What it was like to do Stand-up Comedy

There was a time in my life where I did Stand up comedy. Stand-up comedy has evolved so rapidly especially when Netflix has become the easy outlet to shell out these stand-ups.

I decided to take my own chance at it. It became something I didn't expect when I got into this crowd.

This is how I saw the process to make my first piece for stand-up. It seemed like a high school essay: a good hook, the beginning , a segue to the middle, and a fantastic finale . I had a funny story to tell and I was going to share it.

I had a level headed mind when it came to my performance, I didn’t expect a huge amount of appraise. I just wanted the satisfaction of knowing that I did that. Me and my social anxiety did the unexpected spontaneous act of performing stand up. I can look back and said I did it .

A friend of mine that did stand-up told me what it was like and how long a participant gets. 3 minutes . I can do three minutes .

When the day came, I was unprepared emotionally. Throughout the day I practiced my routine, despite what had happened. The show had to happen.

I arrived with my friend and I started talking to some of the other comedians I saw perform the past two times I came to see my friend perform. I got the chance to talk to the comedians set to perform that night . It did give me a sense of comfort having a lax conversation with some of them.

The performances would start at 8. Around 7:50 , the participants who signed up were summoned to go over the rules: be considerate of others , don’t use racial or f-bombs (if the f-bomb would be used, it had to count for a funny part) and we only get three minutes , however if any of us felt uncomfortable and couldn’t go on we can get off the stage as long as we called for the announcer to come take the microphone.

I was the seventh person to go up on stage. I was a mixed of nervous and excited to go up on stage . Then about thirty second before I got on stage , I got a message from a former friend of mine that made me lose all confidence from remembering what happened the day before. Then I had to go up on stage with my social anxiety and emotional anxiety.

I had immediately gotten my routine started , and I got some sporadic laughter from the first quip. I remembered trying to stare at the audience, I just kept looking at the stage lights. I tried to keep my voice normal as it was starting to speed up like Speedy Gonzales. I went through my entire segment carefully and creatively adding a few other jokes that weren’t a part of my original written routine. During the time I was on stage , I did get some genuine laughter. It even surprised me and I had to stop for a second to have a look of amusement on my face. It made my emotional anxiety go away for a second knowing that I was proud of myself for that moment. I hastily finished up the last of my routine. For some strange reason I decided to do a courtesy with my dress and I handed the mike back to the host. Then I proceeded to go to the chair and relax from the excitement and the relief.

After I had calmed down enough, I went outside to go have a cigarette break. One of the comedians I talked to told me I did a good job. Some of the others also told me how they liked my opening jokes.

In this club most of the audience are the other participants so everyone that went up had an equal shot knowing that there would be no negativity to ruin their experience. All of them showed professional courtesy towards all 26 participants that went up. Awesome to watch and it gave me an entirely new perspective on stand-up comedy.

By the end of the night, there was one comedian that came up to me that said he loved my routine even though I talked a bit too fast. He said I had the makings of being a good comedian. It was very sweet to receive praises to get even though I didn’t believe it at that time .

The next day after I performed I was contacted by him and I told him what was going on that hindered my performance. He listened to every little bit that happened to me, and then he also provided some great advice for the next time I decide to do stand-up again. Some pointers and some good segue jokes since my problem was that I never really had a good middle transition for my self self-depreciation comedy which is my forte .

I held on to his advice and learned what to do for the next two times I would go up on stage.

Stand-up comedy is something that I never saw myself doing regularly, but it is something that I am glad I decided to try out. I can look back and know that I did something that normally a lot of people wouldn’t do. From what I took from it in this experience of doing stand-up comedy was how I was able to slowly get over my anxiety of stage fright. Since I am currently in the process of publishing my first book at some point I’m going to have to get up on the stage for a panel and talk about my book, or I need to have a certain persona to have to be comfortable to talk to an audience about my story. The experience doing this spontaneous act helped me prepare for that.