Two Years of Stand-up Comedy

Today is my second anniversary of performing stand-up. I don’t care much for (mostly) meaningless dates but I’ve thought about it recently and realized that the first two years have been pretty distinct from each other. In the first year, I performed for the first time in August and waited until October to get on stage again (that second show was my worst time on stage to date). I then proceeded to perform at open mics very sporadically and, rightfully so, received only a few booked shows. As the first year went on, I did start practicing at open mics a lot more but it wasn’t until my second year that I really started getting any bookings.

Shortly after my one year anniversary, Rick Jenkins kindly booked me at The Comedy Studio for the first time and I had a handful of dates there last fall, then again this past winter, and next Sunday I start another string of dates there. A couple of months later, Will Noonan gave me my first shot at Nick’s Comedy Stop. I began taking improv classes at ImprovBoston (IB) in October of last year and as luck would have it, I had Dana Jay Bein as my instructor, a man I had never met but found out he was in charge of IB’s stand-up program. As a result of meeting him and having previously met Maria Ciampa, I started getting somewhat regular performances at ImprovBoston. After being introduced to Awkward Compliment by Ryan Darmondy last fall, I’ve also had several shows with them that have been some of the most fantastic ones of my short career.

Really, what I’m witnessing is the fact that just getting out there more is helping my craft immensely. I still don’t feel like I get to as many open mics as I wish I could and I would obviously liked to be booked more often but I think that should start happening as I embark on year three, determined as ever to make this work.