Reduce, Reuse & Retire?

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

I almost forgot about the blog, given the side project I am currently involved in.  I was perfectly fine with not being in a rush to make another post, until the local comedy awards came around.

The comedy awards were a first for the local comedy community, put together by the fine folks that run The Comedy Lab show on Thursday nights.  Local comedians were able to put forward nominations, and from there, the list was paired down to the nominees, that were then voted on by the local comics to determine award winners.

There were twenty categories that the hosts of The Lab came up with.  I was nominated in a couple categories I expected, which were Best One Liner and Best Side Project.  But the third category I was nominated for came as a bit of a surprise.  Or did it?

The category was for the Joke To Be Retired.  The strange part was which joke other comics thought I should retire (I received runner-up for this award).

Without telling the entire bit here, it’s a joke called The Ex-Girlfriend Haircut.  It’s about my hair stylist and our discussion about the new type of hairstyle that I wanted to get.

I wrote it out and had probably about half the joke written.  When my comedy coach got a hold of it, he expanded it and filled in the blanks.  The first few times I did it, it got great laughs, as I used it as a closer.  I tweaked the setup and added a line in its middle to get another laugh point, leading to the punchline.

However, the more I did that bit, the laughs started to wane a little bit.  The reactions weren’t as loud and positive as they were in the beginning when the bit was first introduced.  But is that a reason to retire the joke, especially given the fact it’s a clean one?

I take this as a challenge from the comedy community, and it’s one I will accept.  In the coming weeks, I hope to sit down with my comedy coach and rewrite this bit to make it stronger.  I mean, when you have a professional comedy writer in your corner anytime you need it, and a successful comic who makes a six figure salary every year just in comedy, I am confident we will be able to make it better than before.

The other reason I won’t retire this joke is because of what happened a couple days ago.  I was walking downtown with another comic when I ran into my hairstylist that was part of the joke.  The other comedian with me thought she was just a fallacy!  She told me that people have come up to her in public and at the salon saying they saw this comedian (me) talk about my stylist in my act.  She has received positive feedback and business from this.  She just came back to work from maternity leave and was very happy to see me.

It’s nice to see that being a loyal client of hers over the years reaps some rewards.  It meant a lot to me when she tells me the feedback she received from the material.  It is my way to honour her as a person and in her profession for the great work she does.  She’s a fabulous person who has overcome her own struggles in life to put things back together again.  Sure, she’s like super young (and taken), but at the same time she exudes this positive energy, always bright and cheerful.  My life is enriched because of our friendship.

So, for the time being, I will shelve that joke, until it gets to my comedy coach for a rewrite.

It has been a crazy week, but the work has just begun with my side project.  I hope to continue writing blog posts with the same regularity, but there are no guarantees.