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Episode #42 - Life of a Volleyball Dad with Gerry Dee

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In this episode we discuss youth volleyball in Canada, the ins and outs of raising high performance athletes, and the mindset and attitude necessary to grow your craft. We also talk about what it means to chase your dreams and go for it big with no regrets. 

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well, everyone, and welcome back to the Pit to Pro Podcast. In today's episode, we're joined by Jerry d. Jerry's a standup comedian, a director, a producer, and a writer. He's best known for his TV show, Mr. D, as well as hosting Family Feud Canada. Jerry is also a passionate volleyball dad who is working hard to grow the game across the country. Join us as we discuss youth volleyball in Canada, raising high performance athletes. The mindset and attitude necessary to grow your craft as well as what it means to chase your dreams and go for it big.

Mathias

Before we get started, I'd like to introduce our sponsor for today's episode.

Jesse

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Mathias

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Jesse

If you're not sold yet and you just want to test it out, all you gotta do is follow the link in the description of this episode or our Instagram bio and sign up for the 7 day free trial. Then use code ARMSWING50 at checkout and get 50 percent off the first month after the trial.

but now ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Jerry d. Hello and welcome to the Pit the Pro podcast. Jesse, Matthias, and Aaron Elson. This podcast is meant to guide young athletes on their journey to high performance. Join us as we share our first hand experiences in an effort to help you reach your own valuable goals.

Mathias

And we're live. All righty. Welcome back everyone to the Pitch Pro Podcast. It has been a while, but we're coming back with an absolute heater of an episode. We've got our first Canadian celebrity on the podcast, Jerry d. Welcome to the show.

Gerry

Alright. How you doing, guys? Okay, good.

Jesse

Oh good. Thanks for coming on. Well, let's dive right in. I wanna know there's a clip and a lot of our listeners have, uh, sent it and asked like, oh, you gotta ask him about it. The one of you hitting the volleyball? Yeah. Off the box and hitting them in the face. Who came up with that? Was that your That was me. When I taught

Gerry

ette, I used to teach grade five phy ed. And I would, I always loved teaching volleyball at the volleyball unit. I loved playing volleyball. Like I played grade 1112. I started to pick it up late. I loved it. I played for fun beach in my, in my twenties. So, um, I went to York. Uh, I got to, you know, mess around sometimes with the men's team and I, you know, I just picked it up late and liked it. So I ended up love, loved teaching it when I had the phys ed unit and, um, you know, try to learn a lot about it. And I would do that drill. I would stand with the, on the, on the bench and. I would hit the ball and like the non-athletic kids just get, you know, it didn't happen like quite as bad as the clip. But

Mathias

yeah,

Gerry

they would take it in the face. I'm like, you gotta get your hands up. Like, but you know, you have such a wide range of athleticism in grade five, you know, in grade six or any grades. But usually by, you know, grade 10, the non-athletic kids drop phys ed. But grade five, they all take it. And some just had no hand eye at all. And it would just. Didn't matter how slow I hit it, it hit him in the face. So, and then we did, um, we did a little, you know, there was always that guy you saw him on online with the volleyball, the joke, he plays soccer but hits him in the face and Yeah, yeah, yeah. And stole a little bit of that. So we merged the two together. But yeah, everything on the show was kind of based on something real a little bit. And that was, uh, that was kind of how I. When I did the volleyball unit, I would stand on a bench and hit balls with them. Maybe not as hard as that.

Jesse

Yeah, yeah. But yeah, your shoulder was, your shoulder was on fire, that video. Yeah. It's live.

Gerry

Pretty good. Pretty good player. Should have played hard. Got a

Jesse

can. You got a cannon

Gerry

probably better now than I ever was. Well, no, I'm not better. But I, I, I, uh, I can't jump at all, like I, I three inch vertical, but I, I've just training my kids. I've hit so many balls over the years and I've probably gotten a little better with ball control just. Hitting them, serving to them, you know, three kids a play. And so, um, I love it. It's, as you guys know, it's just a great sport that sadly I don't find boys take to it as early as girls. Um, obviously you guys might have, but I mean, like, I think we need, there's so much needs to be done in Canada, um, starting younger. Uh, but we fight hockey and uh, and basketball and soccer, which are great sports too. So. For some reason volleyball, you get the boys later to the game. Uh, my son started very young'cause his sister, older sisters played so, and he took to it at a young age. But, uh, there's a, yeah, there's a lot of things I'd like to see change in the sport that, you know, as I'm, as I'm in it as a dad and, and see what my kids to our smaller players go through. Hmm. Tall person sport, it's a tall person sport. It's, it's skews tall, it favors tall. Um, and, and most sports do, but I think volleyball is, uh, certainly, uh, no different.

