Rediscovering Stand-Up Comedy: Reflections on Year One

It has been 1 year since I jumped back into doing stand-up comedy. It’s been quite a ride. I have been wanted to share some of my reflections on this journey. I’ve been defaulting to sharing these kinds of reflections on my youtube channel, but I’ve been avoiding that because of the editing process. 🙂

One of the reasons that I wanted to do this was to meet people who don’t go to church.

In April of 2023 our network of churches hosted our annual network conference. Our network leader challenged pastors to be in the community more. I was really challenged by that message, and I started to evaluate my rhythms and practices.

Before COVID I would regularly take my work to coffee shops, restaurants, and other public places. In doing so I would strike up conversations with folks, and get to know people. Some of those conversations have led to friendships. But COVID messed up all of those routines. I remodeled a home office and instead of working in public spaces I defaulted to my church office and my home office. So my world got much smaller. I was only interacting with my family, people who are part of Creekside Church, and the students I teach at Northwest University. All of these are Christian and Church relationships. I realized that I was becoming very insular.

So I talked to my wife about getting back into Stand-up and she was super supportive. I did open mics many years ago. I went to those alone, and when I stopped, no one cared. I had not actual community. So this time I decided to start with a community. I found a stand-up comedy class through the ReKindle School. This class was so fun, and I right away had a group of pals who were all starting at the same level.

The whole class ended with a showcase where we were able to perform at Club Comedy in Seattle. It was super fun. If you want to watch my set you can here:

I continued going to open mics after the class. Our co-hort met a few times to continue to workshop jokes with each other. And now, when I go to open mics, I see some of them. I’m not going to open mics alone anymore and that makes a huge difference.

I also found an open mic at a brewery close to our church. This past year I would do my Bible study on wednesdays and then hop over the the open mic and try jokes. That’s where I got to know Nick, a local comedian who hosts an open mic and produces monthly shows. He invited me to be on a couple of his shows in the past 6 months. Those have been super fun. Here’s the first one:

I also got to know Stephen and Scott, and I have been part of shows that they host. I heard about an open mic that Mike was started and I joined that, and Mike invited me to be part of a show he produced. Here’s that set:

I have tried to make a regular effort to go to the Shanghai Room in Greenwood, and I have gotten to know Noah, the producer there, and the hosts of the Sunday night open mic.

One of the most important things that I re-learned over the past year is that relationships matter. One of the best things that I can do for any relationship is to be consistent and to show up. I have had really intersting conversations with folks. People who I thought were super intimidating, turned out to be amazingly kind. When people have found out that I’m a pastor, they have been treated me like a normal person. In fact, the people most shocked that a pastor would go to do Stand-Up have been church folks.

I have been loving this journey back into Stand-up comedy. I don’t have a dream to be a professional comedian. That life seems really hard, and I really love being home with my family. But in the past year I have been paid $97.00. So I’m doing pretty well. I’m going to keep going on this comedy journey. I’m going to keep meeting new folks. Keep making fun of myself.

When other pastors talk to me about this, they have been super encouraging. Some have even said, “I would love to do that some time.” And I always respond with, “Go for it, I’ll go with you.” Because it’s so hard to go into new spaces alone. Sometimes we need a buddy to celebrate with when it goes well and to comiserate with when it goes . . . not well. But fear of failure is what keeps us from taking these chances. But failure is an option. Failure is a teacher. I have bombed so hard at open mics, and I lived. Don’t let fear keep you from doing something you’ve always wanted to do.