Joe Campbell
Joe Campbell began producing humour in high school and published a few pieces after graduating from the University of Saskatchewan in arts and education. But distractions—earning a living, raising a family, leading a jazz band—sobered him up and he pronounced himself cured.
He spent ten years as a radio and television newsman, followed by 28 years as a “tame journalist” with his alma mater, handling media relations and various writing and editing chores.
Alas, after taking early retirement, he suffered a relapse into humour and some 130 of his light or satirical pieces have appeared in newspapers and magazines in Canada and the US.
Fifty of his previously published pieces are included in Take Me Out of the Ball Game, his first book of humour, which was shortlisted for the 2006 Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour.
Like writing, music has been an abiding interest. Joe took up the trumpet in high school, began playing with various bands and orchestras at age 15, and led the Joe Campbell Sextet in university. In 1967, he co-founded the Bridge City Dixieland Jazz Band, which was featured on radio and TV, on record, at Expo ‘86 in Vancouver, at the 1990 Chilliwack International Jazz Festival, and regularly at the SaskTel Saskatchewan Jazz Festival in Saskatoon, among a host of other events spanning more than a quarter of a century.
In retirement, he began concentrating on piano, in case his lungs give out before his fingers, and has performed publicly with another musician in what they call The Semi-Dynamic Duo.
Joe and his wife, Rosemary, live in Saskatoon, where they raised their nine children.
Books by Joe
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