Jesse

Hmm. Uh, how do you, in your opinion, how are you gonna, or what's, what's the remedy to starting earlier without, um, well inflict inflicting burnout, because that's a big thing. Especially burnout

Gerry

is, is a big thing. And I think we, we get away from this, especially with hitters, right? Like you, you know, you're at the mercy of the level of coaches you get. In any country. In any sport. Um, but I come from an athletic injuries background, so I took athletic injuries in university, so we, we don't manage load, um mm-hmm. With hitters. Really, it's not talked about with, with kids. Um, thankfully when they're younger they're probably not swinging as hard. Um, technique is very few can teach it, and that's any sport, you know, you get, you know, you usually rely on former players that made a, got into. You know, like Nick does and Mathias does with Swing Arm Academy. Arm Swing Academy, um,

Jesse

I like swing arm. You should change it. French.

Gerry

French, it's swing arm. You would flip it. Um, but it, it's, it's a lot of that is hard to teach. A lot of people don't know to teach it or don't have the time. Right. You're coaching, you're running systems. You're, so I think that the, the, the proper. Load management as far as you said, overuse. We don't play a lot of sports anymore. We kind of, when I grew up, you played everything and now we specialize. And I see with my own kids, like, yeah, you can burn out. You know, and now we go right to beach. Right. So it's hard though. You know, my, my son for example, loves volleyball, wants to go play beach. I'm gonna gonna say no, but I limit, right? Like try to limit the clinics and the extra stuff. That's when I think, um, the burnout can kind of happen. Uh, but I think we're, we're doing a poor job of addressing the smaller players. And I, I, right now I've been more involved in girls'cause my older two are girls and, and, um, the focus has been on that and growing the game. I think girls, it's a unique sport where girls kind of lead the charge. Uh, you know, uh, hockey boys and then we do girls basketball, boys, and then we do girls volleyball. Girls are probably more dominant in volume, um, and the numbers, so I focused more on that as far as the things I'm, I'm doing. But I think what I see are most girls that play volleyball are under five eight most.

Mathias

Mm-hmm.

Gerry

Um, and we have this. Stupid liber rule, uh, where you can't start till you're 16 u And I've talked to volleyball in Canada about it. There doesn't seem to be a change coming. It's frustrating'cause I see my own kids. So 14 u you go from fair play, which I also have a problem with. I think we need to separate the elite and, and the non elite. Right? Again, and I, I come from hockey where I coach aaa. Um, I think we're babying the elite players at a young age and we're focusing everything on the masses. Um, I've always been looking towards the elite stages when I played, when I in any sports with my kids, and I think that is where the smaller kids get trapped. So, 14 U is fair play fine. 15 U is is half and half fair play now. This is Ontario. I don't know how it is the rest of Canada. What happens is the small players just get, they're never gonna be in the front row. Okay, I get it. They can't block, they can't, some can't hit whatever. Um, but we have substitution rules in Canada that are also very different than the US So that small player can only go back row for one rotation and that's it, then that's it. So you're gonna lose players, you're gonna lose players in that pivotal teenage years, uh, boys and girls, where a small player's gonna go, ah, this is a tall person's sport. We're also, now Canada's also looking for taller barrels. So now we're just eliminating anybody under five, 10 in, in the sport. And I get the, I get the, I, I kind of get where they're coming from.

Mathias

Mm-hmm.

Gerry

But I don't, you know, so my kids are all the barrels. You can look at genetics. If a kid wants to be a the barrel at 12 U, why not let'em 14 u whatever. Mm-hmm. They have their reasons. I'm sure there's a lot, but I think we should switch the lira rule to at least 15 U or change the substitution rule. Substitution limits in Canada or we're gonna lose players.

Jesse

Right? Yeah. And, and player retention especially in a, in a, in youth is so important.'cause that's their outlet, that's their community. That's their, yeah.

Gerry

Now you guys are all tall so it's great. But even the, you know, we get kinda, look, Canada's a smaller country in a sense, but I'm sure you guys, you're playing in Europe, I'm sure you see smaller countries. But if you're a six foot middle at 14 U, a six foot girl at 14 u, they're putting you in middle.

Mathias

Yeah.

Gerry

And a six foot middle if you wanna play ncaa. That's not a tall middle. So are we doing it for the kids' sake or the winning of the team's sake? I don't know. It's tough because the coach, who are they gonna put in the middle? They're gonna put the tallest kid. So, but a six foot setter, wow, that's pretty, you know, that's gonna stand out a lot more. You're gonna have a lot more opportunity as a six foot setter.

