I never really know how to answer when people ask me how long I’ve been doing stand up comedy.
Do I say I started when I went to my first open mic, as part of a challenge for this newsletter? In that case, I started in October 2021. But I didn’t do another mic until January 2022 and then after that one I didn’t try again until the summer of 2022.
That’s usually when I say I “started” comedy because that’s when I began going to open mics more regularly. That’s also when I was asked to be on my first ever show, which accelerated my need to go to open mics and actually figure out how to do comedy.
I was asked if I had seven minutes of jokes for a show and I confidently said, “Yes.”
At that point I’d only ever done a few open mics, which were only 3 minutes each. The truth is that I’d literally only ever been on stage for about 12 total minutes. Of course I didn’t have seven minutes of proven jokes! I started hitting more open mics so I could to figure out what those seven minutes were going to be.
That show was on September 29, 2022. So I sometimes count that date as my two-year comedy anniversary. If you’re wondering, it went great. I cringe looking at the video now, but I also wrote a joke for that show that I still use in my opening today.
All this to say – we are coming up on my two-year comedy anniversary.
In two years I’ve done far more than I ever thought possible: I’ve started a production company with my friend Kevin and produced a dozen shows, performed in five different cities, met some famous comedians, and done multiple shows back in my hometown of Tyler, TX.
Comedy has opened so many doors for me, helping me reconnect with old friends, making me new friendships with people I never would have met without comedy, and even helping me in my business relationships. Essentially, being able to say “I’m a stand up comedian” and have real evidence to back it up is pretty much always impressive to people.
I’ve learned a lot about comedy in the last two years. Over the next few weeks I’ll be writing about different observations. Some will be lessons, some will be funny, some will be explorations into the negatives and positives of the comedy scene.
Comedy Makes Me Better
I roasted myself into becoming a healthier person. My first set of jokes in my first few shows were about how I was “skinny fat.” At that time I was the heaviest I’ve ever been and I felt pretty bad about myself. It made good fodder for jokes and it helped me learn to talk about my insecurities onstage in a way that made me relatable.
It also made me realize I needed to lose weight. So, after only a few months of making these jokes I started counting my calories and walking long distances each night. Within a few months, I’d lost 25 lbs. I felt so much better.
Except, I could no longer make jokes about being “skinny fat.” Now, I was just skinny. But, losing that fat made me lose the little bit of muscle that I had. So, my jokes transitioned into jokes about my lack of strength. Those jokes are the bulk of my opening bits, making it clear to the audience that I am no Adonis (as if they couldn’t tell).
Again though, these jokes started wearing on me. I got fed up with being too skinny and weak and I’ve started working out consistently and building muscle over the last few months. I can still comfortably make these jokes though, almost no one can tell I’ve made this progress, but I feel better and that’s what matters. I’ll only stop making the jokes when someone interrupts my set by saying, “Dude, I can see your biceps bulging through your shirt.”
Once that happens, I’ll have to move on to roasting something else I don’t like about my body. Maybe I’ll roast my baldness so much that I invest in Hair Club for men.
If you’d like to see what I consider one of my best sets, and most fun crowds, so far, you can check out my host set I did at the Brazos Theatre in Waco below. Over 100 paying customers, excited for comedy, and loving my obsession with one specific Waco icon.
Stay tuned for next week’s comedy takeaways. I’m off to Montana with my family for the week. I’ll share about the trip when I get back.
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