Brandon Dawson, Journalist, Comedian, Doggie Dad

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You can't really prepare anybody to show up on the scene of a fire and a family has lost everything or somebody and you're just there to cover it.

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Welcome to another episode of Chewing the Fat. I have your host Big Robb. Thank you so much for tuning in, following, downloading the podcast. I certainly do appreciate that. Thank you to all the folks that have sent me messages through the website at ChewingtheFatBR.com and also the folks who have bought me a coffee. I always appreciate your financial support for the podcast as well. It helps keep all the lights on and all the kooky colors on the audio board lit up for the podcast.

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I'm excited about my guest we've got in studio today. He's an improv actor. He is your man on the street. He is a reporter and he is an amazing human being. Please welcome Brandon Dawson. Ooh, yeah, happy to be here. Wow, wow, I didn't expect the fans to be here. Who let them in? It's such a small room, it's amazing that they got here.

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Happy to be here, sir. Happy to be here. So, I listed off a lot of things that I know you from. I think my first introduction to you was probably through improv, a little chat and a little short English cat. Are you from Augusta? No. I actually was born and raised in Syracuse, New York. Oh, wow. Oh, yes. The high north. And if you don't know, people who don't know Syracuse, Syracuse is pretty much Canada.

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I had a, actually when we first moved to Georgia, which was probably about 13 years old, I had a very, very thick, what sounded like a mixture between a Canadian sounding and a very Northern accent. So that was my thing, that's where I'm from. And then we lived in Athens, went to AF from Athens, Georgia, and that's where we lived most of our lives. And then I decided to come to Augusta for college. Okay, okay, as opposed to staying in Athens for college.

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They're no good schools there. No, not at all. Not at all. Not at all. You, Jay, didn't want nothing to do with me. So as what you're doing now, you are a broadcaster, you are a journalist. I don't know, do they call them multimedia journalists now or do they call it? Used to be you called a one-man band back in my day. Back in my day. Yeah, I am a one-man band. My title actually is WJBS.

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digital reporter. Digital reporter. Yes, which granted you do see a lot of people see my stuff on TV all the time, but my primary focus is the web. So what I do is I do more, one I kind of have a little bit more, and if you keep up with any of my stuff, I have a little bit more leeway than some of the other reporters. I get to really focus on local, positive, and really, really,

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you know, kind of hometown stuff, you know. That's really what I focus on. And yeah, a lot of my stuff, yes, does end up on broadcast. But then I also do a lot of web stuff as well. Like if you've noticed, I've been doing a lot more lists lately, a list of that. I do a lot of things, you know, reach out to the community and ask them, you know, what things, you know, they're into or what things are popular right then. And then I try to do that to really, most of the time I'm just doing it to kind of shed light on businesses or people

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I did a list recently where it was number one places to take your dog to a restaurant. That actually did really well online, because a lot of people, you get up on a Saturday afternoon and you're like, no, I want to go to breakfast and take my dog somewhere. Hill, that's awesome. I don't mean this in any disparaging way, but it's very kind of

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but very, like I said, I love the hyperlocalness of it. That it's places here, it's not, oh, we gotta travel two hours to get to, I think that's awesome. Yes, and so yeah, so doing stuff like that, but then also doing stuff like, I mean, what, I think I did, aside from like, you know, Dave and Busters, I did that recently, that was a big one. We did Six Flags, that was another big one. But then I also, I get to do some of the coolest stories

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have time to really go do it. I did a story that did well on broadcast and on the web. It was about a farmer who had a pair of kissing sweet potato sweethearts. A pair of sweet potatoes to him that he said they looked like they were kissing. It was just an interesting thing to talk to him about. But it was really cool. So I get to do a bunch of really cool stuff.

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That is what my mom says. I mean, is that, yeah, yeah. I don't mean that in a disparaging way. I don't think it is. OK, great. In my opinion, I got the coolest job in the business right now, in this area. And I thank WJBF for giving me a lot of leeway with stuff. I really do get to choose what stories I want to do, choose what articles I want to do. I have to get everything OK, but most of the things that I want to do, they're very supportive about.

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the community, they're very supportive about lifting up locals as well. So they have been very great about letting me do my thing. Even as far out, aside from Augusta, getting to go out and really highlight places like Swainsboro, McCormick, these places that are kind of in our area that don't get highlighted as much. But now I get to go out and do, whether it's

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and then it's really cool to get to go out and see everybody like that. That's awesome. Yeah, and I mean, you're working at Channel 6, WJBF, with one of the, I mean, it's a great team there, but when you talk about these type of stories, of course I have to think of George Escola and out there somewhere that's gotta have been some groundwork laid for that type of reporting. Of course, George, excellent reporter, and he does a lot of other political reporting and things like that as well.

