Being a stand-up comedian during a pandemic sucks. But there’s a silver lining.

COVID-19 sucks. And not in a good, tasty way. The opportunities for live performance have dried up since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Trinidad and Tobago, where I live, continues to have restrictions on public performances and for entrepreneurs like myself the risk of staging a show isn’t worth it. Even if people came (would they, though??) we still risk spreading the virus during a pandemic. Not cool. Rock, meet hard place.

I’ve started an online chat show with my comedy partner Lyrix, and we are trying to adapt to this new world. This is not the comedy career I imagined. But I’m trying to make it work.

It’s actually been pretty cool developing the show’s format since we started in April. It’s been through a name change, because we started as GT on Lockdown during the T&T national lockdown. It’s now The Givin’ Trouble Show, after our last stage show in March to celebrate International Women’s Day. We’ve had some extremely cool guests too: including jazz singer Vaughnette Bigford, chocolate entrepreneur and homesteader Gillian Goddard, queer activist Rudy Hanamji, comedian Kevin Soyer and a bunch of other people.

If you’re wondering, no, an independent online chat show doesn’t pay. You can donate to the show here.