Quickdick McDick Returns: The Art of Live Comedy

Quickdick McDick [00:00:00] People in, in general have a, have a very similar opinion on everything that's happening in the world. And a lot of people come to me after my show and they say, you say the stuff that we're afraid to say. And my response to that is, why are you afraid to say it? What? Why? Why are you, why are you, we shouldn't live in a world where you're afraid to say what you believe in, or what you think is right, or what you think is wrong, or whether you're afraid that people are gonna attack you for saying what you're saying. Hi everyone. I'm Oliver Crow, a second grade student and an aspiring YouTuber, and you're listening to the Vance Crowe podcast.

Vance Crowe [00:00:32] Welcome back to the podcast. I'm glad you're here today. Quickdick McDick mcd Dick Returns, longtime listeners of the podcast, know That Quick, is a Canadian comedian that started off just making Snapchat videos. It ev later evolved into being on YouTube, and now he's one of the most highly sought after comedians that travels around Western Canada doing an amazing comedy tour. We're gonna get to that interview with quick in just a moment. But first, we have a huge announcement at Legacy Interviews. After three months of tireless work and a whole bunch of team effort, we have now launched a brand new website for Legacy Interviews. We are so proud of being able to describe what we do and how it can help your family, that I hope you'll go check it out. Legacy Interviews is a way for us to record the stories of individuals and couples who wanna capture their experiences and the life that they lived so that future generations can know their family history on this website. Not only do we have everything explained and how the experience will work and what you'll get, but we also have a blog. And on that blog we're taking the opportunity to describe both what we do and how we do it in a much more in-depth way. Our creative director, Sean Thon, who's been a guest on the podcast, came to me one day and said he really wanted to start writing about some of the lessons and experiences that we're pulling out of Legacy Interviews. So when we did a photo shoot and we had a few people volunteer to allow their legacy interview, at least in part, to be posted online, Sean was able to capture one really amazing story by a guy named Bob Bayes talking about a really important event that happened in his family.

Vance Crowe [00:02:11] So let's take a few moments just to listen to Bob's story.

Quickdick McDick [00:02:15] When my mom married my dad, she was from Germany, and she really didn't know my dad's parents at all. His parents. She shipped everything over here. She, she was an interpreter for, for the, for the, for the US Army. Yeah. And she shipped everything over here. And when she got here, they had to take a boat over from Germany. Everything was gone. My dad's folks had PIL for everything. She had nothing. They were from the hills of Virginia and they were literally hill. So everybody's name is Daryl. Daryl, Daryl Darrell. I mean, they were, were like straight up hillbillies. My mom went there one time with my older sister and she didn't like the way that they were acting towards her. Yeah. You know, like very rude, rude stuff. So my mom told my dad, I will never bring any of my kids back here again. I have no idea who my dad's side of the family is. My mom was adamant that nobody would ever had anything to do with my dad's side of the family. And she stuck to that. So when I was talking to my youngest daughter, I told her, I said, I couldn't tell you any of my dad's brothers or how many sisters, or, I don't even know what their names were. So yeah,

Vance Crowe [00:03:26] As you tell that story and you look back on your life,

Quickdick McDick [00:03:29] What's the lesson

Vance Crowe [00:03:30] Out of that?

Quickdick McDick [00:03:32] Oh wow. That's a tough one. I mean,

Vance Crowe [00:03:41] If you'd like to hear the rest of Bob's story where he talks about the lesson learned, go to the show notes where we'll put a link in directly to this blog post. If you're interested in reading other things, like some of the notes I've put together about how can you conduct your own Legacy Interviews, you can go to Legacy Interviews dot com slash blog to find out more. We hope you'll go check out that site, share it with friends, and we have some amazing and fun videos we've put together that I hope you'll put out on social media to help us out. Alright, without further ado, let's head to the interview with Maad Quickdick. McDick Mic Dick

Quickdick McDick [00:04:14] Vance Crowe. Hey, it's good to see you, man. How are you?

Vance Crowe [00:04:17] Oh man, I'm doing really well. I think the listeners have to think that I've gone full on Canadian because every episode I'm either talking to a Canadian or talking about Canada, but you have just gotten done with I think, something really special, a comedy tour done throughout all the small towns in your area. So what you been up to, man?

Quickdick McDick [00:04:37] Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And, and yeah, it's actually funny when we jumped on there, you're like, oh man, you look tired. It's like, yes, I do look like a bag of used pillows this morning here. Yeah. We're just getting into calving season, so I gotta climatize to it. Yeah. Te But yeah, man, I just finished, I, I called it the Small Town Comedy tour. You know, there's a lot of people that were looking to get to get me out to do live shows. I got a, you know, like if you want to call it an hour and a half comedy special that I do, and I do it live and I come set up and in like the smallest towns that I can find. And we usually got halls over anywhere between, you know, 250 to, to 500 people kinda thing. And you know, I just, you get odd groups reaching out from, from different towns to see if you can come and do a show for a fundraiser. You know, all the way from ag societies to curling ranks to daycares. And I've booked a couple here for the fall with like seniors extended care homes. It's, it's all these things that are just impossible for small towns to find, find ways to fundraise for. And we just seem to have found this one little cool thing that I can do. And we go and we, we get a hall, we get it set up, and we have about a, you know, an hour and a half or two hours of Quickdick McDick depending on what the crowd wants. And we just have one, one heck of a good time in small towns. Man, it's been unreal.

Vance Crowe [00:05:56] You know, what's amazing about your comedy is it started from you doing Snapchat as you were gonna go on a motorcycle ride across the country and then has turned into you being a full on standup comedian. And I've gotten to see you, you know, work a crowd and, and be excited and interested in what they're saying and how that reaction is. But, you know, you didn't actually like take classes. You didn't even really do the, the standard go to New York or la How's it been to learn how, how to engage and interact with a crowd?

Quickdick McDick [00:06:25] It's, you know, it's kind of a learning process to a certain extent. I, I did a little bit like, it just, like, even the learning about it is kind of been by accident. You know, the first show I ever did, like, I just bombed, you know, guess did

Vance Crowe [00:06:38] You, what do mean when you say bombed? What do you mean?

Quickdick McDick [00:06:41] Oh, it was terrible. The first show I ever did was the worst show I've ever done to date. So I guess like, that's good. You can never do well, if I ever do worse than my first show, I'll never do it again. But yeah, I just, I, I just, yeah, I had a guy get me out to, it was Leftbridge actually, and it was just like, this was just like post pandemic. Like it was the first day that they took masking rules off in Alberta and they'd canceled. It was the big Leftbridge agriculture exhibition that they had there. And they'd canceled it for the last couple years. And this guy swooped in and he tried to do a smaller, a smaller ag show there just to try and, you know, get in the door and keep things going. And I was there with my sponsor, man, Dako, and he was this guy, this guy that organized the show. He is like, well, hey, would you do something in the afternoon for entertainment? Well, I'd had this show written and, you know, it's a pretty, I like, I'd say call it a profane show. Like, I mean, I swear in it lots and like I turn into Quickdick McDick when I do it, you know what I mean? I'm like this, this enraged farmer about a bunch of the things that are going on. But I, you know, I talk a little bit about everything. Right. And the first bit,

Vance Crowe [00:07:50] And this would've been your first time of Quickdick McDick actually meeting the real world, right? Like Quickdick McDick up until this point Quickdick McDick was just talking to a camera. So now you're like, exactly. Now quick Dick's in the real world and he uses bad language.

Quickdick McDick [00:08:01] That's right. Yeah, exactly right. But like, they, they were having a hard time selling tickets to this show, and it was like, he couldn't get anybody there. So he was like power calling a bunch of people in southern Alberta. And I mean, Southern Alberta's predominantly like Hutterite colonies, right? So he, for my first show I ever went on stage, it was, my audience was about 150 Hutterites and it was like three o'clock in the afternoon and no one had had a beer. And like, I just crush beer when I'm on stage doing these shows. And

Vance Crowe [00:08:32] My first

Quickdick McDick [00:08:33] Bit, my first bit of my old show was on Tinder and like, how Tinder doesn't work in towns like

Vance Crowe [00:08:37] Al

Quickdick McDick [00:08:38] And like, nobody knew what I was talking about. And like, and nobody laughed. And it was, and there there's no worse feeling Vince than like, knowing that you're bombing and still having to try and like push through the show to get it done.

Vance Crowe [00:08:52] Yeah. Where you're like, oh man, I got 30 more minutes of this.

Quickdick McDick [00:08:56] Yeah, I have 30 more minutes of bombing. Yeah. And so it was, it was good though, you know, I got it done and, and the guy that got me to do it, he asked me after the show, he is like, you know, did anybody tell you how your show went or did you get any feedback? And I was like, I really don't think I need any, 'cause I just know I bombed for like an hour. And he is like, yeah, it's not very good, man. I don't know if you're gonna be able to do this or not. You know, if this is what you're gonna do. Oh man. I was like, but he had me booked for the next day. And so I was like, well, you're getting the same thing tomorrow, whether you like it or not. 'cause you can't just come up with an hour and a half of material overnight, you know what I mean? And the next day, man,

Vance Crowe [00:09:33] That's a long night, the night before, that's a long night where you're like, I'm, I'm going to stand up in front of the wolves now.