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forward to his Out There Somewhere reports, so I think it's kind of cool that now there's two of you. And you get to expand on it a little bit more. You have a little bit more leeway and a little bit more freedom to expand on those type of stories. I think it's great. I definitely picked George Escola's brain a lot when I was first starting because he definitely had, me and him, we have kind of a similar vibe to each other. We used to actually sat behind each other for the longest time. We sat back to back.

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back to him and be like, George, I'm doing this story, how do you think I should approach it? And he'd always give me his honest opinion about it. He's a well-acknowledged guy and he's hilarious too. Yeah, yeah, for sure. That's great. So was journalism always in the picture for you? I mean, did you go to school for that? When you came to Augusta for school, what did you come to school for? Oh man, so I'm not gonna lie, did not think that this is where we would be. So I'm a non-traditional student.

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When I got done with high school, I wasn't really in a rush to get to college. I did a lot of traveling. I worked at Blockbuster for eight years. Eight years. And yeah, I was fine with that actually. I was making decent money. And then as Blockbuster kind of started to wrap up, eight years, he's kind of getting old, I was really into cameras and stuff like that. And then I was doing freelance work

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and I would try to get, as I started to get tired of freelancing too, which freelancing is fine and you know, props to anybody who does it and is very successful at it, it's not particularly for me. I like to have, you know, I have to know that money's coming in. And I had a couple of instances, whether it be, you know, someone stiffened me for money or taking too long with money, and I was like, I can't have this again. So I was like, I wanted to get regular work.

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getting the type of work that I wanted to because I didn't have a college degree, especially, you know, I was in Atlanta at the time. So, you know, you're trying to go to all these big places and, you know, they're like, well, you know, you don't have a degree in anything, so, you know, and I wasn't really the best at like keeping up with my work and keeping it. I'd kind of, like, it was like a gun for hire. I'd go do it, get it to people, and then never have it again. So, I, you know, started looking for colleges

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My mom actually suggested Augusta State University. I don't even know how it came up, but we went down there, went to the orientation, and sat in there. They had a pretty cool film program. And so I was like, oh, I wanna do this. And so I ended up enrolling and getting in. And I came in as a non-traditional student. I was probably 26 years old or so. 26, yeah, probably 26 years old, or 28.

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And we came into school, and I was, it was a communications degree, so it's not journalism that I'm doing. I'm majoring in television and television production. So I did that, and at the time, my thought was I'm gonna platform off of this and go into, I'm gonna go back to Atlanta. I'm gonna be working on all the movie sets, and that's what I'm gonna be doing.

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you know, again, looking for money. You know, I randomly ended up getting a temp job. I, you know, somebody, one of my friends was supposed to do something for WJBF. He was supposed to go film football for them, and he was unable to do it, and he suggested me, and so they're like, oh, well, you have to go through this temp agency and get in there and do it that way. So I did, you know, I went to the temp agency, Augusta Staffing, toot toot, that's a plug.

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Yeah, when they sent me to WJBF, I did football with them for the summer. And I fell in love with the live production aspect. I fell in love with it so much that I asked them if they had any work, which they did not the first year. So, you know, sat there, freelanced for another year, comes around the next summer, I'm back in there again. I'm like, hey, and then I'm really like this year,

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I'm networking and I'm like, yeah, you guys gotta get me in there. And Scott Elidge, who's a big wig over there, he was like, well, do you wanna come on and work at the news station and work part time? And so I was like, yeah. And so I jumped over to there, stopped freelancing. I was actually working two jobs. I was working there and I was working at Beasley Broadcasting at the same time,

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driving vans over there. But yeah, that's how I initially got into news. Again, not expected, I just fell in love with it from there. Asking me there, I worked just about every job in the station from, I started as an editor to a director, pushing the buttons and pulling people up to the photographer, and now we're at eight years of WJBF like coming up, I think in September.

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at some point, now I'm a, they're digital reporter, which that's its own story in itself. Yeah, that was crazy how all that happened, because I was pretty much fine with being a photog forever. I loved it, loved going out, filming stuff, and we were supposed to go to Six Flags, it was supposed to be me and two other guys, and they're like, Brandon, go down there, they're debuting a ride, film the guys doing stuff,

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what you'll do. So we were the day of the guy other one of the guys who was supposed to go he's he feels sick and he can't go so you know it's just me and one other guy and we go down there so we go down there and we get in there and Six Flags you know like they're they're throwing out all this stuff they're like oh we need you to say this and say that and you know you know what and it's then they asked me to get on the ride because they were like you know there's two

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and they had all this stuff set up, so they really didn't even need me there to like film anything. They had GoPros, drones, so they were like, well if you wanna get on the ride, and you know, just get on there, you know, that'd be great. So, yeah, so we get on the ride, and the ride starts up, and the guy that I'm with, like he's kinda forgetting what they're supposed to say, and you know, me being, you know, improv. I just start saying stuff, like, we're out here, it's the biggest ride,

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southeast, blah, blah, blah, blah, just rattling off stuff. And I got done with it, and the Six Flags guys, they were booming about it that day. They were like, oh, you did great, man. And then we drove back, all the way back to August, and that day, my boss pulls me into his office, and he's like, Brandon, we gotta talk about what you're doing here. And yeah, and the rest is history. It was like a TV show. It was honestly like a whirlwind thing to where I was like, oh, I guess I'm just on-cam talent now.

