Think about it–when you first meet someone and you start prying to find out more about them, right after, “How are you?” we all tend to head straight for, “So, what do you do?”

I’m glad in recent years we’ve become familiar with the phrase, “work/life balance” because the way we earn our money doesn’t necessarily reflect on who we really are, or what kind of human being we’ve become. Maybe when you find out what a person does for a living, you think to yourself, “Oh, you’re one of those.”

For example, if I learn this person I’ve just met is a teacher, I’d probably assume they’re good people. Putting in long hours for less pay than they deserve, doing something that demonstrates they care about kids, etc. But maybe they aren’t so good. Perhaps they’re someone who thought they wanted to teach, but after going to college and heading out into the workforce, they discovered that they don’t really like it, or they’re tired of the disruptive kids and now have been doing it so long, they see no way out and feel trapped.

I’ve touched on this topic once before because my goal when I get to know people is, I’d like to be remembered as being funny. I get a kick out of making someone laugh, especially when they’re least expecting it. I’ve lied down on the couch with Dr. Tim before, psychoanalyzing how I got this way, and here’s my theory.

My first six years of grade school, I went to a private Lutheran school. I’m talking small, like one classroom had grades 1-4, the other 5-8. I’ll bet there were 20 kids in the school, total. When the church decided the school was too much of a financial drain, they shut it down and I suddenly found myself being the new kid in a public school. As an easy target for the cool kids, yes, I got picked on. Over time, I discovered if I told a joke or said something funny while they were picking on me, the mean kids eventually thought I was O.K.. That instilled on me the formula, “Make ’em laugh and people will like you!”

I also have to give credit where credit is due, and that would be my mom. She is a naturally funny person who loves to laugh but grew up at a time when I’m sure women felt they weren’t supposed to be funny. Eventually, more and more women like Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett, Phyllis Diller and so many others made society O.K. with laughing at funny women.

But you can’t go to college and major in being funny. So, I had to go with a career path that allowed me to use that desire/gift and find a career that paid something, while allowing me to get the funny out of my system.

I’ve always had a fascination with humor. While growing up, every month, a Readers Digest would arrive in the mail and once mom and dad had read it, I’d go in and cut out the jokes I thought were the funniest and glue them into a scrapbook. I still have that around here somewhere.

When I ran for senior class president in high school, I didn’t give a speech. I gave a series of jokes and got elected. During my days at the University of Washington radio station, KCMU, I produced a daily comedy show for I don’t know how many weeks, which I hear they repeated for several years after I left.

After graduation, off I went into a radio career where I could really give that comedy a muscle a workout. I did silly bits for on the air, and also used humor in commercials I produced. I remember writing a Christmas spot for The Blossom Shop in Yakima, where Santa walked in, talking about all they offered for the holidays, and then uttered the line, “Oh, Rudolph! On their nice, clean floor!”

Years later, I did some TV spots for Western Carpet Center, showcasing a stain on the ceiling that looked like Australia. People would come into the store and the first thing they would ask would be, “So, where’s Australia?”

In fact, here it is!

Over the years, I also developed a fascination with parody songs. (Thanks, Alan Sherman) While working at KOMO radio with Larry Nelson, I got to meet Stan Boreson, who invited me over to his house several afternoons to work on some Christmas songs together. Several of them appear on this album (my name is on the inside cover)

Along the way, radio brother Matt Riedy hooked me up with a guy named Frank King, who was one of Jay Lenos’ “fax comedians.” Every day, I’d send Frank the jokes I had written, he’d fax them to Jay and if he told one in the Tonight Show monologue, I’d get $50. Eventually, that went up to $75!

Over time, I’ve been blessed with so many opportunities to “get it out of my system”, that I have no complaints. Emceeing events, being an auctioneer, event host, you name it. And you know, a good number of those aren’t necessarily for pay, they’re just things I enjoy doing. A couple of great examples are the Christmas parody songs I do with Alana Baxter every holiday season and my annual National Gullible Day broadcast.

If we don’t know each other and one day, we do meet, whatever you do, don’t ask what I do for a living. For those who insist, I tell them to hang on as I rattle off that I write radio show prep for Radio Online, I have my own marketing company, I work for an ad agency, do a slew of freelance voice, commercial and video production projects and then lots of fun stuff like auctions and events to fill in the gaps. And, by that time, I may have added a few more items to the list.

I’m doing the things I love to do at a nice, comfortable pace. I’m a very lucky guy.

Tim Hunter