Quickdick McDick [00:09:40] I know, right? And so I'm, I'm just like, like reviewing my material and seeing what I could change and everything. And I'm like, I kept saying to myself like, I think this stuff is funny. Like, is is it just me or what? And the next day, like thanks to any of my followers that might be watching right now, that actually came to my show in, in Lethbridge that next day because right when before my show started, there was a whole ton of people showed up and like, it was a bunch of people that followed Quickdick McDick on social media. I did the exact same show the next day and we just blew the roof off the place. Like it was like, like next level good. And, and like, it was just such a crazy feeling on stage, like to just all of a sudden, like everyone's laughing at what a joke was supposed to be. And then immediately following the show, the guy that had booked me to go do it, he comes and he gives me a big hug. He's like, that was awesome. He is like, we can't wait to have you back again. I was like, it is the same show. But yeah, so from that day on, like, you know, I, I've always, I've always tried to look closely at why, you know, you have some shows that are like way better than others and some that are like, they're okay. You know? And so I think I've kind of got it figured out. I I, I kind of started listening to a couple of comedians on podcasts and stuff like that and, and you know, take, take some advice that they give people. And, and Kelly Taylor is one of the ones, the prominent Saskatchewan comedian here. And the way he talked about how a room is set up and how your lighting is and everything was, was a game changer. That guy, just by listening to that guy's podcast, he, he changed the game of, of my shows.

Quickdick McDick [00:11:10] I started traveling with my own light and sound system. 'cause you can't out comedy a bad sound and light system. I found that out. So

Vance Crowe [00:11:18] Yeah, I'm, I feel like there's a lot of commonality between the, what we both do. Like I'm certainly not a comedy tour, right. Mine is philosophical and it's trying to get people to think about things in a different way. But you can definitely tell when the audience is hanging on your words and you're like, Hey, I'm, I'm sharing something. It's getting through. They're laughing when they're supposed to. They're, they're like, you know, writing things down. And then when you don't get that, the, the feeling, I, I think most people don't have to endure that level of like, shame. And yet you're still trying to be out there, right? Like, you, you can't give up for, so you were on this tour, right? You had these days that felt probably better than others. How does it go when you're doing it week in, week out, you know, over and over and over again?

Quickdick McDick [00:12:03] It's good. It's almost, I found, I found that it's good for me, but like, but like what you're saying, right? And, and like obviously I like you. Yeah. You and I are different, like just with kind of the, the talks that we do kinda think some more doing standup comedy, but I mean, I like, what I found when I heard you speak at that SMP presents that we did together is like, you're high energy. And that's, and that's like, I try and bring that to the show as well. Like, I, I think, I think energy's one of the most important things to bring to your show. 'cause people like, all of a sudden, even if they're kind of not interested in what you're doing or what you're saying, if you've got that energy level turned up, they'll just kinda unintentionally focus on it just because they're like, where what is this guy doing? Like, he's just all over the place and like jumping up and down and like, I mean, you don't jump up and down, but I mean, you move and you assert the crowd with your voice, you know, and it just, it seems to work.

Vance Crowe [00:12:49] Were were you an energetic kid when you were growing up? Were you the kid that

Quickdick McDick [00:12:53] Oh yeah,

Vance Crowe [00:12:53] Yeah, me too.

Quickdick McDick [00:12:55] Very much. Yeah.

Vance Crowe [00:12:56] I think that this is why it's a little bit like a fish in water that you don't, you don't realize the energy you bring to everyday life. And it isn't until you try and bottle it that you're like, oh, there are ways to bottle this that are positive and there are ways to bottle this that are not gonna work. And that's what a comedian or a speaker is really trying to figure out. Like, how do I convert this thing that people are attracted to, but can also go horribly wrong?

Quickdick McDick [00:13:20] Yeah, absolutely, man. That's, that's, it's exactly right. And it's, you know, and, and lots of people ask, they're like, you know, what's it like, like they're like, you must be exhausted after a show because like, it's an hour and a half. Sometimes I've got the right crowd. Like, dude, I'll do, I'll do two hours of just nonstop comedy. And you know, and you can feel it in the crowd when they want to keep going. And you just, like, you always just give the crowd what they want. If they're ready to stop, but an hour and a half you stop. If they're ready to keep going, you keep going. But it's not like, it's just, it's not exhausting at all because I, I can't explain how it charges my batteries to go out and be in front of a crowd of people and, and have them laugh. And like, I've said it to a few people before, like, like, I like the, the character Quickdick McDick, like the whole background story that we've talked about before. Like, that all came out of me being in a depressed and kind of dark place in my life. And it's like the character, like is what fixed that, you know, finding, finding humor and being able to, to connect with other people and get people laughing is kind of what brought me outta my place where I wasn't the happiest in my life. And to, to have the, the privilege now to be able to stand on a stage and just let her rip with things that I find funny. But part of me, when I go on that stage, like I know I might not be feeling the best some nights or I might have a, like a off night kind of thing, but I, I put it all aside. I flip a switch and I get on that stage and I, I run my character off the, off the fact that there's people in that crowd that are feeling the same as I was when I, when I found this character.

Quickdick McDick [00:14:51] And my job for the next hour and a half or however long it's gonna be, is to make everybody that's having a bad day in that place, forget about it, live in the moment and just be able to laugh because it's just the most important thing that we do in life is just find something that we can laugh at and be able to forget about our problems that we have going on for a little while. Because your mind needs a break from it. Right? And that's what Quickdick McDick offers when you, when you come to his comedy shows, is a break from everyday life.

Vance Crowe [00:15:16] You describe it as finding quick, you know, Quickdick, McDick, mcd Dick. Is, is Quickdick McDick somebody that you can talk with in, in your everyday life? Or is it have to be I am either Quickdick McDick or I am Me.

Quickdick McDick [00:15:30] Oh, he is like, like totally, but I mean like Quickdick McDick is me, you know, he is just kind of a, like an amped up version of me. You know, it's me that writes the humor. But when I, like, when I write the humor and come up with a comedy, like I kind of write it in a way that you're like, well wouldn't this be hilarious to see some guy with a cowboy hat and jeans tucked into his boots, jumping around on stage, drinking a beer, like kind of almost yell out kind of thing. Like I do a, I do a bit on the metric system and, and part of the bit is, is like Quickdick McDick is just enraged that people support us being bilingual in Canada. Not English French, but metric imperial kind of thing. You know what I mean? Because we have to speak both languages because we're connected to the states and all of, all of our parents, it was brought down on 'em by a Trudeau and they taught us at a young age to hate Trudeau 'cause of the metric system. So that's why we hate 'em today kind of thing, you know? So, but like the, the, the whole basis of the bit is made on this guy is just so enraged by the metric system, which really, I don't care. But when I start poking fun at the amount of math that we do to try and talk two languages metric in Imperial in Canada, and like every time I finish a one line bit on something that's absurd, like I just put the mic down and I scream to the sky and I'm like, why? You know what I mean? And like, but that's part of the show. But personally I'm just like, well, it's just like, here's the joke and you should get it. But it just makes it so much better if you just like rage as a farmer that this is, you're being persecuted by having to do so much math.

Quickdick McDick [00:17:03] You know what I mean?

Vance Crowe [00:17:04] Well it's funny that you mention that because I, I actually have been to Canada a couple times in the last few years and just this last time I was at AgriVision and everybody would be like, oh, well we've gotta get you 300 kilometers, so that'd be, you know, whatever that is in miles, right? And they would do it over and then they'd be like, oh, it's, it's minus 32 out. Well that, you know, it's not quite Fahrenheit. Like they all intuitively know that. I have no idea what's going on with your metric system.

Quickdick McDick [00:17:28] It's, but it's hilarious. But even like, you know, I like, I make the joke of how we like as farmers, you know, like we go and we buy our seed in our fertilizer by the metric ton from distributors and then we come home and we convert it into pounds of the acre and then we plant it as pounds of the acre because that's what we know. That's what dad taught us, right? And then we go back to town and then we buy our, our chemicals and everything and liters per hectare. Then we bring it home and convert it over to gallons per acre, you know, and then we grow our crop and then we harvest our crop and we gauge our success off of bushels to the acre. And then we measure it into a semi by bushels and pounds. Then we put it into an auger that's labeled 13 inch by 90 foot. That's a made in Canada auger, but it's a 13 by 90 for some reason, you know, and then we put in a 10,000 bushel bin, then we take it outta the bin in a, in another metric auger that's labeled in Imperial. Then we put it in the truck by bushels and then we sell it to the elevator and we get a check by the metric done.

Vance Crowe [00:18:26] It's wild man. Why? And like, why,

Quickdick McDick [00:18:28] Why do we do this?

Vance Crowe [00:18:30] When I think about comedy, right? And you were saying getting up and doing it over and over again and you have this bit, right? How long does it take you to go from that bit being an idea to that bit? Just killing? Is it, you know, certain number of times? Oh, that's a good question.

Quickdick McDick [00:18:44] Yeah. But like, sometimes it's just sometimes a bit comes out of like, sometimes I, I like, well we won't get into how my mind works, but by all means, sometimes when I'm on, sometimes when I'm on stage, like all of a sudden I'll just, I'll kind of drop, like, I'll just be like, you know what would be funny to put on the tail end of this bit would be this. Like, I, it just hit me that this is funny. Or somebody will do something in the crowd and I'll be like, that was actually funny. Or I'll have something go on that day and I'll be like, that was hilarious. And I'll just kind of just put it in a tiny little bit in the show and then all of a sudden before you know it, like I actually I'll, I'll be like, well I'll just leave that on the end of that bit 'cause it seemed to hit good. And then I'll expand on it a little bit. There's some bits that I've done, the metric system's, one of them that I like, I it, I kind of wrote it in front of a crowd. I didn't sit down and write it, I just kinda started adding a few things. There was, it just started off with me talking about farmers and inputs. And then I'd, I'd finished it and then it, it was just a, a quick little two minute bit on farmers and inputs. And then one night on stage I was like, I was like, but what about rain? You know, we measure all the stuff in, in half quarter sixteenths, 30 seconds of an inch. But then for some reason when we measure rain, we measure it by what? And everyone screams out tents. And I'm like, yeah. And then you have to forget everything that you learned in school about simplifying fractions when you're talking about rain. 'cause it's totally different. And I just free wielded it.