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Right place, right time, you know, and the skill to do it and do it well too. So I mean, that's amazing. Yeah, it's so cool when stuff like that happens, and like I said, you were prepared, you were there. You talk about your improv background. Have you always been into theater, into improv, acting, that kind of stuff as well?

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growing up. My god, I think my first play, I was Abraham Lincoln. So I was always willing to go big, always willing to go get outside the box. But I mean, so yeah, I did theater all throughout, all throughout high school, pretty much like forever. And I took a break for a little bit in college, but then I met the folks at Lashat and got into improv

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man, what a seven year run I had. And I'm on a break right now, but it was the seven years, man, like Lashat, honestly, Lashat's another one of the reasons why I have this job too, because even though my boss pulled me into, and was like, oh, we need to change what you're doing, and there was like one other person that we had there, when it kinda got brought up, they were like, well, I haven't really,

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the camera guy who was kind of funny in the station. So they weren't really sure. Yeah, because that's a hard barrier to cross from production to on air in a television station or anything like that because it's very segregated. Like, no, no, you push buttons and you know how the camera equipment works, and then we have these other pretty people that we put in front of the camera. So she came to one of my shows one night.

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like, hey, come and see what I do. And I was on fire that night. I was thinking of them. I had the crowd going. And I got done with the show, got off stage, and she was like, all right, I get it. And so then she was behind it too. That's awesome. So yeah. But yeah, so I always say like, Le Chat Noir, for me, I definitely, they came to me in a time when I definitely needed them. I was here in college.

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in Augusta, that's where most of the people that I'm attached to now, that's pretty much where they came from. I'd say some of the best people I know are from that group. And I literally, in my mind, one of the best places in Augusta, I love those folks. That's amazing. And so you're taking a break, how long are you taking a break from or until you're ready to go back? Until it hits, it kind of started at the pandemic, obviously.

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Kind of happen and it's like not even like anything in particular like people kind of always ask me like oh, you know When are you coming back? And I honestly just like I felt that I tell people like I'm kind of like in like this like Like prime at my work right now Like I'm working like a lot and like not even like to where it's like Oh, like they're like making you do a bunch of stuff like I'm doing like a lot of stuff like that I do you know? Just for me like you know like setting up like oh I'm gonna do this and drive out here and do this cool story with somebody out in

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Cormac or whatever. So it's just been one of those things where I've been working a lot and then when I get home it's like, oh, I want to sleep. And then when you do something for a long time, I think breaks are good in general. Because it makes you appreciate something. I did improv for seven years straight. I ran it at one point. I was the director. And they're killing the game right now. They're still selling out.

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So, you know, it's kind of cool to see, you know, it grow into its thing. And then, you know, one day, you know, when I'm sitting around and that it that this thing that it's always comes back to you like anybody like it'll you'll you'll sit there you'll see something you'll watch something and something happens Then all of a sudden you're just like I gotta get back out there on on stage It's every guy that I talked to who's been an improv like they always do the same thing and I feel like I feel like that Pops up on me eventually but right now, you know, I've just been really cool with just you know Really, you know putting in time at work telling

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really cool stories and just really, just getting out there for the community lately. Yeah, that's awesome. Is there anything that's got you super salivating that you're working on that's coming down the pipe that we can be on the lookout for? Ooh, let's see. I mean, so the one thing that I'm pretty excited about that I'm working on, and I kinda teased it a little bit recently, is that I'm about to start working

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on, it's gonna be a hidden gems, kind of like, it's gonna be an article and it's probably gonna be a segment too that we end up airing. And so what I've been doing, I just did a list recently, where I reached out to everybody and I was like, tell me about some of the hidden gems in the Augusta area that you think that there are. And that'd be whether it's people, businesses, a restaurant. And so everybody throws stuff out there,

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Knuckle sandwiches, you know, a person would be Scott Russell, who I know personally. He's another guy who does amazing things for the community. And so granted, so we just did a list for it, but what I wanna start doing, what I am about to start doing, I say once, I'm literally like next week, I'm gonna start going to these places and kind of doing little mini segments with them, and then doing an overall story, maybe cover five or six places at a time, so you can really,

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It's one thing to see the list, but I think when people get to see it, if you go somewhere and you're like, the main thing that I'm gonna do, especially for restaurants, and if anybody's ever traveled with me knows this, I do this all the time, if I go into somewhere before I leave, I'll say, what's the one thing I have to have before I go here? And I do that anywhere I go. If I go into a restaurant for the first time, I wanna know what it is I have to have before I leave here.