Mathias

Mm-hmm.

Gerry

And a six foot middle now a 14-year-old kid, do they know they wanna play university? Some do. Often it's the parents that are kind of, kind of steering that ship and, hey, if you get good, you can do this. Um, so it's tough. It is a, it is a bit of a conundrum because. I know a six foot middle, and I see girls at 16 U 17 U that are 5, 9, 5, 10, middle that can jump and they say, I wanna play in the ncaa. I'm like, you're probably not gonna, they're just probably, you know, it's probably not gonna happen. So either switch positions now, um, or you know, just, I mean, I'm not, I would never say you never can, but I mean, a five, 10 middle, a five nine middle. Limiting your opportunities, your options if you know you wanna play university. Yeah. So I would love to see kids get to pick the position like we do in other sports. You don't make a wide receiver a quarterback, you don't make a catcher a third baseman. You just, what do you wanna play? I wanna play catcher. Okay. We don't do that for some

Mathias

reason. Yeah. That's cool. I wanna, uh, I want to dive into the parenting side a little bit because you were raising. These awesome athletes, and you've told me some cool stories when we were together last summer about how you travel around with your daughter on the golf tournaments and stuff like that, and all the time you invest in the backyard with your son, hitting balls, all that stuff. And we have a ton of parents actually that listen to the podcast. Mm-hmm. What, what have you learned about supporting kids through their high performs journey and getting the best for them?

Gerry

That's a great question. So, as you alluded to, my daughter, my oldest daughter is now at Duke. She's, uh, playing volleyball there. Um, she was a high level golfer and switched. The individual sports are different and didn't, wasn't for her. So we transferred to the volleyball space a bit more. She was already playing, but she focused a lot and worked really, really hard. And, you know, her dream school was Duke and she got lucky enough that, uh, she went there and is, is playing there. Um, what I would say to parents is, um, what I've learned too, and even with me in golf, I had to pull back, but like it's. It's a tough situation'cause I would say 10% of kids wake up and, you know, all they think about is their sport. So I look at Sidney Crosby and the kid was shooting pucks in a dryer at eight, nine. No one told'em to go to the basement and do that. Right. Nobody told to do that. It was, you know, I had a good chat with Mike Kama. Mike played, I don't, he must have played 20 years in the NHL and he was a really good player and I had a chat with his dad. At the golf course once, and, and Mike and I, I said when, when Mike came, when, you know, when, when Mike came in the door from school, did you have to go get him to go, go skate somewhere? He goes, no. He was running upstairs getting his stuff, and I don't know if any of you three were the same. Like it's gotta be driven by the kid, but at at 8, 9, 10, it's probably not gonna be driven by the kid. There's a very few percentage of kids I see. That are all in right away and it's all they wanna do. You know, and I find the difference with girls and boys having both is girls seem to have other interests. Uh, they play a sport, but they also love other things they like to do as well. Um, and not to generalize, but I don't see that as much with boys. Like I find when boys are all in. They're all in, but girls are like, oh, it like, there's, there's social things that they connect to more. Um, they love doing TikTok. They love the social part of tournaments. Maybe this is the best way to play. I think the girls love the social part of the sport a lot, and boys, they just want to go pound balls and win. And I don't know if that's true, but that's what I've, I've seen. So I think. There's a, there's a way you've gotta balance how much you, you push it as the parent and when you feel that it's just coming from you, you probably wanna pull back. But at certain ages, you do have to steer the ship because they're too young to, you know, you, we want our kids in sports for all the great reasons we know sports brings, but we, we want them to eventually latch on and it be their vision to go play ncaa. Sport, whatever pro, whatever path they choose. Um, but you, and then you kind of guide them in help. Is that? But I, I think that's the best thing. I, I, you know, I was like, you know, when, when Ally, my oldest was golfer and I'd like, I'd sign her up for a camp and later I learned, I wouldn't, I would ask her, I would talk to them, Hey, do you wanna go do this Berro camp for a week? And I would let them decide. I, I don't want to, okay. Whereas a lot of parents, they just sign'em up. Mm-hmm. I learned going through golf, I gotta let them weigh in because, you know, the mental health part of it is so huge and you want the girls and the guys to not feel like they have to do this for the parents. And I probably saw my daughter golf longer than she wanted to for me.'cause she thought, this is what dad, dad loves it. I'm gonna, and, and you don't want that. I learned that as I learned that too.'cause we're new to parenting as well. You know, there's no book on it. How to guide your kid through elite sports. There's no book. You just kind of feel it out. But yeah. Did I get caught up in the idea of my daughter? Oh my God. If she was a pro golfer, that'd be so good. Yeah, you do. And um, you have to watch that.

