Today Extra host David Campbell on the one thing you shouldn’t call him

Today Extra host David Campbell is used to feedback - both the good and the bad kind - but there’s one phrase that makes him shiver.

I have been called many things over my life and career so far – some of them not fit to be printed; many lovely things, too. But one has always made me shiver. Yet in the last year, I have come to look at the saying in a different light.

As someone who never went to university, or had any tertiary education, I prided myself on having to learn on the job. In the entertainment industry this is easy if you have the right teachers.

Want to learn to sing? Put the work in, do your scales, sing wherever you can get a stage. Want to be an actor but didn’t get into a drama school?

“I have been called many things over my life and career so far – some of them not fit to be printed; many lovely things, too.” (Picture: Wendell Teodoro/Getty Images)

You either have great instincts or you get an acting coach. Luck has a lot to do with it, and having a good hustle helps, too.

I have always hated the term “jack of all trades, master of none”. First of all, old timey saying-makers, 2021 called and they want their gender-biased pronouns back. Secondly, it’s pretty judgey.

It dates back to the 1600s and describes someone as “average” in a derogatory way, made even more so by using the name Jack – a generic term for commoners back then. Bloody snobs.

I used to feel pretty bad about this saying, because it felt like me. In my own life I felt I needed to pick up a new skill and apply it as fast as I could. My career bounced from genre to genre – musical theatre to cabaret, swing music to rock, television to radio… to columnist.

“There are more of us who do not have a clue what we want and need to explore life to decide where we will be happiest.” (Picture: Supplied)

Yet, these words played over and over in my head. All it would take was a quiet night, a spoonful of anxiety and that phrase would gnaw away at my self-worth.

We put a lot of emphasis in society on being an expert in something. For many of us, this term fits perfectly well. Some go through school knowing exactly what they want to be and how to get the grades to do it. Some of us are blessed to have a calling, guiding us like an invisible rope to the job that fills our souls.

Still, there are more of us who do not have a clue what we want and need to explore life to decide where we will be happiest – careening from part-time job to full-time job; trying on employment opportunities like it’s the season’s hot new item, only to find it doesn’t suit us.

For a lot of my friends, incredible artists who dedicated their lives to a vocation in the arts, last year forced them to pivot – and pivot hard. They weren’t the only ones. Tourism.

Hospitality. So many people saw something they worked for, dreamed of and built their life around just stop. We watched our loved ones realise change had come knocking. They were the “masters”, but now found themselves without a domain.

David Campbell features in this Sunday’s Stellar.

So, the “Jacks” had to change the trade. Adaptation became survival. I realised that old saying was too restrictive in its narrative of people and the human condition in this century.

What Ye Olde Saying Dudes back in the day didn’t have was choice. Or the internet. This dated term was probably created when blacksmiths and shepherds were the app developers of the day. So why do we still use it?

Let’s embrace the change which comes to us. Really, after the past 12 months, we haven’t had a choice. So why not? Maybe we can master all the trades we want. All the Jacks (and Jackettes), our time is now!

David co-hosts Today Extra, 9am Monday to Friday, on the Nine Network.

Originally published as Today Extra host David Campbell on the one thing you shouldn’t call him