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especially if I'm traveling out of town. And I'll say, look, if I never step foot in this restaurant ever again, what's the one thing I need to have had? You know? And it sucks when they're like, oh, I don't really eat here. Or I just started. Or I'm like, well, then ask someone in the back. You know, let me, I don't want to miss the thing that, you know, in two years people are like, man, they've got the best blah there. And it's like, I went there and I had the egg sandwich. I was like, you know, why didn't I get the other thing? Exactly. So that's what I'm trying to bring to the table,

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with this article, so I'm gonna be popping into restaurants, talking to people, and again, with the effort for all this, it's just to get more people's, like, their name out there. I generally love, like, one of the best parts of my job is when I do something or I do a segment on somebody and they call me back a week later and they're like, oh man, we've been getting blown up and we've had all these people show up to this

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much. So that's always a really good feeling to help someone out. They go from being in okay traffic in their business to now they're like, wow, we had the best Saturday that we ever had and now more people are talking about us. It doesn't get any better than that. Hilliard That's awesome. That's awesome. Aside from the work, which it sounds like you are definitely pouring yourself into, what else is bringing you joy right now?

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I get a lot of joy from just relaxing, man. Like I get, I'm a big person and I think that a lot of people, you know, if you're not taking time to, you know, either, you know, be by, you know, be with yourself or be with your family, like, you know, I suggest doing it. It's, it's, it's, I mean, like today, there's nothing better that for me to wake up, you know, super early on a Saturday, you know, get up,

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the dogs are there and just sit around, watch a movie, play a video game, just not really worry about the world. We all get very caught up in the hustle and bustle of stuff. And I'm very, like that's, I love that kind of stuff. Or just, I got a bunch of joy recently just from going to a soul bar and catching a band that I had never heard of before.

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You know and they just tore the house down. I'm wearing the shirt right now any dukes and it was um Yeah, that that kind of stuff so I'm I I get joy from just having experiences You know the one you especially when you work a lot You know it's you know those times where you get to kind of just step away and just kind of like and just just Relax and do your thing that kind of stuff is what I'm all about. That's awesome. Yeah, it's it's it's always I think it's always important especially if you like say you're working and working working It's like well

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Take that time away for yourself to do the things you enjoy. Play your video games. Play with the dogs or whatever it is. Hang out with your loved ones. Try new restaurants or whatever. And that's the thing, for me, it's like, and for you, that'd be like research. It's like, I can write this up, no. But try different experiences and to actually put yourself as far away as you can from whatever your work is. And just be and exist.

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And I think that's amazing. That's amazing stuff. You talked about playing video games. Are you a console? Are you a PC? Are you a? I am a huge, huge console player. I have all three of the major systems right now. Yeah. There's no Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, Nintendo, whatever you got. And then I got some of the older stuff. I got, you know,

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Super Nintendo, I am a huge gamer. My dad started that on me when I was five. My mom said that that won't last. She has eaten her words and I have proven to her that it is here to stay. I just love them. They're almost like books for me, which is actually interesting because I wasn't big. I had issues reading when I was younger.

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I was in the learning classes. I was separated from all the other kids. It was me and four other kids because we were having trouble reading. And I just had all this trouble reading books. My mom then one day, I'm trying to remember which one it was, but she got a game, it was an RPG, and it had a lot of reading into it. And my mom, she said to my dad, she was like, look, Brandon will not read these books, but he will sure enough read this video game. And I was, yeah,

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So she actually will say like, you know, man, like video games actually helped him with reading a lot because when he wouldn't read a book, he would definitely get in there and read Final Fantasy, whatever one we were on right now. Or Legend of Zelda, that was a big reading one, you know, when it came out on 64. So yeah, yeah, video games are deep into my DNA, a big part of what I do.

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Are you more of an RPG type player or sports? Or you just play everywhere? I'm literally like, it disgusts some of my friends. Because a lot of people, they get a game, they will sit down, they will play that game, they will get done with it, and then they're like, ah, not me. I jump around a lot. I've been playing certain games for years. Like I'll like pop in. I have a really weird memory.

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into a game from like four years ago that I haven't played and like jump in there, remember everything that's happening in the story, remember all the controls, and then just like keep going. Sometimes yes, I will get something that like I told, I think I'm playing a game called The Quarry right now, which I'm very into, I will finish it. But sometimes yeah, I jump around a lot. So yeah, I play sports games, I play RPGs, I play, you know, on Sundays, generally when I wake up, like I assure you, when I wake up tomorrow morning, I will be looking for a generally like

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cartoony type stuff like a Banjo-Kazooie or Super Mario. It takes me back to a time in my childhood where when I do that I'll just want to play something that's very cartoonish and not guns or whatever. I do play those games too, but it's a certain vibe I want on Sunday. That's good. I love that. Banjo-Kazooie, I remember that. That was a great game. Oh yeah, man. Those are classics.

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And this is how little of a gamer I am, because I have no systems, but my boys had systems and they were always on. Do you do any of that multi-person internet base where you're playing someone across the other? Yeah, yeah. I do yes and no. So I do play with people. It's mostly people I know. We'll start a party or whatever.