Jesse

It's, it's interesting, I was having a conversation with my dad the other day about the, the Malcolm Gladwell idea where you could become a master in 10,000 hours or whatever. Yeah. But there's gotta be a part of that equation where passion comes into play, right? Yeah. If you're not passionate about what you're doing for 10,000 hours, you're not gonna get that good. But if you're like Sidney Crosby, you're doing it on your own, you're gonna get those 10 th 10,000 hours way quicker, and it's gonna be way more effective.

Gerry

No, and that's a great point. The, the, the look, we're all learning as we go as parents, but, um, the difference I find. Because I'm still trying to figure this out. My daughter's at Duke, um, as you know, you've, uh, all played university. It's a full-time job and with a lot of boys sports, it's a, there's a, there's a, there's a, a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, maybe right? Million dollar contracts. Pick a sport. Um, maybe not volleyball, but I'm sure there's some in Europe. Volleyball for, for females, that's not always an option. So the drive, like what's the want? As you're doing it, you either just love the game so much that you don't care, but let's be honest, eventually you don't love anything. Getting up at seven, lifting weights every day, not playing, eventually you probably start to go, what is my want here? You know? Um, I find the boys have a little bit of that, that, that care in front of them. Like, if I get really good, I could go make millions of dollars. NBA major league baseball, pro volleyball in Europe, uh, NHL pick a sport, girls, that's not quite, that's not dangled there as much. And girls, if they wanna have kids, that's a whole different, a whole different lane. So it's just a different thing comparing the two genders.

Jesse

Um,

Mathias

Mm-hmm.

Gerry

And I think it's just communicating with your kids constantly to make sure they're happy in anything, not just sport. Um, they're happy and it's not you that's they're doing it for, or you're making them do it.

Mathias

Cool. Okay. I want to, I want to, uh, actually, I, we got a listener question. It's actually from Nick Del Bianco and he is wondering, um, how would you grow the game of volleyball in Canada and what's the one thing that would push the needle the furthest

Gerry

I know exactly how I'd grow it. I don't, I find when they are 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. The reason my son got good, um, he's five two. But the reason he is really good is because I got a badminton net and I let him do all the facets of the game. When you're a, when you're a kid playing volleyball, you wanna be able to pound the ball. I mean, that's the best part of the game. I would start a league of 6, 7, 8, 9 year olds where the net is literally where their, you know, their arms are over the net, like your arms are over the net right now, and they get a chance to pound the ball. Um. My son's played on a, the same net you all played on since he was eight, and that's how I would change it. Smaller balls, lighter balls, every sport does it. I haven't seen it in volleyball. And three guys like you, you wanna go make a lot of money. Go start a six to 10-year-old league with lower nets, lighter balls, and let the kids pound the ball that are four foot six and feel the game the way the game's supposed to be played because. The game becomes about only pounding the ball and we never do any of that all the way up till you're tall enough. Um, you know, and some of those kids will grow and they'll have developed the mechanics. That's how I would grow it. I would start it younger, but everything's gotta be pulled down. Net size, ball size, everything's gotta be made court size for kids.

Jesse

So that's, uh, super interesting because I was, I actually had this conversation two days ago with our setter. He's from Finland and that's what they do. They play on badminton courts with badminton nets. They go five on five, five rocket on, on a badminton court. Yeah. And I thought it was really interesting. I was like, that makes so much sense. Like, get them playing real volleyball,

Gerry

real volleyball

Jesse

as, as quickly as possible.

Gerry

Volleyball's an interesting sport. It's the one sport I would say. Maybe the only one as the only team sport I've seen. You know, we call them drill killers, but it's the only sport where you do rely on all six on the court. You can't, if you're, if someone's terrible, it's over.

Mathias

Mm-hmm.

Gerry

Basketball, you blow by them. You don't give'em the ball. Hockey, you can skate by them. They just, they're just on the ice roaming around. Right. Uh, soccer, same thing, but volleyball, you kind of rely on everybody. They'll get, you know, they'll, if, if, if it's a higher level, so they'll, they'll serve to them. It's all relying on six people. So I think if you start them all as a group younger and they can all do all the skills, right, it's gonna help.

Mathias

Yeah, I agree. I definitely agree. Okay. I would love for us to go into our, uh, rapid fire questions here. You can explain that. And then I want to dive in Jerry A. Little bit to your, your story, your journey with, with comedy a little bit just at the

Oog

end here. Sure. Sweet. Okay. We're gonna rattle these off quick. Um, I do a little section called rapid fired questions with Oog I

Gerry

didn't know, I forgot you were even here.

