A Temporary Diversion

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

Some of you may be aware that I hosted a radio show in Saskatoon well over a year ago.  I interviewed other comics from all over the world and got a chance to chat with people I admired in comedy.

78 episodes later, it was finished.  There is a website for the episodes.  It’s still up and running, I haven’t logged into the admin portal for months.  It’s been even longer since I last looked at the website at all.  That is, until a few days ago.

At my job it was towards the end of the day, and I decided to turn the speakers on at my work computer and check out one of the episodes.  I ended up listening to one of the multiple conversations I had on the show with local comedian Fabian Dray.

I have to admit that I got a bit emotional, if you can imagine that.  Listening to the show, hearing how I produced the show and how it sounded, gave me a sense of pride, a good feeling in knowing that I did something good that I could stand behind and be proud of.  Then I came back to reality and had to close up shop for the day at work.

It took a physical toll on me every week with sleepless nights and running me down.  I became a walking zombie and can’t believe that I was able to keep up that frantic of a pace for as long as I did.  I was responsible for everything of that show, the weight I carried of that responsibility which was probably lost on everyone else around me.  If I had to do it a second time knowing what I know now about the sacrifice it took to put that show to air, I probably would not be that dumb to do everything the same the second time around.  I am almost 50 years old, I don’t have the time or patience to put myself through that hell again.  Nor does my body have the ability to withstand such an unhealthy lifestyle that the show revolved around, mainly from working a demoralizing job combined with a lack of sleep.

Unless you’ve been on the radio, you won’t understand.  Being a guest doesn’t really expose the whole story.  It can’t. For me, it was 25 years after I left what I thought would be a career in radio in my early 20s.  This time around with The Stand-Up Sit Down was way more rewarding than my first foray into radio by far.  It’s comical that I also routinely got reminded to keep my show to an hour in length, when the new show that has taken my old time slot has an element of comedy to it, and goes for almost three hours. Then again, I shouldn’t be surprised given my life story.

I could do a podcast, but it’s nothing like radio at all.  People have asked if I can get onto another radio station, but I doubt people like me would get that kind of an opportunity in life twice.  I am not sure the rest of y’all care or are interested in anything more about the radio show, so I’ll stop.  I need to get back to my supper of slices of summer sausage and cookies, because that’s how happy people roll.