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There's types of gamers to where, you know, like I'll say like, you know, like Call of Duty or whatever, which I don't play that too much. But, you know, they'll jump into a game and they'll just talk to whoever is on there. It could be anybody from around the world. Right. I no longer have the patience for that. Oh, wow. And that is because, one, unfortunately, there's a lot of rude people in the world, a lot of...

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I'd much rather just be talking to people I know and like I'm not trying to get in there and have five year olds yell at me and call me names. So, you know, like some people like that. Some people love getting in there and like, you know, the interaction, that's your thing, that's fine. You know, and there are sometimes, there have been a couple of times where I, you know, back in the day where I would jump into something and I was like, oh, these are actually some pretty cool people. And you know, we friend each other and all that. But I kind of over time, like I kind of just, especially now, like, you know, when I go and I'm playing video games,

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I'm not trying to relax. I'm not trying to jump into a game of something and then have somebody be like, you're the worst player that I've ever seen in my life. Get stressed out by that. Yeah, I'm not trying to deal with all that. So yeah, yes or yes. Yes to one, but no with the masses. Which is funny seeing as what you do is you go and talk to the masses that you don't know. Exactly, so it's not. Maybe that's it. Maybe it's like, no, this is too much work. Exactly, I'm like, I have to deal with talking to random people all the time.

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trying to do it right now while I'm off work.

29:55
Alright, Randy, this is the second segment of the show where we dive a little bit deeper into you and talk a little bit more about mental health. I think it's very important to bring the subject to light because there are a lot of people out there that feel they're alone in these things. But I think everybody goes through down days, everybody has those days they just want to let the hot water hit them in the shower because they just don't feel like getting out. But I think it's important that we destigmatize that by having the conversations.

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keep the darkness at bay. Alright, so for me, I think, I don't really get where I come from. I'm a big product of bullying. I got picked on a lot when I was a kid. I mean, a lot. It was brutal. I was a kid from Syracuse, came down here, thick accent, a little bit different, a little weird.

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definitely tried to appease a lot of people. That was like my defense mechanism, was being funny or trying to make sure everybody liked me. That actually was what caused a lot of my stress. And I think a lot of people do that, especially with our jobs. Our main thing is you want people to be happy with you, to think that you're doing a good job or doing whatever. And I think going back to what we were talking about earlier, for me,

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what helps me mentally, and I tell people this all the time, is take your breaks. Take your breaks, take your paid time off, take your sick leave. I'm a big person to where if you're taking a sick leave and you just need a day to yourself, I think that that's 100% because mental health is super important. Some days you just cannot people, is what my dad would say. So you know, when it comes time,

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I do it a lot. Like again, I get up on Saturdays and I really just sit there and I just take time myself. I don't mess with my phone. I think that's a big thing too. You know, like put your phone away. You know, we're really connected all the time. And sometimes, you know, like being, especially like really deep into social media, like you know, you do weird stuff in there. You start comparing yourself to other people. You see something that may upset you,

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that's going on in the world. So sometimes it's good to just put all that away and just be like, let's go to another world. Sit down, watch a movie. I love spending time with my wife. She's fantastic. She is a big part of what keeps me nice, calm, and cool. Just sitting down with her some days and just picking a show and just be like, this is what we're doing today. We're gonna get some pizza. And yeah, so I would say

32:55
And another thing too that I really had to get better about was just talking to people about what's on my mind. I was really bad growing up about not really talking to people about stuff. It would almost seem like that I wasn't upset about anything. I was being, because I didn't want to disappoint people. That was, so now if I have something going on, I'll talk to my wife, I call my mom all the time. I'll just sit there and be like,

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You know and it's like I have to like talk out like what's going on in my head Yeah, and and I'll just sit there and you know normally we'll get to that point because you know sometimes you'll just be upset You don't know why and you know it's hard but if you're able to acknowledge sometimes that you're like I'm in a mood like sometimes talking to somebody and being able to figure out what the Like the core of this is like that can really really help out in my mind, you know for me It's getting just talking to my wife. It's talking to my mom

33:55
You know, in regards to work stuff, if that ever gets me. And yeah, talking is a lot, because trying to figure it out all in your head can be a lot sometimes, and your brain's gonna, it's gonna do whatever it wants, and hearing other people's perspective, it helps a lot. Yeah, yeah. And I gotta imagine, you working in the news industry,

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You know, that's your job is to be in, I hate to say all the bad, because it's not all bad, but when you're watching the news, it's about 95% bad stuff. Luckily for you, you're in that 5% of good stuff for the majority of what you're putting out as far as your stories, your articles and things like that. But I mean, you're still there. You're in it and you're aware of it.

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just to kind of live in that. Well, you know, and even still with, you know, even though I do primarily, you know, like, you know, good, positive, you know, people, you know, obviously when stuff happens and it goes down, you got to get out there, you know. So one, you still see that stuff, which that's always like a thing in itself. Like, you know, you can't really prepare anybody to, you know, show up on the scene of a fire and, you know, a family has lost everything or somebody. Yeah.