Oog

Yeah. Honestly, I don't talk much. I just sit here. I'm

Gerry

not gonna lie.

Oog

Um, I'm just kidding. No, you're good. No you're not. You're not kidding. But, uh, yeah. Okay. Starting it off. Um, what city? Was the best crowd you ever did comedy in front of.

Gerry

It's, I get asked that. It's, it's hard. It's not really a thing. Um, they're great. It, it depends on the crowd size. There's no, like, I, if I look at sale selling tickets, it doesn't mean the best crowd. Calgary has traditionally been really good for some reason. But, but this was prior to now. Now I, I, I don't, I don't see a difference in any city, but I remember there was a phase where Calgary was crazy for me. Um, and I never knew why. But again, now they're all equally as supportive. But there was a point in my career where I just, Calgary was the one that I always took off. I don't know why, but the crowds are good everywhere. Or, you know, it's never the crowd's fault if it's bad.

Oog

Shout out Calgary. Um, go Flames, baby. Go Flames. No, you're from,

Gerry

is that where you guys are from?

Oog

Yeah.

Gerry

Oh, I didn't say it for you guys.

Oog

Um, if or what superpower do you have and why? Anything.

Gerry

What am I, five years old? What kind of questions?

Oog

Everyone wants superpower. What superpower do I have? Yeah, no. What super power would you want to have?

Gerry

What I wanna have? Oh, what I wanna have fly. Be able to fly.

Oog

Hell yeah. Um, okay. You're stranded on a desert island and you have three things to bring. What are they?

Gerry

Well, I gotta have food, right? Can I just say food? Sure. So Food to Desert Island. My phone with wifi. Am I allowed wifi? Is that two things? Yeah. If we had a new phone. My food wifi on my phone. Alright, I got something. New. Me.

Oog

Perfect. Okay. Uh, last one. Okay. Jerry walking up base is loaded in the 2026 World Series in Toronto, game seven. What's your walkup song?

Gerry

Oh, that's a good one. Um, I don't know my walkup song. You know what I, I like is that, uh, um, I dunno what it's called. Narcis or whatever. It's like a, it's not even a song. The Trump, the trumpet one. Yeah, the, yeah, that one.

Jesse

Yeah. Yeah, that one's a great one.

Gerry

And then I'd strike out, and then that was,

Oog

that was our pre-game song at Trinity. Yeah. We won nationals. Yeah. Yeah, we won nationals.

Gerry

No way. That's my song I come out to right now. What? But when I, yeah,

Oog

there you go. Sweet. Okay. Yeah, that, that concludes it.

Mathias

Okay. Nice. Perfect. Okay, so I guess we were talking about the grind. We were talking about purpose. We were talking about passion earlier, having a vision. Um, that keeps you, keeps you going each day. What, what was the transition like for you, um, from teaching to comedy and what was the, the drive there?

Gerry

Um, so it's a tough question. I, I talked about this earlier. When you want something. Nobody has to drive you, nobody has to push you parents yourself. It's, and it's finding that want. And I think that want is just something that comes from within. Um, you're introduced to something and then you like it and you want to get, be the best in the world at it. Um, I'm not the best in the world at it, but that chase of trying to be the best in the world at something is, I think what motivates you. Um. I didn't grow up with a lot of money. I, I, I'm not gonna lie, I think I was motivated as I was starting to make money. Uh, it's exciting to make money. Um, I think that was part of it for me. But I never went into comedy to make money'cause that would be stupid'cause it's so hard to do. But I think I was just motivated to be successful. I knew success meant you'd make some money. I watched my parents really struggle their whole lives financially. Um. So I think in the back of my mind, I was introduced to things in life where, um, I, I, I realized you, you know, I'd go to friends' people's places that owned a house and I was like, a house. We, and I just was driven to try to make money, but I was never like to, the traditional path is, okay, go to university and be a doctor or a job that pays. I never, I was never that guy either. So. I think I just found this, my calling later. I believe it's a calling sometimes. And I knew I was funny with my buddies. I was funny in the dressing room. Uh, and then I just had a couple people were doing standup when I was a waiter and I, I don't know, I sometimes I, it's hard to explain. I just think I knew I could do it. Hmm. And pursued it and got lucky at times too. But I think you gotta, your kids, I teach my kids try to want something in life. You know, if you want something, it's so fun to chase it too. And you just, but you don't have to know what that want is right now. And I tell older people, if there's something you always wish you'd wanted to try, go try it.'cause I was 30 when I started, which is old in my business, you know? So I never deter people that. can start things late and you know, if you believe in yourself, I think you can do anything. I really do. No, that's, yeah, with with, with real, with a realistic, you can't, you know, you can't be a middle at five, two and go, I wanna be on the national team. Like, that's, you gotta be realistic too.

