Ever think about starting your own television show? Sure the thought may have run through your head but it stuck in JR Digs’ and there was no escape for it.

Growing up as a child he used to stay up late and tune in to the Johnny Carson show with his Grandparents making it an excuse to stay up late, but Johnny must have rubbed off on JR as he decided to start up his own late night comedy TV show.

“When I saw The Tom Green Show on television, I was shocked that a network was actually airing footage of a guy doing such crazy shit. If they were letting him do all this hilarious and ridiculous stuff on TV, maybe there would be a network who would let me do it as well! I was definitely inspired to try and figure out how to start living the dream. I always wanted my own late night talk show, just like Johnny Carson,” said JR.

JR wouldn’t enter this new journey without actually being funny, he thanks his high school humour a little.

“Until I was around seventeen or eighteen years old, I was about 4 feet tall and really skinny. When all your friends are two feet taller than you are, I guess you learn to be a little bit funny once in a while. Unless, of course, you plan on going all the way through high school without even being able to talk to a girl!”

The long road that was taken to bring him where he is today was a bumpy one. His first show aired in June 20th 2001 and that was the night that his life began to change.

“The night my show first aired on television is a little bit of a blur, I do remember walking into a Dairy Queen the next afternoon and having a guy come up to me and tell me that he saw me on TV the night before and it made me feel pretty cool. Later on that night, I was walking out of a grocery story and these two guys kind of looked at me as they drove by. I remember thinking, wow, I've got my own TV show. Then as they drove off, one of them yelled out the window, "Your show sucks!" That's pretty much how it's been ever since. One minute you feel like you're the shit and the next minute, you're cleaning off your shoe because you just stepped in a huge pile of it.”

To follow his dream he had to sell the skateboard shops that were very successful, to pay off the thousands of dollars in debt he had owing to his credit cards and to the network and the costly prices to produce the show. JR didn’t land a major network deal so he turned to buying the same time slots infomercials are in on late nights to air his show, this is what put him into debt but there was no giving up.

“Going broke and being totally screwed can definitely affect a guy. It sure kept me going. Giving up was never an option once I went over $100,000 in debt chasing this stupid dream of mine to get a network deal for this goofy little comedy show! That and stupidity. I think stupidity has played a big part in keeping me going!, ” he said.

With the help of big sponsors and Government grants The JR Digs Show has been on and off the air for the past four years and has been pulling in great ratings. Even though he aired the same shows over and over again people still continued to watch them.

Going out on the street and shooting some hilarious skits was not the only part of the show; JR even had a live studio audience once. It was part of a class trip and the students were all in the audience. After parents saw the show they were not impressed and did not want their children to be part of such a thing. He then just put black bars over the faces of the unwanted children so all the others could still be on. In late 2004 Global pulled his show off the air due to all the complaints they were getting about the content. Come on it’s only comedy!

If you were to tune in to the JR Digs show what would you expect?

“Picture your brain. Now picture your brain on drugs and you laughing your ass off at midnight on some Friday night that you decided to stay at home and watch TV. The show is called "The JR DIGS Show" and it's kind of funny for a little low budget, independently produced Canadian TV show. I don't really do drugs, but people who do sometimes come up to me and tell me they think the show is even funnier after they have been partying a little bit!”

Only a couple weeks ago the show went back on and it has been getting those same high ratings as it did before.

“Getting the show back on the air this summer was a big deal. There is A pretty good grass-roots fan base for the show now and having so many corporate sponsors interested in sponsoring the show again tells me the ratings must be more than just respectable. Getting an actual network deal and a little bit of a budget to produce the show with is still my goal, but mostly, I want to have a little fun again. I've never really been able to enjoy myself too much the last few years. It's been tough, that's for sure, but now I just want to have a few laughs and see if I can have some fun again, cause I'm living the dream...”

If you want more information on J.R. Digs and his hilarious show go to www.jrdigs.com.