35:25
You know, I worked, you know the morning show for five years. So, you know, I was traffic accidents fires Shooting all the stuff that happens in the morning, you know that and that kind of stuff again Like people don't like, you know people a lot of times people get to like only just worry about like, you know The stuff that's happening, you know that you see the the big things that are happening on like social media or in the news You know, they don't worry about that When you got to get out there and you got to see all this stuff That's literally just happening in your neck of the woods

35:55
is happening sometimes. You see a glance at it on Facebook, like, oh, shooting, but then when you're there and you gotta see it and you see the crying, it's definitely something that weighs on you. And I love my job. Everything that I've done, it's made me, I think it's made me a stronger person. But yeah, it's definitely, you have to talk to people about that kind of stuff. And I mean, again, even if something's bothering you, sometimes, I don't know,

36:25
that even if you're stressed about something that's just going on in the world, you're like, oh, I'm seeing this a lot, and I'm nervous, but go talk to somebody about it. Someone may be able to kinda help you through, well, hey, here's what's going on right now. Maybe you don't need to be as stressed about it, or realize that you shouldn't be as stressed about it. Communicating is my thing.

36:55
Obviously I talk a lot. Communication is a big thing for me. And I think like figuring out the balance of, not only just talking to people and trying to, lift them up with what I'm doing, but learning to talk about things for myself and being able to kind of open up about those kinds of things. That really is what kind of changed me over the years. Again, back in the day, I was like a powder keg.

37:25
and just everything was all about everybody else. I had to make sure everybody was happy, be the funny guy. And then over time, I was able to have so many better relationships, because there was people like, oh, it's like I actually get to talk to you now, not like the Brandon representative. So yeah, being able to understand the difference between the day as your representative, which again, we do that all the time. Yeah, yeah.

37:55
an event, you're meeting people, you're putting on the charm, that's you, but it's like an amped up version of you. Being able to bring out the you you, the at home you, into public more and being able to talk to people about it, like that I think will take a load of stress off of anybody. Being able to talk to someone about your views or about how you feel about stuff

38:25
like you're switching it up for each thing. You know, that's what it's all about to me. Yeah, and I mean, because yeah, that's dangerous if you're trying to, if you're in that people pleaser mode and you're changing your viewpoint for whichever group that you're in, you could lose yourself in that. And then, you know, now you've got these two different versions of you out there that two different groups think of you at, and if they come at you at the same time, it's like, ah, ah. Worlds collide. What do I do?

38:55
school for me and we got I got over that much later in life and now basically like it's like I when I walk up to people like pretty much every person now it's like I'm slamming the the Brandon Dawson book on the table and just opening it wide up and I'm like this is it yeah you love it or you hate it and but you know okay but this is it this is it yeah so but that's also very freeing though too I think and like you said it's it allows you to not be stressed and not feel all this other anxiety because just again which mask do I put

39:25
It's like, no, I'm gonna take them off, and this is me, and you're just gonna get me. You mentioned something earlier about mentors, and I think, especially in what you do, and it goes for other people too, in certain jobs and things like that, to be able to speak to people that are in that same environment, because their perspective is gonna be very similar to yours, having been in it, that other people that you try to talk about,

39:55
You have the advantage that Dixie also works in media as well. So, so yes, she can understand when you go talk your work stuff. Sometimes you go home and you, if your spouse doesn't work in the same field and you're trying to have, oh man, I had this thing and they're like, why are you upset about that? That doesn't sound like there's a big thing. He's like, no, you don't understand. And it's like, so I think that's really smart and important to have mentors even in your own field that you can be open with about the things. Because again, they're going to have that same type of perspective, excuse me,

40:25
perspective on what's been going on. Yeah, I agree. It's always good to have someone that again, like in pretty much every part of my life, I have someone that I can talk to to where I'm like, okay, like, like if you won't get this, I can go talk to like, you know, one other person that'll do this, you know, I haven't met work, I haven't been home, I haven't family members and all of us have over the years, you know, kind of grown and like, really figured each other out. And, you know, I'm really blessed for that reason

40:55
Like we are, we are a bunch of a bunch of weirdos. But like when I say that we all get each other like completely, it's, it's, it's, it's wild. I can call them up and talk to them about, about anything, even if it's just something silly, like, man, this person, I don't think this person likes me at work and I don't know why. And they're like, they're like, Oh, you know, maybe you don't worry about that. And, you know, everybody looks at people differently, you know, like just like, don't,

41:25
Yeah, they're a bunch of sweeties. They're a big part of my support system, too. That's awesome. That's awesome. And for you then, do you find that being able to also pour out into your work, into your stories, because you are concentrating on positivity and the good side of news, do you think that helps you as well to have an outlet to really refresh your mind in those down times? It has.