Vance Crowe [00:20:07] And the

Quickdick McDick [00:20:07] Crowd loved it. And, but like, you know, and so then after that I, I, I put those two bits together as the metric system and then like, you know, and then all of a sudden I started adding more and adding more. And before you know it, like it was, it was an entire like 12, 13 minute bit all on its own. And that whole bit I wrote in front of a crowd, live in an audience. I just kept adding things that would come to me while I was on stage. And yeah. But like I

Vance Crowe [00:20:31] Can totally relate to that. The, the, when I'm, when I'm giving talks, oftentimes I leave a bunch of area for q and a and q and a is where things get totally electric, right? If you've done a good job giving a good talk, then you don't have to worry. There's gonna be questions there. And so you get some questions and that's when like, now you've gotta figure out how to say something that's better than whatever you were saying during your regular thing. How can I try things out? And I started recording, you know, I always record my talks and I go back and listen to the, the part where I gave it to see what could I clean up. But I realized all of my new material comes from stuff that I'm not even conscious of. If I've just had this exhilarating experience of giving a great talk and we go into q and a, it's me up there, but it's another version of me. It's another version of me that I can't access unless you've just had this experience and that's when you're pulling all kinds of new cool, fun ideas out, much like you're like adding it onto the end of the bit.

Quickdick McDick [00:21:27] Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. And it's, you know, your, like, your crowd's got a lot to do with it too. But like, you know, some of the stuff that I've done, it, it takes, it takes a while to write it, you know, for, for a comedian to do. I, I didn't realize any of this. I just thought, like, I just thought when you saw like a, you know, a Bill Burr special or a, a Ron White or some of these guys, I just thought that that, that they could just go up and do an hour and a half and there's nothing to it. Like I didn't think there was anything to it. And then all of a sudden I was just like, you know, hour and a half is, is a lot of material.

Vance Crowe [00:21:57] It's all be back. It's a full play, dude. That's a, that's a ballet that that's most great comedians don't have an hour and a half. They have like 30 minutes. Right? Like it's,

Quickdick McDick [00:22:05] It's, it's insane. And like, and it's all gotta be bangers. Like you can't just have garbage jokes in there. You start losing your crowd, like, I mean, every second sentence better ending a joke that's gonna make the crowd laugh or you're gonna start having a bad day on stage. 'cause people are gonna start talking to each other and not paying attention to your show. And then before you know it, the crowd's gonna get louder than you. And then you're gonna try and out comedy the volume of the crowd and you're gonna be like, oh man, how did this happen? Right. But yeah, so it's, it's crazy but, but like challenging at the same time. And now that I've kind of found a little bit of a groove with it, it's good. But I mean, I'm, I'm spoiled 'cause I I kind of know my audience before I go to it.

Vance Crowe [00:22:41] What is, what

Quickdick McDick [00:22:42] Percentage

Vance Crowe [00:22:42] Of your audience knows you before they, before the show starts?

Quickdick McDick [00:22:47] 90%.

Vance Crowe [00:22:48] Oh wow. That's great. Yeah. That's great.

Quickdick McDick [00:22:51] I'm very, I'm, yeah, I'm very lucky with a lot of that. 'cause everybody kind of knows the comedy. I could still go and do this show in, in a small town somewhere where nobody knows Quickdick McDick. But what it's the, this, this is the craziest thing I'm about to say that's, but I'm starting to find out that there's not very many small towns out there that don't know who Quickdick McDick is in Canada. It's, it's crazy. There's so many places you go to like, like everybody kind of knows who I am when you get there and they'll come up and share with you, you know, what their favorite video was that you'd done and everything. And, and, and I'm very, very lucky and humbled to have that going on. But like, it's, it's, it's basically like shooting fish in a barrel. 'cause I, I know my crowd going in and they know me with me coming in and so everybody kind of knows what to expect and then I can just kind of give 'em what they want. You know what I mean?

Vance Crowe [00:23:38] Yeah. I would say that on the beginning of it. That's nice. Right. You know, like if you, if I go to a crowd and a certain percentage of those people have heard me, me speak before, they're way more ready to laugh at my jokes. They're way more ready to like be right there. But the downside is, comedy is only funny if you are pushing the line. So it it, like one of the other challenges of having so many people know who you are is you can't be stagnant. Right? They may be like, oh, it's nice to see quick, but you know, he is using a lot of his old material, which means you gotta just keep pushing and pushing and pushing and pushing.

Quickdick McDick [00:24:09] A hundred percent man. Yeah. And that's, so I try and I, I like, I've, I change up my show every year and I just did my last one of this one and it's, I'm sad to see this one go because there was so many good bits in it. But I've had a lot of fun with it. But like that's good 'cause it's a challenge like you see, so now it's time to have a new hour and a half for the next time I go out. The crazy thing that I've found though is there's only a small handful of towns that I've actually hit twice. I could still be running my first show and most of the places that I go to would never have seen it before because none of it gets put online. It's all just live in, in person comedy. Right. But I think it's important to have, I think it's important to have that, you know, in, in the locker and have all these little bits and pieces to your show that you can, you know, kind of put together and slide in here, do a little bit here that nobody's heard kind of thing. It just kind of turns into like a, a, a set of Lego, you know what I mean?

Vance Crowe [00:25:00] Yeah. I remember when, so when I got done with Monsanto, I had a few years where I went out and gave not the same talk I was giving at Monsanto, but like using that material and then eventually you hit a point where you're like, not only am I not like, are other people not interested in this subject 'cause the world is moved on, but I'm not interested in doing anymore. Yeah.

Quickdick McDick [00:25:20] But

Vance Crowe [00:25:20] To start fresh, man, that is hard, right? It, it's so tempting to be like, well I kind of need this first entry level joke or this story that I tell that always gets people going because like to let absolutely to go with something, you know, that works is like letting go of your, your life raft or something.

Quickdick McDick [00:25:37] It totally is. But like, and that's, it's funny you mention that because that's the hardest part of me always getting into a show is like, that's, if you're gonna write a new show, you have to have a way to connect with your audience. Let 'em know that it's you and give 'em an idea of what the show's gonna be kind of in the first couple of minutes. And, and you also, at that same time, you have to gauge your crowd to find your age demographic. And you need to find how many are rural versus urban, da da da. And you gotta get figured out really, really fast what your crowd is. And then you gotta figure out, okay, well what's gonna work well with them in my show that I have and what do I need to replace kind of thing. Because no matter who your crowd is, your job's to make 'em laugh. And I, I feel that's my job when I go up there anyways, right? So a part of that might be changing, but when I think about new shows now, when I think about the one that I'm just finishing off, I mean, from where it started to where it is now, I mean, it's nowhere near the same show. Like it's, it, it's metamorphosized into a completely different show. And there was one guy that came and watched me in Theodore a little while ago, and like, he'd seen it when I first brought it out in Shiho, which is a town that's literally, Vince, lemme bring it over for you 25 miles away from the other one. All right? That's how close they are here. And he came to see it and he's like, dude, I can't believe you wrote a new show. And I was like, that's the same show you saw. And he's like, no, it's not like, not even close. So yeah, it's crazy. I

Vance Crowe [00:26:59] Mean, I get that. I, I actually was just writing a guy yesterday, he was like, Hey, I heard your art of picking up nails talk and I'd like you to come give it at this event that we have coming up. And I was like, Hey, that's great. But I've since changed the name of it because I figured out that this explains it better. And hey, these are gonna be the kinds of things that have changed in it. And like you, you know, from another person's perspective, they would say like, ah, it's the same thing, but the the tiny little changes that you make over, like the way I tell this joke, the way I finish this sentence makes a, a mountain just like completely different talk. And yet deep down, you always know, even though it sounds different, I'm using the same stuff and I gotta keep going. And that's, to me, that's the hardest part. That's why I do this podcast, right? If I don't have other people to talk about ideas with, it's so hard to come up with something new cloth from, from like no new ideas.

Quickdick McDick [00:27:52] Yeah, absolutely. It is. I think a lot of people, you know, because of my YouTube channel, you know, like I, I talk about a lot of, I do a lot of political satire and talk about Canadian politics quite a bit on my YouTube channel. And I think a lot of people really expect me to just go for an hour and a half on politics. And I, I don't like, there's maybe maximum 10 minutes of politics in my live comedy show just because it's just, there's so many other things that we can laugh at that we have going on in small communities. And a lot of people are like, at the end of the show, lots of people are like, that is not what we expected. But in no way, shape or form are we disappointed. Like, I can't tell you how many wives have come up to me and been like, I have never seen my husband laugh like that. And I've been married to him for 30 years. Like the one lady's, like, I've never seen my husband laugh so hard that he was crying and like, and so it, like, it connects and it hits and you know, when I've never had somebody come up to me after a show yet and be like, man, that really sucked. You know?

Vance Crowe [00:28:55] So I'm very lucky. Just, just wait except the first one.

Quickdick McDick [00:28:58] Yeah.

Vance Crowe [00:28:59] But hey, so as you're thinking about that, like, comedy is something that's like, like music or a chord or something like you, something touches people and when a wife is coming up and saying, my husband and, and you're imagining this being for lots of husbands, what about your comedy is connecting with them, why is this so much different than what else they're exposed to?

Quickdick McDick [00:29:22] Because I don't think anybody really understands fully and completely, first of all, like how, how we live and, and grow up in a small town. And a lot of the things that we do here, you don't see in, in big cities, it doesn't happen. But like, you know, like, like one of the things I talk about and it's just, it's a normal thing. It's what we do everywhere. It's an honor bar and you just, you go up and you pay for what you pour and da da da. I'm like, you see that everywhere in small communities because we're all trusting communities to each other. But I do a whole bit on that about first of all, like how the honor bar, there are some funny things about it, but that it's, it's something that we hold special in small places and it's, and it's trust and it's, it's relationships that we have built within our communities. So in a roundabout way, I'm making fun of something that's, you know, very, very heartfelt and important to a lot of people. But I'm not making it making fun of it in the way where I'm saying like, oh, this is, this is bs. You know what I mean? Like, I'm making fun of it being like, it's okay to laugh at how awesome we are. And I do that with a whole bunch of stuff. I mean, without giving too much away. Like, I mean, you know, rodeo and curling and weddings and there's just so much stuff that we do and I think all of a sudden when people can look at their lives and just be like, you know, I, I do this comedy show in a way that makes you proud of your, your life and how you lived it, but at the same time it lets you laugh at it. And I think once people can kinda laugh at themselves a little bit immediately, you can, you can laugh at anything now, you know?

