbye.
You could have the best conversation with a single woman, agree on things, and get along but the minute they find out you attend church, you get shut down.
“Oh, I’m not religious” is the excuse I usually get. So what? It isn’t about religion to begin with. Funny thing is, the people that don’t want to talk to me because I go to church, usually can’t come up with a single good reason why church is a bad thing. What if church made you a better person, made you happier?
Same thing with comedy. Lots of people still discredit comedy coaching. I posted the newest video from my comedy coach, in the hopes to help some of the newer comics figure out the science of joke writing. Then, somebody posted a quote from a comic, saying “don’t worry about rules for comedy”, and just keep writing and being funny until you find your own voice.”
So let me get this straight. You have a problem with somebody showing me how to get funnier and write better, in a shorter amount of time? Would you rather I suck for a few more years? I’m sorry to burst your bubble, but nobody in the local scene helped me get better. Instead, I got quite the opposite treatment. Nobody wanted to tell me how to get better, they just told me I wasn’t good enough to share the stage with them.
Then, I proved everybody wrong by finding the only person who believed I could succeed and helped me do so. Now, I don’t embarrass myself on stage anymore. I have achieved a level of consistency that allows me to hold my own with any comedian. I may not be awesome, but I get my share of laughs.
It’s funny, because the people that hate on church and discredit a comedy coach have many similarities. They may truly want me to succeed and want the best for me, but in the end, it all comes down to one thing.
they are scared
That’s basically it. They are scared of what they don’t know, and we all know in todays world it is way easier to look cool to all your friends if you bash people who try to make themselves better, rather than maybe ask questions and get educated on either church or comedy coaching. Why are you scared? What if it helped you? What if you changed for the better because of it?
I have found that the people who shit on me do so because they are scared, plain and simple. I get ridiculed for trying to start writing groups that nobody attends, and I never get asked to perform at gigs other than open mics.
I may be the only one that the Saskatoon comedy community never asks to do shows with, but that’s okay. Each person that disrespects me, my decisions to take positive steps to grow as a person and as a comedian, they are all the same. They are scared. If they weren’t, they would act like a mature adult and get educated so they can form an opinion. But it’s always easier to run with your own crowd and stay popular, than to step out and try something different that might help you change for the better.
I may not have any real friends in the local comedy scene, but at least I see you people for who you really are based on your snide remarks, ignorance and refusal to have me as part of your gigs. If I had friends in the local comedy scene, they might have actually tried to make me feel like a part of things and include me as part of their gigs for non-open mic shows.
My family cast me aside, most of the single women in this city have cast me aside, and the local comedy community has seemed to do that also. But, that’s okay. I have my church family that believe in me, and know there isn’t anything I can’t accomplish if I decide to try. They have my back regardless of what I do, regardless of the mistakes I’ve made.
It’s like Pastor Brent said, my faith is not up for grabs.
When you walk with a different crowd and carve out a path different from everyone else, you will get hated, scorned and mocked. That’s okay, because one of these days I will have a proposal that gets accepted and I will have comics wanting to be a part of it. Then I will find a decent woman that wants to attend church, who isn’t scared of becoming a better person and being part of a church family.
I could spend the rest of my life never making another dime from stand-up comedy and not give a shit. Comedians, even after almost seven years, never cease to amaze me, and sometimes it’s for all the wrong reasons.