Why Non-Comedians Should Try Stand-up

I have discussed the importance of stand-up comedy for aspiring comedians, as well as the appeal that the practice has for such hopeful humorists. However, I strongly believe that stand-up comedy can be an extremely useful activity even for those without ambitions of achieving fame in comedy. Approximately one year ago, I performed stand-up comedy in the basement of Calhoun College at around 1:00am on a Monday night for The Cucumber, a stand-up show hosted every other Monday by the Yale Daily News. The decision was largely spurred by a bet with a friend of mine, however, I am enormously grateful for the experience.

Much has been written about performing stand-up comedy for the first time--a significant amount of which I read in preparation for my comedic debut--but the process must be experienced personally in order to fully understand the practice. I had read that first time stand-up comedy was one of top 10 most adrenaline filled experiences, listed alongside base-jumping off the Perrine Bridge in Idaho and taking a parkour class in Melbourne, Australia (See Whole List Here). Incredulous of this description, I ultimately found it accurate. Although I have never completed the other activities on that list, I found that waiting nervously for the performers ahead of me to complete their acts was comparable to the anxiety just before the most serious and least prepared test I have ever taken, magnified times ten. While terrifying at the time, I now consider this practice rewarding because I was able to endure the most intense performance anxiety of my life and now feel more prepared for other daunting presentations as a result.

In addition, I learned much about myself from the experience. For example, when nervously performing in front of a crowd, I tend to pace, a custom that was pointed out by a friend in the audience. Also, my rate of speech accelerates, making my nervousness more obvious to the crowd. By taking a presentation scenario and pushing the situation nearly to its most intense and anxiety inducing form, I was able to understand how I react in these circumstances, and subsequently learn from the experience.

Video of a young Seth Rogen, age 13, performing stand-up. He has undoubtedly improved his talents since.

I believe that my time thus far at Yale has taught me most significantly the importance of social skills. I come from a particularly quantitative background and have continued my enthusiasm for the sciences at Yale. I consider the sciences to be invaluable in so much of our lives because of their foundation in concrete facts and data. However, I have also understood a substantial problem in scientists who have difficulty expressing their studies and conclusions in a public forum because of their lack of engaging social abilities. Without making this discussion political, I find that the debate surrounding climate change to excellently personify this issue. While nearly all scientific academics agree that humans are affecting the global climate, just over 50% of Americans believe the same issue to be true (2010 Study Here). Politicians have managed to convince Americans to the contrary of scientific evidence and I consider much of this to be a failure in the ability of scientists to effectively voice their opinions on a large public scale, although obviously the issue is much larger. While I do not consider stand-up comedy to be the solution to these social weaknesses, I believe that even a single attempt at stand-up can help individuals make wondrous improvements in their presentation skills and sometimes I wish that my scientific compatriots would try their hand at stand-up regardless of their interest in comedy--assuming they at least possess a sense of humor.

Time and time again, I have found social skills and presentation abilities crucial in allowing individuals to take advantage of opportunities and achieve personal success. Job interviews, thesis defenses, and even colloquial discussion and debate depend upon the ability to present oneself effectively. Few activities have so shockingly improved my presenting aptitude as stand-up comedy and although convincing myself to perform in the first place was arguably the most challenging hurdle of all, the rewards are undeniable and incredibly fulfilling.