Vance Crowe [00:30:48] Yeah. I mean there's something really important about somebody from the inside being able to make observations about your own culture because like you, you have to stand kind of in both worlds. It's really difficult to see your own culture from the inside. I know, like when I was growing up, I thought like, oh, my hometown is vanilla and vanilla is no flavor. Right? And so I wanna leave to go somewhere else where there's more flavor. And then you get away from the world and you're like, oh wait a second. That vanilla first of all is actually a flavor, it's not just cream. And then second of all the, like, there was something really distinct about this. To even be able to try and describe this to somebody else would be really, really difficult. And I think now having seen rural Canada with all the things you're describing, the curling rinks, the amount of volunteering people do the Chuck Wagon rides. Yeah. Like there is deep, rich culture, but it takes somebody that both understands it and can somehow step outside of it to be able to, to make the jokes connect.

Quickdick McDick [00:31:48] But it's, that's what made the character Vance. And that's what made Quickdick McDick, you know, like I, I grew up, I grew up eating vanilla ice cream, if that's what I wanna say. And then I left and I went and worked oil field and I ate Rocky Road and chocolate chip cookie dough and all that stuff or whatever, right? And when I came back home and had my first spoonful of vanilla ice cream when I got back home, I was like, why did I ever leave this flavor? I love it. You know, and it makes me happy. And that's kind of where the character is. So yeah, I've kind of seen, I've, I've seen, I've been able to look at my community from the outside looking in when I came back, you know, almost five years ago now. I can't believe times passed like that. And you know, it's just, it's it's, it's so important. We need to do that to ourselves too. The like, you know, when I do keynote speeches there, like I did one in in Lloyd there at Ions like last year, I can't remember when it was, but two

Vance Crowe [00:32:40] Years ago,

Quickdick McDick [00:32:40] You know, that's Yeah. That's, that's, that's right. That's a talk that no, again, nobody expects to come from me. 'cause I talk about, I talk about suicide, I talk about depression, and I talk about the importance of talking to people and especially in places like Lloyd Minster or a few of these other places where I've done this talk, this like say this is a bunch of people that know who I am and I am every second words an F-bomb outta a Quickdick McDick, and he's rough and tough and we're gonna, you know, f the government and blah, blah, blah. And, and then all of a sudden I come in and like, I'm not Quickdick McDick when I do that talk, I'm me, I'm myself. And I talk about how the character was created and you know, the, the fact that it was, you know, the, the scary topic of suicide that that led to creating the character in a long, roundabout way and the importance of people talking with each other. And same thing. But like I've had, yeah, I've full on had grown grown men in a cowboy hat that are tough bastards come to me after talks and, and completely break down trying to tell me to, to thank me for, for saying that in front of people, you know? So

Vance Crowe [00:33:42] Yeah, I was so at AgriVision, you know, I'm talking with the, the people that are leading and it's a small organization, a bunch of volunteers, and they're trying to put together a thing and

Quickdick McDick [00:33:51] They do a great job. Yeah.

Vance Crowe [00:33:52] Lloydminster is a town of 30,000 people, and they put on in the middle of the week this huge ag conference, and one of the things they do is they have a, a dinner to be able to honor the people that have been volunteers. And I think one year they had a rough speaker, one that really crossed the audience and it didn't, didn't

Quickdick McDick [00:34:08] Go

Vance Crowe [00:34:08] Well. And then they had you on, and I was expecting people to be like, oh, it was hilarious. But just like you're describing, I had grown men saying like, that was the talk I needed to hear. It was really, you know, humbling. And, and so can you talk a little bit about what, what was said there and, and why it was important for you to talk with a group of people about, you know, your own inner turmoil?

Quickdick McDick [00:34:32] Yeah, yeah, man, it was like, it, it was kind of a, like a, well it's like, it's a, a keynote speech presentation. I've got some slides from back when I was a kid and a little bit of stuff from the oil field and you know, just the reason why I left home. And I think the, the reason a lot of people resonate with that talk that I give is because it's, it's, it's a stereotypical small town Saskatchewan, not Saskatchewan only, but you know, rural Alberta, rural Manitoba or whatever, A lot of these, a lot of young guys when when you graduate school, you know, your family farm isn't big enough for you to, to be a part of right away and you maybe gotta go and raise some capital and whatnot kind of thing. You're gonna go find another job. And that's what I did. You know, and I, I talk about my trip out to the oil field and I was amazing off the start. And then all of a sudden, you know, you, you wind up leaving where you initially went out there as a truck driver or labor or an operator kind of thing. You just leave that and slowly get into, you know, office work, dispatching, logistics, then ultimately management positions and stuff. And you know, and it's, it doesn't just have to be in the oil field. Like this can happen in any career. It can happen with a lot of farmers and whatnot too. And just to how, you know, my life kind of started changing and I slowly didn't realize it, you know, it just kind of started dipping into depression and, and it got to the point where it, like my work had completely consum consumed my life. I wasn't enjoying my life anymore like we should, I mean, don't get me wrong. Like we've all gotta work and do our thing, and that's, that's okay. There's a part of that that we need to come to terms with, right?

Quickdick McDick [00:36:04] But I, I just lost sight of, of making sure that you're happy doing what you're doing. And I just kinda let myself get a little bit too far into it. And before you know it, all of a sudden I realized that my life was consumed by work and, and depression and I wasn't happy anymore. And my dad had gone through the same thing years and years earlier, like in the, in the early two thousands and where he went through a full on nervous breakdown to a point where he, he was, was suicidal at one point in time. And my dad was a guy that had raised us the same as everybody has all in these, you know, little small towns, communities everywhere, you know, cowboys don't cry and if you wanna cry, I'll give you something to cry about kind of thing. Like, that was my dad when we were growing up, you know, and when my dad, when we finally, you know, I'd say my mom, I say we, but like when my mom was obviously the, the champion that led it finally got my dad help. And it's not easy to get somebody help for, for, for mental conditions, especially in Canada. I don't know what it's like in the states. It's like it is here. It it's something, first of all that people don't want to talk about. Second of all that we don't have enough professionals to deal with. And third of all, one of the most important things to diagnose because everyone's mind is a little bit different. It's not just the broken arm, right? It's, it could be a, a wide plethora of things. So we finally got my dad the help that, that he needed, and we got him, you know, he's, he's just living his best life here. And about 10 years after it happened, my dad sat all three of his sons down separately and just full on opened up.

Quickdick McDick [00:37:39] Like he, like we never talked like that, ever in the entire, you know, well at the time it would've been 36 years that I'd known my dad. I'd never heard him talk like that. And he was crying and he just told me start to finish of what he missed for warning signs, what he should have done different with his life and, and what he would change if he could go back. And, you know, then fast forward to me being where I was at in the oil and gas industry, sitting in the corner of my bed with my head in my hands one morning said out loud to myself, I hate my life. And it just all of a sudden what my dad had shared with me 10 years previous to that, I was just like, I'm, I'm going exactly where my dad warned me that I shouldn't go. And so I, I took the steps to change my life and I didn't need professional help to do it because I think I caught it early enough, and maybe it's the way that I'm wired, but coming home was, was the way that I kind of fixed it. And I mean, the, the roundabout goal of the talk is, is to try and encourage people, mostly men between their forties and sixties, like I am to talk about feelings and mental health and share it with their children because my dad did it. And it probably saved me from going down the exact same path that we had to rescue my dad from. And I, I can't underscore the importance of, of that enough, you know? And so there's a Kohl's notes addition to the talk.

Vance Crowe [00:39:03] Yeah, I mean, I think that the, obviously like the importance of people being able to tell their stories about what happened to them is of like critical importance to you the child, right? Of like, what, how should I handle when something comes up my way? And you have to imagine even your dad describing this to you guys, gave him a chance to think about what he'd been going through. And, and I mean like that storytelling is so deeply embedded. You said something that I wanna explore a little deeper, which you said, you know, I was on my bed and my, my hands are, my head is in my hands. Like, what is that feeling? What's going on inside of you? And then like, why did you know that change was what, what needed to happen?

Quickdick McDick [00:39:45] It's, it was, it was those words that I, I said 'em out loud. I don't know why I said 'em out loud, but it had been a, it had been a really bad night the night before. Now I'm not saying like I, like, you know, similar to what I had go on here last night. Like, I mean, I didn't really sleep. I was only down for a couple hours. But the difference is is I, like I en I enjoy doing what I'm doing now and I'm, I'm aware of what I'm doing and it doesn't, this doesn't completely consume my life. I enjoy working the farm and working with cattle and I work with a guy named Mark Rogers who's, I, I, I probably wouldn't do this if it wasn't for him. We work well with each other and we're able to share the workload and we can depend on each other. And that's something that a lot of farmers don't have. They don't have somebody that they can depend on to be there when they can't be there. And that, that's, you know, unfortunately the ultimate demise of the mental health of a lot of people in agriculture, or it doesn't have to be in agriculture. It can be in anything. You know, you need to have somebody you can depend on to be able to shut the switch off and, and go do your thing and then come back and switch back on and away you go. Right? But yeah, it just, there's a whole bunch of things that had piled up and continued to pile up. You know, I, I wasn't able to escape my phone at any point in time when I'd go on vacation. I'd taken over a, a, a managerial position at a, at a, at a company, you know, anytime I was there I was stressed out. There was always something going wrong. And you know, nobody ever phones you to tell you you're doing a good job. They phone you when there's something wrong. You know what I mean? So, you know, it got to the point where I was, I was terrified of the phone ringing, you know, because I was just like, what's next on the end of this phone kind of thing, right?