Mathias

Yeah. Hmm. Yeah. It's interesting. You, you, you talked about being the best in the world, and I think that's, with something like sports, there's a clear. Definition of what makes you the best in the world. It's the best at performing the skills and winning the games. How do you, how do you get better? At comedy,

Gerry

it's no different. You just keep doing it. Reps, your mind starts to train differently. Um, you know, the way I told the joke or a story my first year is very different than I would my 25th year. It's, you just get better doing it. Get on stage. Bomb a lot. Do well a lot. Try things. You've gotta try things for sure. You can't be afraid. Um, most of being a comedian is humiliating you, you don't do well. Most of my career, if I've done thousand, 2000 shows, half of them are probably terrible. Mm-hmm. So you have to, you have to, you know, you hear no a lot in entertainment, you just have to be pretty thick skinned. But, um. Yeah, it's like anything, there's times you feel you're not good enough and you want to quit and, and then you get a little taste of something positive. But it, it's a tough question and I think everybody would answer it, answer it differently. That got to certain levels of things. But for me, I was very competitive and, and I think sports helped me with my comedy'cause I hated failure. Um, I felt like I felt terrible losing. I hated losing, hated it. Um, I don't know how you teach that, but I played a lot of tennis growing up and a lot of golf, and I hated losing, like I was angry. Um. And that's a, it's good to have a, a passion like that, but you gotta, you gotta manage it. But, so I think, I think just com being competitive, um, you know, doing a standup show and, and realizing the guy before me or after me was way funnier. I hated that feeling. I'm like, Ugh, why is he funnier? What do I, you know? So I think that was a good thing to be competitive and self-driven like that.

Mathias

Yeah. Absolutely. And I did, did you find yourself being, yeah, I guess you found yourself being more motivated by those times that you bombed or those times that you were behind than, than when you get that, that moment that goes well or no?

Gerry

Yeah. I think we need failure to do well, and I, I think you, you know, I used to teach a lot of hockey and I'd see the, the top kids, like I used to run this camp. You know these were 8, 9, 10, 11-year-old kids like STEM Coast, ris, they were there ban like it was Skinner. It was the best kids in Toronto. And I would tell some of them like, Hey man, there's a kid in the Czech Republic right now, or Russia, that's better than you. Don't get caught up in just what you see here. So,'cause when you're already the best, it's hard to go, well, what's better than this? And I think. You need some failure. You need to realize like a kid's better than you, or you need to realize, like, you know, you think you're the best kid in Calgary playing volleyball, and then you show up to Toronto and you're like, holy geez, there's a kid better than me here. You need to see that realization that there's something better, someone working harder. Maybe you didn't make an all star, maybe you weren't selected for a team. The failures I had getting cut from teams made me better at, at dealing with rejection in, in my industry. Because the mistake a lot of people make when they are, when they are, uh, rejected, is they burn a bridge. And I always, I learned at a very young age when I, when I was 23, I got cut from my university hockey team. I played one year, loved it. My second year, my fall didn't train as much. Got cut. And two other veterans got cut and the tendency is to go, this coach is an idiot. How did he keep him? And I turned it around on myself and thought, no. And I actually went up and saw the coach and thought about it from his perspective and said, look, and I didn't agree with it, but I said, look, I'm sure that wasn't easy for you, but I appreciate what you've done for me. Um, you know, no hard feelings. And I grew up a lot doing that.'cause I realized when you're dealing with the business side of entertainment, you get a lot of nos. You can't just turn around and, you know, slam a phone down. And a lot of people do. They're like, and I never did. I'm like, okay, you know, I might think they're wrong. I might have pitched a project that I thought was great and they didn't like it and turned it down. But I never, I never burned a bridge. And I think you have to be able to take rejection well. To succeed'cause it may come later. You know, my Netflix special was the biggest deal for me. Well, I never, like, I never, you know, really was mad that I never had one. I was always like, okay. You know, but I, I think there's people out there that probably just said and did the wrong things at the time that, you know, and I'm, I'm just thankful that I got it. But I'm also. A big believer in your time will come if, if it's meant to come. So don't go, don't go ruining that by burning a bridge somewhere.

Mathias

Hmm. Yeah. I like that a lot. Yeah.

Gerry

Thank you. Thank you, Mathias.

Mathias

Um, when you're, when you're, besides the stage about to go on. Or maybe beforehand, I'm assuming it feels similar to entering into a, into a game, into an arena where you've got your thoughts going, your maybe your blood's pumping. What, uh, what kind of habits or routines. Um, do you have, what kind of physical, mental, emotional state are you trying to get into with before you get out on the stage?

