The Canelo Plan

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

When someone is successful and does their job on only the biggest stages, in the most important and meaningful of events, you tend to take notice.  Especially if that person is professional boxer Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.

He is a professional boxer, having plied his trade for ten years as a professional.  He now has made it his quest to add to his legacy by chasing history.  No Mexican boxer has ever become an undisputed world champion in any weight class, meaning that they hold all four of the major sanctioning body belts of the WBO, WBA, WBC and the IBF.

Canelo is boxing in the super middleweight (168 lb.) division now, which is close to his natural weight.  Nobody has ever been the undisputed champion at super middleweight.  Canelo aims to be the first.

He disposed of the last two super middleweight champions, both British fighters, in dramatic fashion.

He dismantled Callum Smith, a taller southpaw puncher.  Canelo won by a majority decision and targeted a lot of his shots to Smith’s left bicep, to the point where Smith tore the muscle, rendering him unable to use his weapon of the left jab.  Not that he threw it much to begin with.

Then, recently he dismantled another title holder in Billy Joe Saunders.  Canelo made him quit on his stool as a Canelo uppercut broke his orbital bone in three places and caved in Saunders’s cheek bone.  He could not see, and his corner stopped the fight.  Ironically, Saunders was on an interview a few months before the fight saying that even if he had a broken orbital bone or eye socket, he would still continue to fight.

The Saunders fight was held in the football stadium of the Dallas Cowboys of the NFL, with 70,000 plus in attendance.  No masks, no paranoia, no stupidity.  Just boxing fans from Texas cheering on a Mexican superstar.

Alvarez is making 20 million or more per fight now. He said he wants to chase history and make the fights fans want to see.  He has accomplished a lot in boxing thus far, and is not contractually obligated to a promoter, so he has earned the right to do whatever he pleases.

When it comes to my comedy career that is approaching ten years in October, I certainly have not accomplished very much, depending on who you ask.

I’ve done lots of little things to cement my place within the local comedy community, but nothing towards making a big splash, unless you count the radio show.

With the city starting to lift its restrictions, comedy will be back in full swing.  What or how that happens has yet to be determined.  What will I do?  Will I go back to the open mics to have varied success, or maybe take the Canelo approach to my comedy?

Life is starting to become a grind with new stresses being added to my job.  However, there is a light at the end of the tunnel I can finally see, with an employment opportunity that would give me a chance to move up the ladder, gain responsibility, become mentored and trained, allowing me to be in a fun environment that is relaxed, and allowing me to make a decent living to get myself a new vehicle (enough of the used car mentality I’ve been treated with) and get a better place to live, like an awesome basement suite that I can afford to furnish myself.  Then again, I wouldn’t know what to buy and how to make things coordinate or match.  Maybe I should stick with furnished basement suites then, with a garden, a private entrance, stove, and a shower that doesn’t have mold growing on the bathroom walls that affect my sinuses.  That would be right deadly.

Until that employment opportunity takes shape, for the majority of the year that remains, I will have to make do with the current job and place to live.  But what about the comedy?  Already I have pages of ideas I have jotted down on paper, if I could find where I put it.  I haven’t been motivated to sit down and hash out those new ideas.  Maybe the only thing to motivate me will be pursuing big opportunities, like getting paid gigs at pro clubs and only doing open mics on occasion.  Then again, with that mentality I can see myself being left out of paid shows that the community puts on because I’m “not around enough”.

Would I be content in going to open mics on occasion to hone my set list while working towards paid gigs or going back to Los Angeles next summer?  I have to admit that I miss Los Angeles and the Dodger games, and really want to meet all of the contacts that I have established in comedy down there from my association with the comedy school.

Later this month I turn 48 years old, and will be the oldest regular on the open mic circuit by several years.  I am still single with no kids.  What do I want the rest of my working days to look like?  What do I want my legacy to be?

As I mentioned before, I would be okay with walking away from comedy, shuttering the blog website and the radio show and ending the coaching relationship I have had since 2013.  But, then I give my critics ammunition saying I told you so, and having me feel like the last ten years of my life were a waste because I chose to walk away without putting in the extra effort required at times, to achieve something better.  I feel like I also owe it to the comedy coach and connections I have made to keep going, and maybe work on my material to get better and enter competitions.

I have always said that open mics don’t teach you much about the art of stand-up, because once you get to bigger venues and more important shows, you begin to learn different lessons, ones that open mics cannot teach you.

Right now, the thought of performing for an audience doesn’t excite me, or get me motivated to work on my material.  I get more of a kick ordering take-out and watching boxing on DAZN, or watching a Dodgers game on MLB.TV.  After all this inactivity on the comedy front locally, it’s hard to get the engine started up again, especially when you have nobody around (girlfriend or supportive family) to keep you motivated or inspired.

It’s easier for me to be on the radio talking about comedy and more fun, than knowing I would get a paid gig in the city tomorrow at the pro comedy club.  Maybe I enjoyed the radio show more, even though it came with way more stress because once I did it, I knew it would turn out better than a stage performance, partly because it’s radio, and I am more comfortable behind a mic than on a stage.

If you’ll excuse me, I need to see how today’s Dodger game ended.