41:55
I can't tell you enough about how much it, it's such a good feeling. It's like, again, it's like, almost like I work in two different worlds than this. Cause you know, you have some reporters to where, you know, it's their job, you know, to go out there and talk about the wild stuff that's going on. And you know, while they're doing that, you know, here I am, you know, at the, at the place where, you know, a veteran has done something awesome and has raised a bunch of money for, you know, a bunch of kids, you know, or, you know, that, that for me,

42:25
get to go around, it helps a lot of people, even in my house, because me and my wife, we'll go to work and something terrible will happen in the world. And during that day, while that stuff is happening, she's real worn out from it, because you get real worn out from having to see stuff all day. But then she'll get to come home and I'll be like, oh, I just talked with this artist, this autistic artist, and he's made the entire cast of Sister Act out of

42:55
out of pipe cleaners and he's super stoked about it. And that's just my story for the day. And this person I'm talking about, his name is, he's a great kid and he made my day that day. I'm trying to remember, it's sad to say this, like I can't remember which crazy world event was happening that day. But that particular day, I remember that he really made me feel just like, there are good people and good things happening

43:25
world. It's almost like my job. I get like a constant reminder of that, you know, just from talking to people, just, you know, going out there and being like, oh, well, you know, I did a story on the busy bakers, you know, you know, they just these kids out there with a special needs, you know, but they're out there, you know, baking up a storm and, you know, their stuff tastes great and people love them out there. So, you know, you get to do all this stuff. It's just cool, man. Like it's a I, I honestly say that it gave

43:55
it revitalized me in television because I just really got to go out there and just start talking to really cool people. And you know, it was getting a little, I don't want to say burnt out, but it was like, you know, working the morning shift for a couple years, it gets to you. And doing a complete switch around, you know, it didn't hit me until maybe a couple years into where I was just like, man, I had a really good gig doing what I'm doing right now. So, yeah.

44:27
Brandon this is the third segment of the show. It's time now for the fast five The best five it's time now for the fast five Sorry, I'm fast five is also one of my favorites in the fast and furious franchise, but you know, we'll talk about it another time The fast five is powered by pod decks. It's an app created by my friend Travis Brown It's created for podcasters great interview questions, but there's also physical decks and they're great icebreaker so

44:57
you need to, and probably would be great, I would think, improv prompts too. So if you ever get back into improv, might be some good prompts in the pod decks. I wanna get that out there right now that I will be back, nobody has to worry. Yeah, it'll be back. But if you go to chewinthefatbr.com slash pod decks and use the promo code chew, you can get 10% off your physical decks, but I am gonna use the app. Again, no wrong answers, first thing comes off top of your head. You ready for this?

45:27
All right, and question number one

45:33
If you could go back in time and give your younger self one piece of advice, what would it be? One piece of advice to my younger self. Just one. Oh man. I would go back in time and tell him to not stress about these girls so much. Oh, I was so broke. So broke up on so many occasions.

46:03
different girls growing up and I'm talking epic epic like just tears if I could just like go back to him and just be like hey man like you know it's gonna be okay like you're chill like like just like relax maybe don't be so so extra about it you know you'll you'll save yourself a lot of time like I'm like I hope people understand I'm talking this is like like high school maybe middle school and I'm talking like just sitting around in the darkness just like oh god

46:33
I can't believe that so-and-so and I aren't going to prom anymore. My mom's like, Brandon, what are you doing? Get out of the house. Go do something. A lot of wasted time there. Well, that's good. That sounds like very solid sage advice to be giving somebody, though. So that's great. I would have to say very much for myself, if I could go back and tell Lil Rob, you know,

47:03
I would tell him to be himself sooner, you know, cause there was a lot of that mask wearing, a lot of that people pleasing that I tried to do as a defense mechanism and if I just realized that in the end of the day those people I was trying to please aren't really gonna matter and I just really need to do stuff for me and just be myself. Oh man, can I go back and take back what I said? No, cause your answer was great. No, cause your answer was great. Your answer was great.

47:33
I do agree with you though. That's that's very important. Yeah question number two

47:40
How many chickens would it take to kill an elephant?

47:47
67. Okay. I'm gonna leave it as that. Question number three.

47:55
Is there any local dish or food product from where you grew up that you miss? Yep. I OK. So growing up in Syracuse, we had this bagel shop. And I tell people this all the time and they think that I'm a lunatic about it. But growing up, a big thing where I was was getting a tuna bagel, like a grilled tuna patty melt bagel, like in the mornings. I'm talking like this is like a breakfast diet. I'm talking. OK.

