Stand up Comedy: A Journey

This year, I tried something new – something I had romanticized for years but never dared to try – Stand up comedy.

I have always been drawn to the stage. There’s something mystical about the power it has to hold people’s attention, emotions, and feelings for a little bit.

When you watch other comics or artists perform live and rock the stage, it feels mesmerizing – at times you wonder what it might be like to stand where they are standing and feel what they are feeling.

So, when I came across the first opportunity – I decided to sign up.

On my first open mic – I learnt two important lessons.

• Being funny and being a good comedian are two different things.
• The stage may call you, but the journey to call stage your home is a long one.

If you are considering comedy, I’ll be honest – putting yourself out there is intimidating.

It is so intimidating that invisibility feels safe.

It feels safe to not have all the attention in the room. It feels safe to not put your vulnerability out in the open and risk being judged, and it feels safe to be a follower than a performer.

A lot of times you say things that just don’t land. You forget your lines. You hear silence so heavy that it feels like a lifetime.

There are nights when you don’t feel like going up. There are nights when you think you are not cut out for comedy. There are nights when quitting feels like the most reasonable decision.

And yet you go up on stage and experience all those things all over again. Because while invisibility feels safe – it keeps you stuck.

If there is something I’ve learnt in the past few months of going on stage, it is this –

• Make peace with embarrassment
• Be okay failing in public
• Learn to suck it up when others are killing the room just after you have bombed
• And that consistency will always beat talent

Because confidence isn’t always built from winning. It’s built from losing enough times that failure stops being scary and starts becoming data.

I remember a friend saying this to me the night I had bombed – he said, bombing doesn’t mean you failed—it just means your material didn’t work tonight.

When you take that first step and embrace bombing you shift from a follower mindset to a performer mindset. Instead of watching others from the sidelines, you take ownership.  

The distance between the audience seat and the mic isn’t much, but the journey surely is.

There are some journeys that lead you exactly where you expect to go. But then there are journeys, such as this one, that may take you to places you never imagined.

• You might discover you love hosting shows
• Or you might evolve into improv, storytelling, or writing
• Or that comedy improves your confidence, friendships, and ability to handle life outside the stage.

Your goals will change. Your voice will change. You will change.

Let the journey surprise you. Don’t let the destination scare you from starting your journey today.  

Register here for your first stage experience.