New Career? I don't think so.

When I was in high school I would watch hours and hours of stand up comedy. One of my favorite comedians is Steven Wright. He is very dry, sarcastic and just plain odd. I tried rip some of his stuff and it really didn't work. I would dream of performing some day, just me and the mic.

I have come very close to signing up for classes. UW has one that is about eight weeks long and at the end of the class you go to a comedy club here in Seattle and do the act you have been working on throughout the class. Well, I have never worked up the courage to do it. I've always wanted to take the class without having to do the final project.

So when I got a call a couple weeks ago from a buddy asking me if I could "come be funny" for about thirty minutes I was hit with mixed emotions. Telling funny stories to family is one thing. Working a funny story into a message when I am speaking to the church is another. But to get up in front of a group and "be funny" for a half an hour is straight up terrifying.

I agreed to do it anyway. I had a few things going for me.
1. Fairly familiar with the crowd.
2. Made up mostly of college age people. (ten years working in college ministry, shouldn't be too bad)
3. Christmas opens up so many topics you can work from.
4. It was a chance to suck it up and see if I can pull it off.

So I called him back and said sure. Right up to walking on the stage I was extremely nervous, more than I have been in a long time. I am a professional communicator and very used to speaking to crowds, but this was an unusual pressure.

Let's put it this way, right now it is 1:12 a.m. in Seattle and I am still a little wired from the night.

It went pretty good. People laughed and time went by.
I went on at about 9:45 and walked off at 10:30.
We covered a wide variety of topics from gifts, to the wind storm, to my wedding, my high school senior picture and wrapping up with some Christmas Carol observations.

It was a lot of fun and I would definitely do it again.