Quickdick McDick [00:41:16] And yeah, it got to the point where I was, you know, I, I was in a relationship at the time and I wasn't paying attention to the relationship. There was some things going wrong with it that weren't the best. This is a whole bunch of things just kind of piled up on top of him. And it was, it was one really bad night, you know, looking back on it now, it wasn't that bad, but at the time, if you have all those things piling up on you, sometimes it's just one more tiny little piece of straw on top that's gonna break the axle, right? And I just, I'd only slept for about 45 minutes and I swung my legs outta bed to head back down to the office. And I just like, I, like, I was, I was just like, like, what am I doing with my life? Like I, I hate where I'm at right now. And when I, when I said it out loud, I'd thought it a million times, but when I said it out loud into my hands, I don't know why it was, but like, it just, all of a sudden I started thinking of my dad and what he'd talked about and the warning signs and everything, and I was like, I'm, I, I was like, I'm, I'm living what he warned me about, you know? And yeah, it's just, I remember some of the steps that we had to take to get things right for dad, and I just kinda, you know, I had a look at everything. It, it took, it took me six months, but I wound up leaving my position and, and leaving the oil field, but I, I didn't just drop and run because I don't believe he should ever do that to anybody. I've had people do that to me lots waiting to get a truck out to work and a lot of different things. But I, I just kind of made some changes. We hired a few people and I just slowly kind of made my way away from the company and I just decided I was gonna start focusing on myself a little bit more and get myself right. Maybe someday when I left there, I was like, you know what? I might wind up back here in a couple of years, or I might not wind up back at all.

Quickdick McDick [00:42:49] And I just, yeah, I, I found my, I found my place here at home and it, it took me leaving and it took 19 years for me to figure out that this is where I wanted to be. So,

Vance Crowe [00:42:59] Yeah, I mean, one of the things that I believe now that I'm older is that so much of depression, anxiety, even procrastination, kind of all reside, at least for me. I don't know if this, I'll be interested to hear your thoughts on, on like the same premise of you need to be feeling progress in order to be happy or satisfied. And we can be diluted into being like, ah, progress is, if I put three more years into this job, then I'll get to be the next level of a manager. And then if I put five more years into that, I, I don't think the human mind is designed for that. I think it is like, you need to be seeing progress. You need to see the fruits of your labor. And, and, and if you're in one of those situations where you have a ton of responsibility, maybe a lot of people really rely on you, but you can't seem to get things moving forward so that you feel like you're moving upstream. Like, it, it, that, that to me is like where things get bad and the only way out is to make progress in some way.

Quickdick McDick [00:43:59] Yeah. I, to a certain extent, I guess I, I would agree with that Vance, because yeah, we're designed to always be doing better. That's like, that's, that's human nature, you know, is you want to be moving forward, moving forward, progressing like you say, kind of thing. Right. And I, I definitely chase that in my previous career and it's very strange for me now because I'm just kinda, I'm kind of happy with where I'm at. And I think that's, it's another thing that I, I kind of talk about a little bit in that talk is we, we, we need to be able to, to be happy with what we have. Like we can't say, oh, oh, you know, I'm happy I went and bought a new truck, or I went and did this. And that made me happy. I think generally, you know, if I were to define happiness, you, you need to, you need to be happy in your soul of, of what you're doing. And you need to be okay at, in, in the moment of where you're at. And I think that's one thing that I've really followed since I left that, that previous career that I was in. I just make sure that it doesn't really matter to me what I'm doing. I just, I need to be okay with what I'm doing in the moment to when I'm doing it right. And I've just found my appreciation for things in life has changed so much. I used to be very, you know, worried about what, what kind of flooring was in my house and whether my garage that I parked my pickup truck in and the pickup had to be clean and all this had to be perfect and blah, blah, blah. And now, like, I mean, if I were to pull this back, I'm in my basement, it's a cinder block basement back here, and it's just a mess on the other side of me here, and I can process it different now. I'm like, yeah, okay, well this isn't quite right here. But the reason that this isn't quite right is 'cause I don't have the time to do that. 'cause I'm putting my time towards doing this and this makes me happy. And as long as I can justify things like that, I, I've, I've got away from that person that needs to see everything and everything to be perfect all the time, and I can just kinda live in my moment a little bit more.

Quickdick McDick [00:45:39] And that's, it's so important to do. You know, it'd be the same, be the same with you with, with your family too, Vince, you know what I mean? Like, it's just sometimes you can, you can shut this off a little bit and you're like, no, the reason I'm shutting this off is because I'm going to spend time with my family. Right.

Vance Crowe [00:45:52] Yeah. I mean, I think being able to find the spot where you're, you're happy with what you have, and yet, like, I, I don't know, I think for men there's something about people relying on you, whether that's the coworker that, that relies on you or your family, your parents, your children for sure. Or whatever, like, and at the times in my life where things have not been good, it's where either I'm not sure how to, how to be responsible in this circumstance, or I don't even, I don't even know. But for me, like I hear your story and it feels remarkably similar to mine, where it's like you hit these points and you're like, Hey, this is, I'm, I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing. And then you wake up and you're like, this is not good. I need to make some pretty big changes. But life doesn't have to be that way that no,

Quickdick McDick [00:46:38] It, it doesn't at all, man. But like, I, I like, I think one of the bigger things is, is that, you know, you don't have to, you don't have to change or uproot or do a lot of different things. There's a lot of different things that you can do in life just to, just to make you feel fulfilled, you know? And I think that's, that's the only thing that you need to do. But a lot of people will sometimes chase un unrealistic goals or have this vision of where they want to be, or social media is the devil. 'cause we'll see things on social media, we'll be like, well, why can't I have that? Or why can't I be like that kind of thing. And sometimes we get just so focused on what we want to have or what we want to be. We just lose track of the fact that we're actually living in a pretty good time, you know? And I, I, it's, I think it's so important to, to be able to find that, that space in your mind to be in. And sometimes that's a hard thing to find, but it's important to have it. That's the one thing I have found as a tool of mine to, to have is just that, that feeling of self-satisfaction. Just be like, no, it's cool. We're good. We'll get outta bed and we'll give her again here tomorrow, but I don't need to stay up until three 30 in the morning trying to make this right kinda thing. I can go to bed and we'll try again at it tomorrow. You know, that being said, I was up until five this morning, but that's because cows had little calves popping out of them. So,

Vance Crowe [00:47:53] So you're out on this comedy tour and as a comedian, you're putting ideas out into people. I know you said it's only 10 minutes of politics, but in that sort of interaction that you have with all of these crowds throughout a huge portion of rural Canada, what are you learning about the way that people are thinking and feeling that you might not be able to pick up on if you're not among the people?

Quickdick McDick [00:48:15] What I, what I learned very early and what I, it's kind of a different way that it's, once I get through the intro in my show, it's kind of how I set people up for what we're about to talk about is that there are very, very, very many people out there, Canadians specifically is, is, you know, my, my genre that I've performed to, but not just here, but you know, Americans as well. There are a lot of people out there that have a lot in common that think the same, that allow social media and mainstream news outlets and certain politicians to allow us to believe that we're different from each other, or that we believe different things, which we, we just don't. And there is no better place to prove that than getting out and getting into the community and having people come together. And I spent, I spent an hour and a half, sometimes two hours proving it to people that we all have a lot in common, you know? And even when I get down into some of the, the tiny little bit of political stuff that I do, you know, it's people in, in general have a, have a very similar opinion on everything that's happening in the world. And a lot of people come to me after my show and they say, you say the stuff that we're afraid to say. And my response to that is, why are you afraid to say it? W why why are you, why are you, we shouldn't live in a world where you're afraid to say what you believe in or what you think is right or what you think is wrong, or whether you're afraid that people are gonna attack you for saying what you're saying. If, if you're saying something and you believe, you believe it to be true and you've done some research on it and you're like, you know what, no, this is like, this is my opinion and this is why it's okay to have that opinion.

Quickdick McDick [00:49:47] But the one thing that I'll say to people ism, make sure that when you have that opinion that that you have a reason for it. And then you, you can back that up. And don't be afraid to have that opinion changed by somebody else if all of a sudden they bring a different side of the argument to you that you've never thought before, just because this is your opinion one day and somebody has a good conversation with you and they're like, well, you know, there's three different reasons on my side of why I believe this way. Don't be afraid to be like, you know what, that makes sense. Maybe, maybe I should start looking at it in that light as well. You know? And that's kind of, you know, a Cole's Notes edition of what, you know, the second half of my show is about, you know, I talk about a lot of things about the, like, you know, the different things nowadays that, that we see as, as really important things to be discussing in politics and in society right now. I I make the joke of, you know, a 10-year-old identifying as non-binary and wanting to be able to go into whichever change room they want to. I make the joke of being like, well, you know, I remember wanting to go into whatever change, I change room. I wanted to when I was 10 'cause I wanted to see what was going on over there too. But we didn't, we went to our change room, we did our thing and, and then we went on with life a little bit, right? And I, you know, talk about things that we focused on in the nineties versus what we do now. And I make the joke on that, that we, we did that in the nineties because we didn't have, we didn't have these things in our, in our hands every second of the day and every minute. And we didn't have BeReal and Snapchat and Instagram and all this stuff. You know, we actually had to interact with human beings.

