Comedy

Healing And Humor

My Journey Of Comedy

Childhood and Young Adult Days

As a child, humor wasn't too big a part of my life. Sure, my family would get together and watch some television, occasionally seeing comedians, and we definitely shared funny stories with each other at dinner, but it wasn't something I ever dreamed of doing.

When I was in the military, however, humor quickly became a larger part of my life. Most people think that means military humor- dark, morbid, and crude- but it wasn't that. Typically, it was tales of some crazy dates I had been on or the strange nuclear operators I had met while in the service. These tales were ones I would often tell at the smoke-pit. Though I didn't smoke, that area was a hot-spot for depressed sailors, especially on their hardest days. So, I stationed myself as a local comedian, joking, story-telling, and listening, to help out these depressed sailors.

I discovered that everyone is different. Some people you can only reach through serious conversations and facts. Other people, you can only reach through humor.

So, I've made it my goal to continually perfect my humorous story-telling and my jokes to be able to better serve people. But, that still never included visions of being on stage.

Podfest 2024

My first time performing comedy on stage was at an open-mic held at Podfest 2024. I had never done something like that before.

I'm still not why sure I did it.

Perhaps, it was just because of the energy of the event. I'm glad I did it, though.

This was before my walk with God got closer, so you won't the video of it because there was some crude humor. That, and no one bothered to tell me that I was standing where the camera wasn't recording.

All of that being said, it's where the journey truly starts. I was extremely nervous that day, but I got lots of positive feedback, including useful advice and criticism from other comedians.

Podcasters Cruise 2024

When Captain Michael Neeley told me that there'd be a chance to perform comedy on the Podcasters Cruise, I was more than excited. It would be my first time performing since Podfest, and I was eager to get back on stage and to get a video of me doing comedy, to make the journey truly official.

The performance did well, considering that I was still extremely nervous, hadn't done anything in almost a year, and it was a very small crowd. (A lot of my military buddies have watched it since then, and they appreciated it on a special level.)

From this, I learned quite a bit. Nothing new since Podfest- still two main areas of improvement: talking speed and time for laughter.

Still, this was another stepping stone in the very beginning of what I hope to continue to do. It also encouraged me to want to get to some open-mics and get more time in.

Podcast Movement Evolutions Chicago

I had the great honor of speaking about comedy and podcasting at Podcast Movement Evolutions Chicago. You can find information all about that, including the video of the talk and what it was fully about, here. As a tribute to one of my favorite speakers, and in theme with the talk, I even performed an opening joke that was related to podcasting, which is clipped here for your convenience. (Coming Soon) It was incredible to give a talk related to comedy to help people connect with one another, and doing non-performance comedy-related events like this is something I definitely enjoy.