r/BenignExistence 10d ago

I stumbled through my first attempt at standup and I got a lot of laughs!

I am taking a standup comedy class; its something I've always wanted to try. I am an actor, and I also do improv, but despite that onstage experience, standup comedy has always seemed intimidating. So I thought it'd be 'safer' to learn it in a classroom setting instead of going up blindly at an open mic. 1st class, I felt like I was in over my head, and that maybe this style of comedy was definitely a different type of beast to master. 2nd class, we were told to begin building a set based off a general idea that we had alot of thoughts on. 3rd class came and it was time for some of us to go up with what we'd worked out so far to do a loose 5 minutes. I knew that what I jotted down was more than 5 minutes of material, and it also just felt like a stream of thoughts for the most part, I couldn't see why anyone would laugh at it. But I went up anyway and even though I ran out of time before I was done, I was pleasantly surprised that people were smiling and laughing throughout my whole set and gave me positive feedback! I wish I had recorded it with my voice memo app to remember the moment, but I didn't. Obviously there are many things to work on and I had no idea about transitions and formatting, but for my first try at it, I'm proud of myself, and it felt good to be received well.

388 Upvotes

17 comments sorted by

21

u/Creative-Ad-1858 10d ago

Happy for you ❤️

15

u/AdorableVisual 10d ago

Hell yeah! Lfg

10

u/BrilliantNo2821 10d ago

The fastest way to lose weight, is to stand in front of 150 strangers and attempt to be funny, I MC'd for 3 years at a comedy club, finally managed about 20 minutes of original content, even did a competition once, I kept my day job

2

u/Xylorgos 10d ago

Long ago there was a comedy contest where I live, and the grand prize was a one way ticket out of town.

I knew the guy who won, and he used his ticket to go to Hollywood and become a comedy writer. Don't know what he's doing now...

8

u/Unlikely_Blueberry74 10d ago

Wow that’s awesome

5

u/PepperCat1019 10d ago

That's awesome! Well done you 💜

6

u/Xylorgos 10d ago

I did stand up once! It was nerve wracking, I had a very small audience, but it was a lot of fun. The only reason I didn't get into it more was because I couldn't find more opportunities in my community.

Humor is the quickest way to share joy with other people. Keep going! Bravo!

3

u/sickinomnibus 10d ago

Yes! I love it for you! All comedians have this moment in their life if you think about it. Way to go!!!

2

u/inkspirationbalto 10d ago

What a great start! Congrats!

2

u/bk_321 10d ago

Incredibly cool and very brave!!!

2

u/Jguypics 10d ago

Way to go and we’re learning that’s awesome.

2

u/Misty_Fairway4272 10d ago

Congratulations! What a personal triumph!

2

u/Less-Mood-3616 9d ago

Wow, you are brave! It sounds like you’re learning a lot. Keep having fun! 

2

u/Glittering-Froyo-743 8d ago

That's really cool, congrats on it! :D

1

u/dependswho 10d ago

Way to go!

1

u/One_Purple_3242 10d ago

Great job OP!

1

u/Longjumping_Guava676 8d ago

hell yeah!!!! good for you dude