Quickdick McDick [00:51:19] And you, you'd be surprised how many people at the end of your show, I've, I've had people, like I did a show at the Vic Juba, my comedy show there. And I think there was somebody that got upset 'cause I do a bit called the Bud Light Bit. And they, they were upset that they thought I was being transphobic and homophobic, which I wasn't. And I had the show recorded. And so I just sent 'em the audio clip. They'd made an article and everything and they'd misquoted what I'd said. And I was like, Hey, listen, just 'cause it's what you think you heard me say, it's not what I said. And like, that's a big problem with society now. Well, is that what the person said or is what you think they said because you were upset because they were talking about a sensitive topic. You, you, you need to be able to just turn your feelers on and open up your mind and listen to what they say, you know, not just be enraged immediately and just think as soon as I say the word trans, that, that I'm transphobic because I'm not, I'm not transphobic, I'm not homophobic. I spend my entire show making fun of everybody equally farmers first and then I just poke holes in what we do in society of, of, of what's happening. Right. And yeah, it's, it's been, it's been crazy when you go over to that side. But generally, to answer your question, that's, we, we just, we all have so much in common. It's just, it's a lot of stuff that people just don't want to talk about because they don't want the, you know, the craziness that comes with it. They don't want people coming unhinged at them for talking about a sensitive topic. I think sensitive topics are the most important ones to talk about.

Vance Crowe [00:52:44] Yeah. In fact, there's maybe the only ones that that move the, the line on things when you, so I, I was thinking about this the other day. I had a chance to go to Canada right before COVID hit and then again later, once it started to open up. And I can say that I intuitively feel like the culture has changed, but I'm only up there a few days here and there. Can you spot parts of culture that have changed as a result? Or, you know, just a function of being after COVID?

Quickdick McDick [00:53:15] Yeah, like, especially, especially like online culture. I think it changed a lot just because there was so much distension between people. You know, obviously like, like the vaccine was a, I mean, it was a huge thing worldwide, not just in Canada kind of thing, but with different restrictions and lockdowns in the way that certain parts of society were treated was definitely a thing that, that has made people hypersensitive. And there's a lot of people I think that, that won't get over that. And anyone that was, you know, subjugated to, to pandemic restrictions, I and a vax pass, I, I think they've got a right to be pissed off because I, I don't think it ever should have come down to where it did, but there's people that will never let that go. And to a certain extent, I don't blame 'em. And, and I think that's, that's okay, you know, but I mean, just make sure that you have the right reasons for it kind of thing. There's people that won't let the, the mentality of it go and like pandemic in general, it won't matter what anything anybody says, they're gonna have what they believe is to be true and they will not hear any, any other facts disputing it. And they will take what they've got to the grave and they will die on that hill and it doesn't matter what it is, you know. And I think that's, it's very hypersensitive that way. We, it's like all of a sudden you, you snap your fingers and overnight we're not allowed to have a civil debate in society anymore. It's just everyone's super hypersensitive to everything everybody says. Right? And then unfortunately, I think we had a, I think we had leadership in government, both provincial and federal in Canada, that that used the pandemic as a wedge issue.

Quickdick McDick [00:54:49] And I think that's probably the most disappointing thing I've ever seen out of, out of politicians ever. I hate, I hate seeing issues like that, especially of public health. I hate seeing them be used as a wedge issue. And I think politicians are, are, are getting more and more professional at using wedge issues, our prime minister, I'd say first and foremost. And then to come back and be like, you know, we need to get together and we need to, you know, we need, and it's just every other time you turn around it, it's, it's somebody driving a wedge between people. And if there's one thing we need to fix with society is people to just be able to, to come together and you need to be able to sit across a table from somebody that's, that you have a different opinion of and have a beer with them. You, we need to be able to do that. And the internet and social media is, is taking that away from us. And it's, it's polarizing us even worse, you know? So when you have your elected officials doing it on the news and then you have social media and algorithms putting you in groups and keeping you in groups and then putting different opinions that you don't want to hear in front of you. What we're losing is the ability to, to sit across the bar from each other and have a beer and you're gonna check yourself a little bit different when you're talking in person with somebody because you stand the chance if you say something that's really gonna piss 'em off that you shouldn't have said, they might reach across the table and pop you in the nose. And if you stand a risk of having that physical altercation in real life, you're gonna handle your argument different and you're gonna, you're gonna work with the person that you're having a conversation with. But like, we don't do that now. And social media has turned us into monsters where we don't want to do that.

Quickdick McDick [00:56:24] You know, I don't know, am I wrong? Do you see things differently or what?

Vance Crowe [00:56:28] No, I mean, I, I actually, I think that you mentioned earlier about the self pouring bars, right? And that requires high trust networks that's like, hey, if there's somebody here that's breaking the rules, we're all gonna know it and that's gonna reflect poorly on them and you can do it

Quickdick McDick [00:56:42] And you're gonna call 'em out on it too. You're gonna

Vance Crowe [00:56:44] Get away with it, right? You know them and you, you, so like, I think Canada has this, you know, really intricate high trust culture, particularly out west, particularly in the rural America or in rural Canada. And I think that that was taken advantage of. And really as a citizen, you have three options. When your government is treating you, mistreating you really in, in all you can have loyalty, voice or exit, right? You can either be like, ah, I'm just gonna go along with it. You can voice your opinion and say, this is some bullshit, I'm not going along with it. Or you can exit, which, you know, for whatever that means you try and become your own sovereign province. Do you try and just leave and move somewhere else. But I think that for a long, long time, Canadians thought loyalty is the, is the fastest path for us to all achieve success together. And when I go back to Canada now, I don't sense that I, I sense that they, many people are definitely more vocal than they ever would've been before about the problems. Not just saying like, ah, Ottawa, but like way more vocal. And then two, I think there are a lot more people that are prone towards exit, whether that's them leaving or the province leaving. But I, I was shocked that was the largest culture change for me. What do, did you see that, do you, do you agree? Yeah,

Quickdick McDick [00:58:04] Yeah. Ab absolutely you do, you absolutely see people getting more vocal and I think, you know, a a lot of that might've fawn from the, from the tracker convoy, you know, because the, the global exposure that it got kind of thing, right? But, but like definitely people are getting more vocal and I, I'd I'd just like to see right now in Canada, as, as much as I hate every time we do it, I mean it would be good to see, I think it would be healthy for democracy to see a federal election right now because I mean our, our current party is being propped up, you know, in a coalition government there's a lot of, and there's a lot of trust that's been broken with the government. And when you get a federal party that's been in power for more than eight years, it doesn't matter which side it is, whether it's right or whether it's left. The bureaucrats that are entrenched within one level below your political ruling party in Canada, everybody just starts getting caught up in corruption and scandals. And now every second day we see, you know, the arrived can app scandal here and now in Canada and now Trudeau's coming out with an online harms bill that they want to implement that could put people in prison for life and a few other things. And you're like at, at, at some point in time you gotta be like, okay, you know what? We need to go back to the polls in a democracy and make sure that the people that are making these ridiculous decisions are actually representing the, the, the proportionate part of the population that are keeping them in power. 'cause right now, you know, it's, it's another party that's running a coalition government and it's, I think it's bad.

Quickdick McDick [00:59:36] I think it's bad for our country. And yes, I would be saying that even if it was, you know, if it was a conservative government in power right now and, and all that's all that you see is corruption. It's, it's happening with the SAS party right now. There's some bad things happening with the provincial government in Saskatchewan right now. And the reason it's happening is because they have been in power here for way too long and they do not have a, a strong opposition that's gonna take 'em down. And that's what it takes to make a, you know, to make a democracy work. And we don't see it provincially, we don't see it federally right now,

Vance Crowe [01:00:06] You and I talked about this when we were at Sean Newman's rural versus, or rural and urban Sean Newman presents thing. And I think one of the big challenges when you're a kid, nobody tells you, like as they're teaching you about democracy, they're like, this is the greatest form of government on earth. This is just the best, this is the greatest. And then you get older and you realize like, wait a second, if you don't have checks and balances on democracy, it becomes mob rule, right? Like there's a benefit to us not saying like, Hey, let's just let the mo whatever the most people want, 51%, then you can do whatever you want to the other 49%. And I think that this is a level of nuance that is just not going on, right? People, people will shove the line, you know, well this is democratic process, we gotta do it the democratic way. But like, there's real challenges with that because like in a place like Canada, Saskatchewan and Alberta constitute a huge amount of the land population, a huge amount of the resources. And yet you're totally dominated by just a few cities and like how do you exist in a world where you're trying to live by democracy? But democracy ends up being mob rule.

Quickdick McDick [01:01:15] Yep. 338 seats in Canada. We've got 14 in Saskatchewan. We have the most arable farmland that exists in this country, you know, and we got a population, we're just over 1.2 million people that live here, right? So we're a huge, huge land mass with huge amount of resources. Same with Alberta is huge amounts of resources and we're, we're very underrepresented, right? And when you look at where our, our government and everybody, well basically, I, I don't, I can't remember the number off the top of my head Vance, but a, a larger part of the population of Canada actually lives below the 49th parallel over in Ontario there, right? Like yeah.

Vance Crowe [01:01:52] It's like, it's like 80%, it's, it's like, yeah,

Quickdick McDick [01:01:54] It's

Vance Crowe [01:01:55] A huge percentage. Yeah. It's,

Quickdick McDick [01:01:56] It's crazy. Yeah. And and they're, and they're the, they're the people that are making the rules for us, right? And you know, like I get, I get the idea of, of federation and I, I get the idea of democracy and I get how it all needs to work, but like at some point in time we just, we just need to, we need to have a little bit of a change. You need to get a little bit louder of a voice to represent a lot of the western parts of Canada. And it's, but it's been that way for a long time, you know, but we need it because there's so many important resources that we have here in what we do. And even I say it in my show, but I mean, you get into rural Ontario, like everyone out here thinks that everyone in Ontario's bad Ontario equals bad. Quebec equals bad. That's not what it is. It's just, it it is. I'm telling you man, I said this at the SMP presents. It is, it is rural versus urban. And you get into, into, you know, rural, rural Quebec, rural Ontario, they're no different than we are. But we'd all believe, we'd like to believe that they're different, but they're not. Yeah.

