I’m not sure when I decided I wanted to try stand up. Was it at the millionth standing ovation I received from friends and family for my wit and humor? Perhaps. Was it a full voicemail of local bar owners begging me to come into their open mic nights? Maybe. In reality there were a few reasons. An obvious one was writing for Her Campus. Not all of my articles are funny but the ones that are I am really proud of. (“10 Things I Hate”, “9 Jokes I am Tired of Hearing as a Server”, or “What Your Favorite Band From Your Emo-Phase Says About You” to name a few.) Another reason would be the fact that I did stand up accidentally in high school. It was my senior year and I was hosting the talent show. The hosts had to pass time between acts and I decided to do a little bit where I discussed the “10 Commandments of Ellet.” I teased the band kids, cheerleaders, teachers, and generally just poked fun at our school. I honestly didn’t put an incredible amount of thought into it. People loved it. Everyone came up to me the rest of the day and told me how much they enjoyed it. It was a very high moment of my life. Which leads me to my final reason: I like validation and attention.
So once I got it in my mind that I wanted to try it out, I had to make a game plan. I was exclusively hosting at this time due to my broken wrist situation so I had a lot of standing around time. One shift I printed out a sheet of receipt paper and by the end of my shift I had filled it out front to back. Most of what I wrote on that receipt paper ended up in my first set. After work I transferred it to the notes app on my phone and over the next few weeks anytime I had a light bulb moment, usually in the shower, I would add it to the notes. There was a lot of adding, deleting, changing wording, etc. I wanted it to be perfect.
I didn’t want to jump right in before trying it out so I started practicing for friends, family, and my mirror. I found out quickly that there’s a lot more to stand up than having good jokes. Presentation. Is. Everything. A big one is pausing. Pace yourself, don’t rush through your jokes. You need to give people a second to get the joke and have a laugh. Facial expressions, body language, and tone are also important to a solid standup set and since you can’t read these things on paper, practicing is essential. I have always been an animated and confident speaker so finding my stand up voice came easily to me. Not to sound full of myself but this article is, after all, about something I consider myself to be good at. If I ever write an article about my experiences with long division it will be a different story.
After I had it down I got a little nervous and put off my first open mic night thinking; “next week I’ll look into that”, for several weeks. Finally, a coworker told me he was hosting a comedy night and asked me to perform. I said yes. I was grateful for the opportunity but I still wanted my first time to be more lowkey so a couple weeks before the comedy night I went to a bar in Highland Square and did an open mic. A bunch of my friends came and cheered me on and people thought I was pretty funny. It was a great experience.
Despite my success, I was still nervous for the comedy night because the crowd in Highland Square was kind of my target audience. Listening to my first set there is an obvious theme: gay. I did this not because it’s all I have up my sleeve but because a coworker who had done comedy for years told me to write what I know. What do I know? Homosexuality. With Highland Square being the most gay area in Akron I worried that my jokes wouldn’t land the same way in a more heterosexual location.
The comedy night was….interesting. I was told it was a “clean” show so I felt good about inviting my family. My mom, dad, grandfather, and sister all came to support me. Well, the clean show memo must not have made it to everyone because for an hour and a half I sat with my family listening to extremely sexual, racist, homophobic, and sexist jokes. Not the kind of show you want to watch 2 feet away from your grandfather. Don’t get me wrong, some of the comics were great and I enjoyed performing but it definitely was not my type of vibe. Despite the tension in the crowd, I still felt pretty successful and got plenty of laughs. By the last couple comics, everyone had left. Even my family, who normally wouldn’t do that because they see it as rude, called it a night shortly after I performed. At the end I was informed I would be moving onto the “next round”. I have since decided not to go back even though I remain grateful for the experience.
So now I am just going to do stand up as a hobby. My grandmother was concerned I was going to drop out of college to become a comedian which I felt was a pretty extreme reaction to me having only done it a couple times but you know how grandmothers worry. My main focus is still school but I like writing and comedy so any platform I have for that is one I am going to take advantage of. Currently I am working on a new set when I have free time and plan to perform again soon.