So it Ends... Sort of.
On June 14th, 2004 I began what I called The Robertson Report, an online column and blog right here on livejournal. Weeks prior to beginning what would be a three year journey here I received pressure from friends to start up an online thing and resisted, only to have a headstrong American by the name of Amanda decide to skip the convincing and get me set up here, and surprisingly it worked.
In 2001 my friend Dan had corralled me into trying my hand at stand-up comedy, or as he would put it when defending himself to an angry girlfriend of mine in a bar years later, "I created him." Dan would quickly become my manager, for several pretty good years. The first time I performed I hadn't had my set memorized so I brought up cue cards. I believe the first piece of managing advice Dan gave me was, "you use those cue cards on stage again and I'll run up there and tackle you."
I wanted to use The Robertson Report as a place to explore my young comedic voice, to express the funny things that happened to me and find what clicked with people. I was inspired by W. Bruce Cameron, a humour columnist and author from Colorado who I was reading a lot of at the time. I wanted to entertain through the written word, without the dramatic pauses, without the tone of sarcasm, the means of playing with pronunciation that you can do when delivering spoken comedy. I wanted to achieve what Stuart McLean, Bill Bryson, or W. Bruce Cameron could do… but with my own voice, my own stories.
My ability as a writer and a comedian (on paper/screen and on stage) has grown so much since when I first sat down to write "Slice of Life", my story of the first time I ever ate in a restaurant solo. To the point where it is cringe worthy and all I can think is how I'd change this line or reveal this differently…
And that's awesome, and that's part of what I wanted. To learn and to grow.
The other part of what I wanted was to entertain people, a constant in my life I suppose. I feel like I achieved that goal too.
But thing's in life would interrupt the weekly nature of The Robertson Report, college, work, writing and shooting a movie, general forgetfulness, travel, break-ups (which if you really have nothing better to do you can generally spot a point in my three years here involving a break-up or relationship issue by a random, general column on… relationships). All of these things led to The Robertson Report being unreliably updated.
So I've grown, I've entertained, and I've eroded a 'fan base' through periods of neglect. Ultimately I feel I've run the gauntlet with The Robertson Report. Also since coining The Robertson Report, a tribute to W. Bruce Cameron's Cameron Column, clearly (without saying) far more popular and famous reports (Corbert in the States, Rick Mercer in Canada) have come about.
So I am moving forward, and starting fresh. Retiring The Robertson Report feels tougher then I thought, but then I am a sentimentalist who has a hard time throwing up a piece of paper I wrote a phone number down on in Las Vegas… no one else would want to save that.
Now this really doesn't mean the end to my humour column writing, sorry to those who were hoping as much. I've actually been working over the past little while on a new column known as Confessions of a Cidiot. Publishing every Tuesday evening (honestly, more organized people then I will ensure it happens), Cidiot will feature both brand new columns I'll write, as well as old one's I'll cannibalize from The Robertson Report. With a slick new format, colourful graphics and photos, Confessions of a Cidiot is a project I am very excited about.
Confessions of a Cidiot debuts June 5th, and can be found online at:
http://cidiot.blogspot.com/
This blog though I do plan to keep going, as a means to personally express myself (as most normal people use their blogs to do) or to post longer stories such as An Incandescent Truth which don't fit to the format of Cidiot. Since it will be a personal blog some entries will undoubtedly be friend only, if not the whole thing… so if you've got a need to know you best be setting up a livejournal account and friending me.
To those already on lj who are my friends, I look forward to continually reading your journals, I've never been one to comment, I feel awkward, especially when its of a personal nature, but I still enjoy everyone's journal and look forward to continually doing so.
So thank you everyone, for reading, for leaving really great comments whether full of praise or constructive criticism. I've really enjoyed the journey The Robertson Report has given me and am amazed at how much life itself for me has changed while trying to come up with a new story for this blog.
I hope you continue reading over at Cidiot as out of any audience, whether they used to read The Robertson Report, or an audience I've performed for onstage… out of any audience, those of you who've read this from beginning or near beginning to now, and who from time to time give me encouragement and advice, you are the audience who does now and always will mean the most to me.
And particular thanks (because by now you've all probably stopped reading) to Amanda, who I love dearly, for getting me on here, to my brother and sister's constant willingness to let me bounce jokes off them, to Dan who… I guess I didn't exist until you created me? And to my parent's who might have a thing to say about that last one.
Thank you for reading,
Derek Robertson
PS… since you guys who have continued to read this do mean the most to me I want to tell you about some other projects on the go which I really hope you'll check out:
For anyone in or around the Toronto area or willing to make the trip in early August (date TBA) myself and longtime collaborator Evan Brandon are putting together a night of the hottest young comedy stars in stand-up, sketch, and a great live house band to boot. It's called The Eh Team and it's going to be a night you won't want to miss, I myself will be performing so if you haven't had a chance to see me do my stand-up thing you'll want to be there for sure.
So that's early August, details on exact date, venue and ticket price will be announced in the weeks to come. Seating will be limited and expected to go fast, so you'll want to be in the know when it goes on sale. Check Confessions of a Cidiot often for that announcement or send an email to info@EhListEnt.ca to get an email from our box office when tickets go on sale and to find out when we unveil the names of our comedy dream team.
It should be great, and if it does go over well and if there is much demand for the show this fall it is hoped to be spun off into a weekly show, featuring regular comedians as well as guest comics and musicians. So I hope you all get a chance to come out and see it, right here in Toronto, Canada. Home of comedy.
At the same time I'm in pre-production on my first stand-up comedy album, produced by my brother Will Robertson and mixed and mastered by Rich Taylor. We'll be heading into the studio at the end of the month and it's going to be bursting at the seams with favorite material of mine and what we are actually going to need, forgive me if I sound like a magician here, but we're going to need people who are willing to be recorded as an audience ideally who’ve never met or seen me before, preferably those I am not close friends or relatives with, people who aren't familiar with the jokes. Again info@EhListEnt.ca if you're interested or if you know someone who might be.
And of course once again click on over to http://cidiot.blogspot.com/ the evening of June 5th for the premiere of Confessions of a Cidiot.