Vance Crowe [01:02:54] I mean, I got a buddy, a, a good listener, Jay Curtis, who like talks to me all the time about what's going on in Canada and he's in Ontario and he is just as under the thumb of the people living in the city as anybody in Alberta or, or absolutely Saskatchewan. Absolutely. He's just, he just doesn't have a bunch of western wide open spaces I don't think

Quickdick McDick [01:03:14] I had, for a small period of time, I kept a, I kept a picture on my phone of the electoral map by riding in in Ontario for people that would be like, well, anything east of Manitoba's garbage. I was like, if you expand this screen here, have a look. This is the, this is the electoral map of Ontario by ridings. And I was like, you see, there's just these tiny little red pieces that are in Toronto and Ottawa and the rest of it's blue and, and it's exactly how it looks in Sask, well not in Saskatchewan so much. 'cause basically nobody votes liberal here or Alberta. But I mean it like, it's, it, you, you can see the urban rural divide. Even if you go provincially, if you do it in Saskatchewan, if you go provincially, if you do it in Alberta and go provincially, it's the, the, the elections are split urban and rural. The, the electoral maps are like, it's, it's all right there in color for all of us to see. Like that's the divide that we have going on. The reason we have is 'cause we all just live different lives and that's okay. But I mean, you know, g guys like me out here. I talk to people out here in, in Tofal and I say, well, you know, like, like are you concerned about about safe injection sites and homelessness? And they're like, no. I was like, why? Because we never see it. Exactly. Doesn't mean that it doesn't exist in a, in a huge, huge scope in our province and it's a problem that we need to deal with. But same as when you go into people and talk to people in, in, in the city and be go, are you, are you concerned about where, where the crop insurance fund is in Saskatchewan right now? And they're like, well no, 'cause they don't see it doesn't mean that it's not protecting billions worth of dollars of exports in Saskatchewan and billions of dollars worth of agriculture industry.

Quickdick McDick [01:04:54] So they're all important things. We all just want to have our important stuff looked after, right. And that's, it's, it's something that we gotta try and overcome a little bit, man.

Vance Crowe [01:05:03] So what's your take on the, the future of Canada? If I were to say what, what is gonna be different or the same in five years? Do you have a picture for that?

Quickdick McDick [01:05:12] Yeah, wherever there's still gonna be a group of people that are mad at whatever government is ruling and that's, I mean, that's kind of gonna be the way it's always gonna be, but I think we're gonna see a, I think we're gonna see a big change in federal government. There's some pretty crazy polling numbers going on right now that would lead to a a, a conservative super majority, which we haven't seen, I believe since the Mo Rooney days, you know, but I fear that what's gonna happen is we're gonna get another party in and by the time they get their, their policies set in place and try and get things set up and try and make things better, they're gonna have four years to do it and then everyone's gonna want results in four years and they're not gonna get 'em. I think the trick to a government is getting to the eight year mark here in Canada to actually start making some tangible differences and, you know, cost of living and some other things that we have going on here in Canada. And I don't think we'll see it for eight years, but I mean now our government's had eight years and everything's is, it's the worst it's ever been and we haven't seen it, we haven't seen 'em do better. So it's time to change that. And you know, man, I hope I, I just hope things start to calm down and, and get back to a little bit normal. I don't know how we ever turn the temperature down on social media, whether that's a thing we can do or not, I'm not sure. But I think we're gonna see, I think we're gonna see a lot of people. We're seeing it already in, in, you know, in the urban areas here. We get a lot of people from cities that are, are still after the pandemic are coming out and trying to find houses that are available for sale that are affordable. People from Ontario are coming over into the prairie provinces here where it's moderately, you know, more affordable to live. You don't make as good of a living out here dollar wise.

Quickdick McDick [01:06:43] But lots of people are willing to trade that for some different things in life now. Right. So

Vance Crowe [01:06:47] Yeah, I heard Danielle Smith talking the premier of Alberta talking on Sean Newman's podcast about how she wants to grow Alberta from 5 million to 10 million people. And I, I was kinda looking at that being like, why you got a pretty good thing going here. Like 10, 10 million people isn't going to get you outpacing the electoral system in in Ontario. It's just gonna give you a lot more urban challenges that your, your province will have to prop up. What are your thoughts there?

Quickdick McDick [01:07:16] Absolutely it will. And like we're, our, our healthcare system is, is in shambles right now. Alberta is, Saskatchewan is Canada wide. I don't think we have anybody that has, that has free healthcare working very good in Canada here right now. And you know, a lot of it's got to do with money. A lot of it's got to do with, you know, with workplace environments. A lot of it's got to do with people having the opportunity to go south and make more money in the states with private healthcare, a big group of people that are fighting against privately funded healthcare. And man, that's a deep, well we could get into, but it's something that we gotta start taking a lot more seriously here in Canada because to, to get medical attention is, is it's an issue here.

Vance Crowe [01:07:55] Do you have the option to go private if you, if you have the money

Quickdick McDick [01:07:57] For it? No, it, with, with certain, with certain things you do. But in most cases in Alberta you can get some different private cares, different private surgeries, but that's like MRIs and joint stuff. And I think we, man, even Saskatchewan, we were our federal go or our, our provincial government was, was paying to have people travel to Alberta to get mammograms 'cause they can't get 'em here in Saskatchewan. And like that's a mess. That's, that's called something that is not being managed properly in, in my opinion, right? And then a lot of people fly down to the states and pay for it in the states or fly to Mexico and pay for, you know, different dental things or different surgeries in Mexico, you know. But for anybody that thinks that we have a fantastic free healthcare in Canada, first of all, our healthcare is not free. Over just about about half of any income that I make goes to the federal and provincial governments on income tax half 50%. That's

Vance Crowe [01:08:48] Insane.

Quickdick McDick [01:08:48] I wasn't stuttering when I said that.

Vance Crowe [01:08:50] I can't, I

Quickdick McDick [01:08:50] Can't even

Vance Crowe [01:08:51] That's like, that's so staggering. That's like, yeah,

Quickdick McDick [01:08:54] 50%

Vance Crowe [01:08:55] Of the time you're working, you're working for someone else.

Quickdick McDick [01:08:58] Yeah, that's right. Yeah. And then provincially here in Saskatchewan, we pay an 11, 11% sales tax on, on most of what we have, right? So you have your 50% and then tag 11% basically on everything else on top of that. And then on booze smokes, all that other stuff, there's excise tax and everything. So to anybody that's listening, that's like Canada's fantastic and they have free healthcare, nothing's free in this world, nothing's free. We are, we are overtaxed and we do not get good value back on those tax dollars because a lot of these, a lot of these industries all become very bureaucratically, top heavy and that's an issue, right? And, and once, once the bureaucracy starts going too deep and that's what what happens with staffers and the federal government and everything, just because you're, just because your political party changes, it doesn't mean that there's not millions and not billions of dollars that are, you know, being shuffled away out the door on backdoor deals, people making money. It happens here in Saskatchewan as well. And that's, that's, it's frustrating, you know, and then you hear people being like, oh, Canada, you got free healthcare, that must be great. I'm like, it's very, very broken. Yeah.

Vance Crowe [01:10:02] How do you like lines? I mean, nobody likes lines in particular. If you're trying to get,

Quickdick McDick [01:10:06] You

Vance Crowe [01:10:06] Know, help with something that's like, it's so the, the medical situation has got to be fixed probably by some free mar I, you know, I'm a free market capitalist to, to my core. But like the US insurance system is such a nightmare mess. You know, I said it before my daughter had RSV, she's one years old and RSV makes these kids at night when they go to sleep, they lose, they have so little oxygen because it's cut off in their lungs that, That, like I, I took her to the doctor and they're like, you either take her to the hot emergency room right now or we are calling an ambulance. So you're like rushing over there, you're putting a little oxygen mask on her, you're like taking care of it. We from the insurance company, we get that it was not medically necessary. And so, and this is like clearly just an automated thing that they've done to make it so like somebody doesn't have to pay and in case you don't push back on this in the right amount of time, but you're like, well it's not, like I said, let's get this girl an oxygen mask a doctor did inside of the emergency room. Anyway, I could pontificate about this, but like neither of these systems are working and it should likely be get as much of the government and I mean the insurance is is government run largely I think, I think that we just we're government run just in a different way and it's a, it's a nightmare.

Quickdick McDick [01:11:24] People, people would disagree with me I think on some parts of this. But like I, I came from Alberta back to Saskatchewan and everyone always thought that Saskatchewan insurance is so much better because it's, it's a crown corporation, SGI and you have to run your insurance, your auto insurance and everything through SGI and I, I hated coming back to Saskatchewan for that reason because you know, insurance in Alberta is, is privately capitalist private insurance. And I, yeah, it started off being expensive when I first got to Alberta, but after I put some time in there and had a good driving record and got a little bit of a, you know, a, a history lined up with this, I mean I could insure my motorcycle, my pickup in my house, it was, and I was under, I was under a thousand dollars a year and I come over into Saskatchewan and I can't even insure one pickup truck here for less than $1,200 a year, let alone a house. And now you gotta put your motorcycle and all this stuff on it, right? And they're just like, oh well we just treat everybody equally kind of thing, right? You're like, I hear ya. But I was rewarded for good behavior and not using the system over where it was private kind of thing. And whereas here it's just no matter what everybody uses, just like, oh, guess what everyone, we need a 10% hike across the board this year. 'cause there's been too many claims kind of thing, right? So yeah, but you know, and, and people could fight either side of that forever. I don't think either side is, is perfect and I don't know what the solution is to it. I just know that in my situation, I was in a lot better shape when it was private insurance than it was when it was public.

