Apparently, I’m Doing Stand-Up Now

Loveday Funck
Jul 14
3 min read

Apparently, I’m Doing Stand-Up Now

On Saturday, July 18, at 5 p.m., I will perform in Kaboom at Boomerang Comedy Theater. This will be my first time doing stand-up somewhere other than an open mic, which makes the whole thing feel considerably more official.

It will also be my third performance at Boomerang that weekend.

On Friday, July 17, I will perform with my improv team, Something Else, at 7 p.m. Later that evening, I will perform in Risqué, Boomerang’s naughty improv show, at 9 p.m.

By Saturday afternoon, I will either feel completely at home onstage or begin questioning every decision that brought me there.

Improv has become familiar enough that I usually know what I am walking into, even though I never know what will happen once the show begins. I have teammates beside me, and we build each scene together. When someone gets stuck, another person can step in and help move things forward.

Stand-up is different because I am alone with the microphone and the material I wrote.

Open mics come with a certain amount of freedom. Everyone is testing jokes, trying new ideas, and figuring out what works. When a joke falls flat, you can remind yourself that experimenting is the entire purpose of the evening.

Kaboom feels different because it is an actual showcase. I am moving beyond trying a few jokes in a room full of other comedians who are also working things out. This time, I will be performing a full set for an audience that came to see a comedy show.

That realization is both exciting and deeply uncomfortable.

I started trying stand-up because creating art, writing novels, producing an audio drama, performing improv, and hauling my work to art markets apparently did not provide enough opportunities for public embarrassment.

There was still a small amount of dignity left, and I decided to take care of that.

Stand-up shares some things with the other work I do. I have always been interested in storytelling, timing, and finding the strange or funny parts of ordinary life. The biggest difference is that I usually have something else helping me tell the story.

When I write fiction, the characters do the talking. When I create art, the image speaks for me. When I produce an audio drama, I can rely on actors, music, sound effects, and editing.

During stand-up, I have to trust the jokes and keep going when something does not land the way I expected.

My set touches on the practical realities of being a working artist, the unusual things I do to keep the whole operation moving, and the surprising audiences that sometimes gather around the projects I create.

Somewhere along the way, my creative career became a collection of side hustles supporting other side hustles.

Stand-up gives me a chance to talk about that. It also requires me to trust my own point of view, say the joke clearly, and accept whatever response comes back.

I have spent much of my life learning how to be careful. I learned how to anticipate other people’s reactions, soften what I said, and avoid taking up too much space. Stand-up requires me to walk onto a stage, speak with confidence, and accept that some people may not find me funny.

I am still learning how to do that, which is part of why I keep returning to it.

I am practicing the ability to try something before I know whether I will be good at it.

On Saturday, I will perform about ten minutes of material about art, money, ambition, side projects, and the strange places a person can end up while trying to build a creative life.

I will also learn which jokes are ready for an audience and which ones need more work.

Either way, I will have completed a weekend with two improv shows and my first stand-up showcase.

That feels worth celebrating, even if I follow the whole thing by spending Sunday at a clown workshop, because apparently I have decided to make this weekend as professionally undignified as possible.

You can see Something Else on Friday, July 17, at 7 p.m

You can see Risqué on Friday, July 17, at 9 p.m.

You can see me perform stand-up in Kaboom on Saturday, July 18, at 5 p.m.

All three shows will take place at Boomerang Comedy Theater, 1600 Government Street in Baton Rouge.

Come laugh with me or at me. Whatever gets the butts in the seats.