THE MOST SUPER ANNIVERSARY (or A PERFECT TENTH)
Ten years ago, on May 25th, I stepped onstage at Jimbo’s Comedyworks for my very first open mike spot. Since then I have made most of what amounts to a living off comedy, whether through stand-up, improv, acting, writing or innovative hybrids of all of the above. I’ve met famous people I never would have imagined meeting (some of whom, I’m proud to say, now know me from a hole in the wall). I’ve found myself in unusual locales from Cardiff, Wales to Appleton, Wisconsin, wondering how the heck life brought me to this point. It’s been an interesting decade.
But no experience nailed the sur-reality of my career path better than the evening of my tenth anniversary last Sunday, where I took part in the season finale of CBC Radio’s “The Debaters” before a lively studio audience in Vancouver. My reason for being there? To argue for the merits of comic book superheroes as role models.
How many classes in high school, university, or driver’s ed have I daydreamed about these primary-color-clad beacons of justice; doodling them, listing them, and just wishing that such ruminating could somehow substitute for getting a real job? Too many times to count. But I never dreamed that one day the government-funded Canadian Broadcasting Corporation would FLY ME ACROSS THE COUNTRY, pick up the tab on a classy hotel, and allow, nay, demand that I talk up my childhood/adolescent/pretty-much-now passion for funnybook heroes before a NATIONWIDE listening audience. My opponent was Ian Boothby who, besides being a funny comedian, is the writer of the comic book adaptations of “The Simpsons” and “Futurama” and has also worked on “The Flash”! I was arguing superheroes with a guy who wrote FLASH! Before a crowd of people who not only hung on every word but APPLAUDED. A lot!
I tell you simply, it does not get better than that. As I sit back, reflective, and wait for my CBC paycheck to arrive (oh yeah, guess it DOES get better) I have to conclude that, as career choices go, I could have gone for more security, more respectability…but I couldn’t feel more lucky than I did last Sunday. Especially my inner doodler, who’s never doubted that all is unfolding just as it should.
Happy anniversary indeed.
Ten years ago, on May 25th, I stepped onstage at Jimbo’s Comedyworks for my very first open mike spot. Since then I have made most of what amounts to a living off comedy, whether through stand-up, improv, acting, writing or innovative hybrids of all of the above. I’ve met famous people I never would have imagined meeting (some of whom, I’m proud to say, now know me from a hole in the wall). I’ve found myself in unusual locales from Cardiff, Wales to Appleton, Wisconsin, wondering how the heck life brought me to this point. It’s been an interesting decade.
But no experience nailed the sur-reality of my career path better than the evening of my tenth anniversary last Sunday, where I took part in the season finale of CBC Radio’s “The Debaters” before a lively studio audience in Vancouver. My reason for being there? To argue for the merits of comic book superheroes as role models.
How many classes in high school, university, or driver’s ed have I daydreamed about these primary-color-clad beacons of justice; doodling them, listing them, and just wishing that such ruminating could somehow substitute for getting a real job? Too many times to count. But I never dreamed that one day the government-funded Canadian Broadcasting Corporation would FLY ME ACROSS THE COUNTRY, pick up the tab on a classy hotel, and allow, nay, demand that I talk up my childhood/adolescent/pretty-much-now passion for funnybook heroes before a NATIONWIDE listening audience. My opponent was Ian Boothby who, besides being a funny comedian, is the writer of the comic book adaptations of “The Simpsons” and “Futurama” and has also worked on “The Flash”! I was arguing superheroes with a guy who wrote FLASH! Before a crowd of people who not only hung on every word but APPLAUDED. A lot!
I tell you simply, it does not get better than that. As I sit back, reflective, and wait for my CBC paycheck to arrive (oh yeah, guess it DOES get better) I have to conclude that, as career choices go, I could have gone for more security, more respectability…but I couldn’t feel more lucky than I did last Sunday. Especially my inner doodler, who’s never doubted that all is unfolding just as it should.
Happy anniversary indeed.
posted by David Pryde at 12:33 AM