Vance Crowe [01:12:48] Well, insurance is one of those things that we are watching the inflation rate just absolutely run wild. I mean insurance on all things here, healthcare, auto, home, like I, I got mine, you're like, you're talking about like a 20% increase. Like this is insane. This is insane. Absolutely insane. Insane, right? Like how can you possibly plan for these kinds of things? And if you're like, I am running a business and you've got an insurance program on that like, oh man. And, and like, like you don't get any better healthcare for having paid for that. You're still getting whatever you got before. So in Canada, can you guys, can you guys have a concierge doctor? Can you pay a doctor and become like a part of a club and then be able to go to that doctor whenever you want? You

Quickdick McDick [01:13:31] Know what, I don't, I don't know the answer to that Vance, like, so privately, like if the, if the community of Form Lake was like, Hey, we're bringing in a doctor and it's gonna be our doctor wage,

Vance Crowe [01:13:39] Oh, I didn't even even think about it like that. We just do it. Like there's a, there are services here that are concierge doctors and people pay into it and then like, you know, I stuck a Q-tip in my ear too far and I was able to get a doctor on the phone in 30 seconds, right?

Quickdick McDick [01:13:52] Yeah. Like to my knowledge, we don't have anything like that. But I could be wrong. I like, like where we are here, we don't have anything like that. But I, I'd always thrown the idea around to being like, 'cause I know that there's enough, there's enough people around here that if you got a big enough group of community together, just be like, hey, this is gonna be our foam lake doctor and if you pay taxes or pay into this thing, this is gonna be our doctor or two doctors that we pay to have here in our community. And you can't come and see 'em if you're from outside of the community and you don't pay into this group kind of thing. But I mean, lots of people are like, yeah, we should do that. And then lots of people get mad and shut it down and whatever. It is what it is. But, you know, even like all this stuff, I think it, I I I try not to be this anti anti anti-government all the time kind of thing. But I mean, we just need government to get out of the way with a lot of this stuff. Because even if you look at, you know, I got a, I got a brother that just renewed his mortgage, you know, he's got, he's pumped up and he is like, we got this big break from the feds on $10 at a childcare that, that they were trying to implement across Canada with the federal government. And so here's a a a party that's like, Hey, we're doing this and we're gonna make a daycare affordable for your kids. But then what they're doing to the rest of the economy, interest rates are gone through the roof. And he is like, what I just saved on daycare. He's like, I just had to renew my mortgage and it ate up all my savings and my mortgage. 'cause the economy's completely fucked. Well, are we really winning here? You know what I mean? Like, it's, it's, it's, it's frustrating, you know, it just seems like every time anybody gets involved in anything, they just make it more expensive.

Vance Crowe [01:15:19] So I I had a question. I think you can answer this probably better than almost anybody. I know I was talking with some people when I was up in Canada about the different ways that the city kind of tilts the playing board towards them. So when they were building a rail line out in Saskatchewan and Alberta, they said, Hey, look at all this land. You're gonna be able to grow wheat on. Unfortunately, you're not gonna be allowed to build the mills out here. You're gonna have to ship your wheat back. And that way we'll always process it and then somebody's like, oh, that's nothing man. You should hear what they did when they nationalized the mineral rights or the oil underneath the ground. Can you explain to me, if you have property in, in Canada and you have oil underneath you or natural gas, is that your natural gas or does the queen end it or the king?

Quickdick McDick [01:16:03] You could, you can get surface, surface rights is what you can get. Right? And, and oil companies will pay you for surface rights if they set up infrastructure on your land, but you do not get rights on what is down below. That's the, the government's got that.

Vance Crowe [01:16:17] And is that always been the case

Quickdick McDick [01:16:20] To, to my knowledge, I can't remember when it changed. Vance, I, I should read up on it. It's been a while since I've looked into it, but yeah, like, like to my knowledge it's that's, that's just how it is in Canada and how it's always been. And the government's always had their eyes on what's kicking around down below the ground there kind of thing. Potash, any of that kind of stuff, right? Yeah. There's, yeah, there's a list of certain amount of minerals and natural resources in Canada that's just like if you've got 'em, you actually don't have 'em, you're just living on top of them and you can have surface rights off of what you've got and the oil company can, you know, rent your land that they build a, a driveway down or let's even say, let's say it's, it's a, it's a wind turbine, you know, you get surface rates and I believe some of the companies are actually, now this is Alberta, I'm not talking Saskatchewan. Some of the companies are like, for X amount of electricity that's generated, you get a bonus off of it kind of thing. But for the most part it's, it's, it's surface rights, the access and the land where the tower is standing and that's all you get.

Vance Crowe [01:17:18] So to me, this is so wild because you know that the government is not going to be a good steward of something that's far, far away from them. Whereas if you are a landowner, you can choose like, hey, this is how I wanna preserve this. I wanna pass this down to my kids. I wanna, I wanna keep that oil in the ground. But all those choices just ripped outta your hands when, when individuals can't hold mineral rights.

Quickdick McDick [01:17:39] Yeah. They're not yours. It's surface rights and that's what you get. Yeah. And it's, you know, and that's the thing, you know, like getting two conspiracy theorists here, like what do you, what do you really own in your life? You know, you got a title that says that this 160 acres that your house is built on and you paid for the house kind of thing. But, you know, like says, who says, okay don

Vance Crowe [01:18:00] Government, if don't pay your property tax, watch how long you own that house for,

Quickdick McDick [01:18:04] Right? Yeah. But like that's, yeah, that's the kind of thing, you know, so we've never really left colonialism to a certain extent. You know, K king and king and country still kind of come first. It's just king is now we call it a democracy and it's the government and you gotta pay them kind of thing. And like yeah, go, go, go try and be a a, you know, a off-grid man of the land or person of the land kind of thing and be like, well you know what, I'm not gonna drive on the roads anymore and I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna go to town, I'm not gonna do anything. I'm just gonna live on my land. How long is it till the sheriff's knocking on your door saying this ain't your land anymore? Right.

Vance Crowe [01:18:37] Well, you know what's different than all that Bitcoin? You do own your Bitcoin

Quickdick McDick [01:18:44] Straight up man. But like, I mean, you know, and like it's, it was good to to listen to Chris Barber there, you know, too. 'cause he's got Yeah, it's like the, the idea behind it is great, but I mean really when you look at at how our monetary system works right now, like, I mean there's been times over the last little while, especially when our federal government started freezing citizens bank accounts here in Canada. I was like, you know, like part of me thinks that I should go and just empty all my bank accounts and have 'em in brown paper notes or plastic here now in Canada. All wide variety of colors that we've got here. And I should just have that and I should have 'em buried in a safe and I should, I, I should control that myself. But I mean, in all reality you still don't control it. It's just a note that your government says is worth something.

Vance Crowe [01:19:27] Yeah. And they can print as many as they want and then it's just like monopoly. Yeah,

Quickdick McDick [01:19:31] Yeah, exactly. You

Vance Crowe [01:19:32] Know, the the physical cash thing is, is a, is a real thing. I was flying on a plane the other day to Virginia and this guy was like, yeah, I was down in Texas when the at and t stopped working and he was like, I couldn't access any of my, my tickets, I couldn't do anything. And he was like, have you thought about what you would do if you couldn't use your credit card or you couldn't use your phone while you're traveling? And I was like, no. And he was like,

Quickdick McDick [01:19:55] Dude, it's crazy.

Vance Crowe [01:19:56] Yeah. So I've now started carrying cash with me while I travel because, and in small bills because like, yep, how are you going to get back home if you're in Virginia? If you don't know anybody, you can't call anyone. You know, like everybody now is on their own like trying to figure all this stuff out. The only way you're gonna get back home, you know, if, if I gotta go 300 miles is either walking or having cash and get somebody to, to pay you across there. So I'm no longer traveling without cash because that guy was like, it was about an eight and a half hour ordeal for him. And he was like, it so thoroughly woke me up to how much I've just, I've just been like, oh, everything will be fine all the time. He's like, maybe it won't. Like,

Quickdick McDick [01:20:35] But like for, for some, for some reason though, like that's how my dad always used to travel when we'd go to rodeo in a bunch of places. 'cause that's how you had to, you had to travel with cash. And I always remember like, it was a habit before we went on a trip. Dad would go and get cash, then we'd go on a trip kind of thing. And for some reason I always kept that mindset with me. I've always kept it. And there was a time, I wanna say it was RBCI, I think it was in Canada here, but there was a whole plethora of credit cards and debit cards that stopped working. And there was so many people that got stranded in the craziest places just because they didn't have a, a paper note on them to be able to pay for something, you know? And it sounds crazy, but like, you know, I always, when I'm traveling, I travel with a little bit of cash on me and I've always got a, I carry a couple of checks with me. Vince just, I've got a couple of of checks with me and I'm like, well, you know what, I don't have cash. I don't have a card, but here's a check. Will you take this note from my bank saying that I'm good for the money and go from there. But you know,

Vance Crowe [01:21:32] Well let's hope that none of it comes to that man. Quickdick, McDick, I'm so glad that you were willing to come on. If people are looking to catch your next show, when are, when are you gonna get back out on the road and, and be,

Quickdick McDick [01:21:44] Oh man, be available? So I'll hit the road, new show launches the last week in April, but it's just at a small community event in Shiho. And then I only do a handful of events through the summer just 'cause of this pasky farming thing that I do on the side that requires a lot of my time. And, and then I'll be hitting the road again basically in October. I'm all over, all over Alberta into Manitoba, central Saskatchewan. If you go to, I'm gonna list the shows here shortly. If you go to Quickdick McDick dot ca you scroll down to the bottom, it says upcoming events and anything that I have listed, I try and get up there so people can grab tickets for 'em. And, and yeah, then hopefully now that I'm back home off the road, it's gonna be good to, to get some time to get some productions back up on YouTube. I've been lagging on that a little bit, but there's, there's only so much of me at the end of the day that I can make happen, you know what I mean? So getting back into that. But yeah man, it, it was super good to to have a chat with you again. It's been a while and, and yeah, always enjoyed listening for sure Vance.

Vance Crowe [01:22:37] Well thanks Quick.