48:25
and we'd go and I did martial arts, I was doing a kempo and we'd do our karate class in the morning and then as soon as we got done, it was like, all right, we go to the bagel shop, I would get this bagel melt, it was the bagels, the tuna, it was the grilled, and it had the melted cheese and the tomato, ugh, it was to die for. And now down here, I mentioned it to people and they're like, what are you talking about? Well, you keep saying grilled tuna, I'm feeling like this was a tuna filet or something

48:55
I think of it in places like tuna salad, you know what I mean, where it's like all the mayo and all that stuff on it. I mean, that's what it is. Oh! Yes, if you've ever had, yeah, if you've ever just had a tuna melt, yeah, that's literally just what it was, but it was just a bagel. But it was on a bagel. It was on a bagel, yeah, and that was our thing. I loved it. That's awesome. I loved it. That's awesome. All right, question number four.

49:22
If you could learn any language fluently, what would it be? Japanese. Really? Hands down, love it there. Yeah? Have you been? Yep, would move. Really? If given the opportunity, I'd go there immediately. Wow. I love it there. So what was it about it? Just the vibe. It's, everybody is so, granted it's super crowded, but everybody there is so respectful and so chill that like it's, man, it's just everything

49:52
that I want. I mean, there wasn't a person there that like, even if you didn't know, like they didn't know a lick of English, you didn't know a lick of Japanese, you could, you could go up there and they would help you out with something. Probably one of my favorite moments while we were in Japan is we were sitting there and I was looking for these pajamas. And these three ladies in this store had a field day with me. I didn't know what they were saying. They didn't know what I was saying, but they knew what I wanted. They like took me to the back. They were handing me over these different pajamas and I was coming out and doing

50:22
It was hilarious. And I finally came out and I was like, this is the one? And they were like, yes. And then they were just so stoked. And it was just a great vibe. One of the best times that I've ever had. And that story right there, that was pretty much everywhere. I could tell a million stories from that trip that were just like that. And everybody was just so cool. And I love Japan. That's awesome. Sounds like you need to get on some Duolingo with some Japanese or something like that. That's awesome.

50:52
Question number five.

50:56
What's the last thing you've done that you are really proud of?

51:02
Mmm. Let me think about that. Let me think about that the last thing that I've done that I'm Really proud of mm-hmm taking care of my little dog recently yeah, yeah, he was really sick and I had a really busy work week and like and he was super sick and I was just a I was a I know this may be like a weird thing to be proud of but like you know I had to

51:32
take him to the vet and get all of his stuff taken care of. I feel like my wife had a lot of stuff to do too, so it was primarily me who was having to take care of this dog, and it was rough for him. And he had this dentist visit, and we weren't sure what was happening. Like, he had this weird reaction to it. So I got through that entire week of work, and I wanna say I did not sleep because he had a real bad case of diarrhea, so he was getting up.

52:02
every two hours in the night, getting up, and I was just like, you know, I was like, man, if I can get through this week, and it was, oh, that's right, because we had this huge segment planned for that week. It was Your Hometown in, I think, Waynesboro, and we got through the whole thing, and you know, segments went great. I had like three stories to do for it that week. That all went great, and then he ended up just coming out like a million bucks,

52:32
the whole time. So I was super proud just to be able to get through all that, not have any super meltdowns. My wife was great all week. I remember just at the end of that week when it hit the weekend, I was just like, man, what a week. I'm so happy that we made it through it. Yeah. That's like some alpha level adulting right there. Yeah. When you can do a bunch of stuff and still do your job and still have something that like, my dogs are like my kids too.

53:02
You know, I was, you know, you know, taking the lunch break going home, checking on him. You know, it was a crazy week, oh man. That's awesome that you made it through that though. That's really cool. What kind of dogs you have? I have two dogs. I have one dog who is a, he's a tiny Chihuahua minpen mix by the name of Milo. He's our older dog. He is eight years old. And we have a 60 pound Australian

53:32
She's a beast, but she's just a big goof, and she's like three. Those are my babies. What's the Australian hound's name? Ripley, named after Ellen Ripley from Aliens. Nice, nice. Well, that's awesome. We'll send Milo and Ripley my love, and that is our Fast Five. That's the show, Brandon. Thank you so much, man. What? That was awesome. I could do like six more questions. Dan! Specifically. That was so good. I really appreciate you coming in.

54:02
If folks want to keep up with you, what's the best way for them to do that? If anybody wants to follow me, they can follow me on Facebook at either my personal one, Brandon Dawson, always love having more friends, or they can go to my work page, Brandon Dawson, WJBF, or if you want more silliness, kind of a combination of news and video game talk, you can follow me on Twitter at BDawsonWJBF. I'm also on Instagram as well as Duck Dollas.

54:32
there so you'll be treated to whenever I decide to post one or two pics every six months. That's awesome though. I definitely put those links in the show notes and of course you can find out more about Brandon and our past guests on the guest page at ChewingTheFatBR.com. One more time, Brandon, thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate it. Thank you for having me. This was actually this was actually very therapeutic. Awesome. I'm glad you got something out of it and I hope you got something out of it as well and if you would like to support this podcast

55:02
you can buy me a coffee at chewingthefatbr.com. But until next time, I look forward to when we have a moment to sit a spell and chew the fat.