The Great Human Comedy means that laughter is more important than ever as we continue to age gracefully while trying to help out.
Humor keeps us present, connected, and, in many ways, alive. I recently completed a gig that lasted several weeks, where a group of us met regularly to play community service. They were sometimes absurd, and always ridiculously funny.
As the weeks passed, the tragedy deepened. Not just in the words they were speaking, but in everything around them. They’d forget the real reason to be practicing public service and lose their places. Drop the scripts. Sometimes we couldn’t hear each other. One time, someone confidently walked on the air and delivered the wrong line from the wrong song, and the rest of us simply adjusted and kept going. It didn’t matter. They laughed it off.
There was a certain manic in that room, an atmosphere that felt rare and premeditated. They weren’t aiming for perfection. They were trying to impress themselves but tried and failed miserably. They were simply playing. And how often do we, in our later years, get to play?
For me, those sessions became a situation, not just of comedy, but of resilience, creativity, and shared humanity. I looked around the room and saw people who had lived through so many losses, careers, families, and changes they never could have imagined when they were younger. And there we were, laughing at ourselves, at the absurdity of the world, at the delirious situation of being together in that moment.
I felt tremendous joy that bubbled up from somewhere deep and vital. I realized, with a script half-dropped in my hand, that I was departing the danger of becoming part of something awful, with no class, and alone in the great human tragedy that is life itself. And what a gift that is.
The following is from a couple of golden anniversary pros, marking 50 years.
This are observations from a media professionals:
I‘ve been in the broadcast industry for 50 years. I’ve worked with the best in the business. I worked with the most successful broadcaster of all time. The key to greatness is dedication to the widest array of musicians worldwide. Make sure to use the correct pronunciation of everyone he spoke to, and that the vinyl records had no ticks or pops.
Opening the mike when their headphones weren’t properly lodged on their heads, creating feedback …
attempts to talk about people whose names were massacred... all these things that can always be avoided with simple technical know-how and proper preparation before attempting to pronounce someone’s name.
To be an award-winning radio station
These things must be kept to a minimum.
Respectfully submitted,
JC, Multimedia Specialist
And this comment is from another pro with five decades of expertise in the media industry.
This morning, you went off the air. The audio transmission appeared to move up the coast to another station with the same frequency. FYI BB (Meanwhile, the operations manager did not seem to care while playing the piano.)