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I couldn't be part of my university's Comedy Society

by CJ

By CJ FrancisPublished 3 years ago 4 min read
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(We live in a (comedy) society...)

The other day I was giving someone advice about going to uni, or at least, some of the things not to do. In hindsight I feel I could have crushed it a bit harder, but there's always the whole being depressedddddd thing. One of the things I definitely recommended was to check out the sports and societies. I didn't go to many and the ones I did were so categorically me I both found my people and felt isolated from others.

This is about the latter. Even if the former devolved into the same thing.

I couldn't be a part of my university's Comedy Society.

Off the bat, it was definitely my fault and not theirs. Like I'm sure most people are like with life, there's the image you create in your head, and then life throws paintbuckets at your vision and vaguely get it right. I grew up a comedy nerd watching all manner of comedy from Cabridge and Oxford-educated funny people. Where the Cambridge Footlights were a beacon for my want to get into comedy and find my funny tribe.

I mean, I didn't go to Cambridge. Or even Anglia Ruskin, the loophole where you could say you go to university in Cambridge without saying you don't actually go to Cambridge...

I went to the University of Lincoln. In the shadow of the group of YouTubers that had gone around the same time. For example, TomSka, creator of asdfmovie, went to Lincoln. I once wrote a sketch for him and every time I've met him I've brought the mood down talking about depression, so you can tell where this comedy journey is heading.

In my second year, I think, there was a comedy society. It might have been the first year it was made, maybe not. All I know is that I saw the stall for it at the society fair and immediately thought "This is where I find the Stephen Fry to my Hugh Laurie". Or am I Stephen Fry?

Probably not. The best word in my vocabulary is "exacerbate" and I got that from Shaun of the Dead.

Joining the comedy society I thought that this was my time. I'd be able to find like-minded people, we'd do improv exactly like Whose Line is it Anyway?, yadda yadda yadda...And there we go.

It was not like that at all.

I'm a shy person. Or a quiet one. I like to surround myself with people I describe as "catalysts". Those who make effort to do the talking. Those who bring my out of my shell. Those who make me feel comfortable to make jokes. It's tough being so withdrawn when the thing I wanna do is entertain, but I know I can do it, know the people who can help me do it, and just generally facilitate it.

This comedy society at university was not that thing.

I have no doubt there were very funny people that came out of that place. I did not stick around long enough to find out. The problem with wanting to be funny and living in a culture surrounded by things that are funny and suddenly entering an environment with like-minded people, is that sometimes you are heavily aware that maybe, just maybe...

...You realise you're surrounded by people who think they're the funniest people in their friendship group. And me, being horribly self-aware, couldn't handle that.

It did not help that I wasn't firing on my comedy cylinders. Rough introductions and then carbon-copying games from Whose Line? didn't really make it work for me. It used to be my jam in high school, but I'm not entirely sure what had happened.

Elsewhere, in anime society (because once again, you know I crushed it at uni) we had a Whose Line?-type night. Just a fun social night where we didn't watch glorious animation from the East but instead channeled the energy of four white comedians funnier and more successful than ourselves from the West. To this day, I remember the shambles of my performance in a game of Questions Only?

Improv and stand-up have always been things I've wanted to do in life. I certainly wish I could be the people that made me laugh throughout my life, raising my spirits even at uni when I was a depressed little childdddd.

I still haven't found the right venue, outlet, and peers in that regard. I know funny people. They're the only people I fuck with. I haven't felt that I have the group to head to a place and just be funny. In performance. One day maybe that will be the case. A less disasterous open-mic. A trainwreck a rung below that seen in Joker. Somewhere I could be a King of Comedy.

Until then, maybe someone could point me in the right direction. For now, I'll have my stage fright.

Humanity
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About the Creator

CJ Francis

Writer. Slytherin. Trying to find his place in the world as someone who can bring fun and entertainment to people.

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