Gerry

Yeah, that's a good question. I think it's different from sports in one way. I'll say there's no embarrassment factor, like bombing and standup. Um, I know you may have a bad game and you're embarrassed. You think everybody's mad. And I, I think there's a different level of when like. People aren't laughing at you and it's dead silence. So I think there's a little bit, and I've, and I've, I've never, you know, I never played at the level you did of sport, but I had enough experience where I was nervous. Uh, it's a similar thing. It's nervous energy. Um. There's doubt when I'm standing by stage, but now it's very different. You know, we gotta separate my career first 10 years versus the middle of five versus the next 10. They're very different, you know? Now I've got confidence when I'm side I'm like, oh my God, I can't wait. These like, I, well, I'm like, my stuff's so ready right now, and they've never heard this stuff. It's more of a can't wait. But most comics, one's even higher up than me. I see a lot of things. They're nervous, they're stressed. There're there's doubt. Um, I remember Bill Burr once did a show I was on after him. It was in just for laughs, um, or I was on a different show. It wasn't after him like I was closing for him or anything. And he killed like, but destroyed. And I go, Hey man, good set. I didn't know him, but he is like, I don't know man. You think. You think it was like, you think I got, I go. Yeah. Like

Mathias

mm-hmm. It's like he

Gerry

still wasn't happy with how he did because you, you don't know, right? Sometimes you leave, you're like, was that good? So I just think comics are very, um, very hard on themselves. Like that. You know, I watch my Netflix special'cause I,'cause I had to. Because you, you edit it, you know, obviously I did it so I don't have to watch it, but you're never really overly happy with how you said something. I'm sure you watch games and like, ah, why did I tip there? Or shouldn't have tipped that was, it's no different, it's very similar in a lot of ways, but I think side stage is, uh, different for me now than it was 10. Like when I first started side stage waiting to go on my first time, my 10th. Oh my God. It's nothing like it. You've, I don't care what match you've been in, there's nothing more stressful than knowing you're probably gonna bomb'cause you're new. Uh, and that feeling is, is undescribable. It's terrible. Right. But very similar, I'm sure to a big game you're in and you know, like in, in a sport, you know, you, you shank the last ball to lose depending on the level. Yeah. That's, that's not fun either. That sits in your, sits in your head for years.

Oog

Okay, my one tidbit of this whole podcast, but obviously you've gotten more successful in what you do over the last, whatever you say that you section'em out. Let's say in your first a hundred shows, what percentage of them would you say you bombed and how did you, like, was it that drive to be the best in the world to try and or like to. To try and get to. Yeah, that's a good question. Now you see, you

Gerry

don't have a lot of questions, but that's a really good question.

Oog

Like how, how, how do you come back from bombing like 4, 5, 6 shows in a row to be like a Good question. I'm gonna keep doing this.

Gerry

It's a really good question. And, and I, I don't know why I went up my second time. My first time was so bad, I don't even know why I went up again. Um, I think in the back of my mind, I knew I was funny. Funny with my friends and work staff is different, but I knew, okay, it's there. It's there. So I bombed. I bombed. I just gotta figure it out. And a lot of times you'd get one, you'd get one little laugh, right? You'd get one laugh at that, you'd cling to that. Okay. But they laughed at that. So I think, you know, if you played a game of volleyball, for example, and you had nine, nine errors, nine hitting errors, but one kill. It's like you've gotta focus on the one kill. And as a comic, I had to focus on that, or I would never have gone back because you might have nine games like that in a row. Um, I liked, I loved when I made the crowd laugh so much in that one joke. That worked, that, that was all I remembered sometimes to get me going. I'm like, just focus on that. Don't focus on the 14 minutes of silence focus on the 28 seconds of laughter. Because that to me is like, that's, that's there, it's there and as I'm saying this, it's probably a good approach to life. It, it's focused on that and not all the negative'cause the negative is what makes us leave stuff. Oh, forget it. Doubt all that. And I was good at focusing on the 30 seconds that worked, and then it was a minute that worked and then I reworked it and at the end of the day, hard work, right? Like I sat in coffee shops in my room writing and writing and trying and writing. Um, but at the end of the day, the want for some reason, you know, I'm like, oh, I'd love to, like, I wanted to be, I wanted to be a famous comedian. I don't know why, but that's what I wanted to do. Mm-hmm. So I can, so if I wanted to do that, I gotta suffer through this. Not that there was ever a guarantee for sure that I would be, and I'm still not. But it's the chase of it that is. And you know, I always wanted to have every year better than the next. That was my goal. Make every year better than the next, like that 1% better, you know, like year one. Like whatever it was, get invited to a competition, whatever. Every year I wanted something better and I was lucky enough to do that, you know, pretty much every, every year I just, you know, I got just for laughs my fourth year. Then I got more time at just for laughs, like whatever it was. I just wanted a better year than the year before. Hmm.

Mathias

It's a cool approach. I'm sure it's addicting too when you, when that time of laughter starts to build. Yeah. You know, that, that process, it's like a

Gerry

drug, right? I, I, I don't do drugs, but I gotta think it's like a drug that, that is what keeps us all in it. Like that power to. I think laughing is the greatest thing. We, life is a lot of sadness. We go through a lot of tough times and losses of lose loved ones. And so when you can make people laugh with your words, that's a very powerful feeling. And a, that's like a addiction. Like you said, it's like the greatest thing, greatest feeling ever when you finish your last word and this crowd erupts in laughter. So one of those outweighs 20 of those silent moments. Right. And I think that's the best way I looked at it.

Mathias

Yeah. Super cool. Hmm. Okay, last question before we let you go. You can answer this any way you'd like. What would be your advice to your younger self?

Gerry

Hmm. Well, I mean there's a lot of things out there. Don't sweat the small things. All that I think, I think it goes back to, um. I, I, I just don't think I would stress about anything when I was younger. There's so much stress coming in your life. I would, you know, I look at like not having my homework done or I missed practice, or I was bad, or I got cut from a team, or all the things that seemed so monumental at the time. You're probably never gonna remember, and I tell kids when I coach, like, do you think you're gonna remember? Like I see a young girl on one of my kids' teams or serving into the net at 24, all at 12 U and crying, and we've all seen it and I get it, but I would always go up to them and go, do you think you're gonna remember this in four years? You're not. And it doesn't always. Help in the moment, but I think I would tell myself just like enjoy every moment of everything. You know, as my kids grow older, I wish I enjoyed those moments more, just sitting on the couch with my 4-year-old or 5-year-old. Just enjoy it, like live in the moment. We don't do that as much now with phones and I'm just as guilty, but just live in the actual moment of sitting there with people. Will, will, I think you'd, you'd have so many more memories to draw from. I think life's about memories and then it's over, right? Like, you, you, you, what do you, you can't take your money. You, you, but along the way, you, you just have these memories that pull you through stuff. And I, uh, and I think, I don't know. That was probably not a great answer, but you put me on the spot you want me to do.

Mathias

I love that we have a phrase. Um. In game to, to, to stay present, we say outta your head, into your eyes. So it's basically just being where you are, right? Yeah. Not so much thinking, not so much worrying. Just if you get into your eyes, you just be where you're be with the people that you're with. Yeah. That kind of thing.

Gerry

Yeah. Because, you know, as you know, you're, you, Mathias, you're, you're the only one not playing now. Is that right?

Mathias

Yeah.

Gerry

You, you man, it probably feels like it went by so fast. And it's like you're done and you're like, wow. Like how many of those practices did you just take in at the time? Laughing with the guys and you know, like. You miss it, right? Mm-hmm. You miss it when it's all over. Um, and the best part of it all to me, like playing the, the, the little bit of hockey I played in university, but the best part of the guys in the dressing room and the memories and the, you know, when I, when I saw my daughter at Duke and it was senior night and I went down, they had a nice dinner for the seniors and just hearing all the girls talk and I'm like, God, they don't even realize how special these, and these were just moments of traveling through an airport. That I'm like, you're gonna miss that so much. Yeah. As much as you hated it at the time because it was like flight, it was 5:00 AM and you're gonna remember, and I'm like, this is why you do it. Really. You don't do it for wins and losses. You do it for these moments and then, you know, maybe one day for money like your brother's doing, but. It, it's, it's, the sport is the greatest thing. And I think as kids it keeps us busy and I like that. Um, but I think you need, Steve Nash had a great speech at his, his induction in the Hall of Fame. He said, I don't care what it is, find something and just become obsessed with it. And I believe that music, dancing, volleyball, math, just get so into it and try to be the best. I, I think that's a great goal to have. Find something, try to be the best and see where it takes you. May take you nowhere, but it's a fun process if you try it, as you all know.

Mathias

Beautiful. That was awesome. Yeah. Thank you Jerry for coming on. Thank you guys. Was good luck with that was fantastic. Good luck. Luck your

Gerry

volleyball, the guy's playing, and uh, I'll see you in a few months, Mathias.

Mathias

Yeah, sounds good. Alrighty, that wraps up, episode number 42 of the Pit Pro Podcast. Thank you everyone for listening. And signing off.

Gerry

Thanks guys.

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