Westside Story – Stand-Up Comedy

Story – Joseph Boyle / Photos – Joseph & Kjeri Boyle

During the beginning of October 2013, I stepped out of my comfort zone to drive 100 miles round-trip to North Seattle Community College to attend an off-the-wall class entitled Ron Reid’s Stand-up Comedy Class 101. If you want to learn more about upcoming comedy classes, contact Ron at ronreidcomedy@gmail.com.

Ron, who owns Artists West Entertainment, http://artistswest.com, produces the Seattle International Comedy Competitions each year.  This year is the 34th annual competition.  Check it out the comedy competition at http://seattlecomedycompetition.com.  No, I will not be competing this year.

I invited a few of my friends to join me for the class.  That is when I got my first big laugh.  No one wanted to go to stand-up comedy school.  They did not want to be on stage talking to an audience. I respected their opinion regarding not wanting to talk to a crowd of people.  I then suggested we attend a mime school.  This was another big “No”.

There were 12 brave soles, six men and six women, from all walks of life in my comedy class.  We represented all ages from early 20s to 70 plus.

By the 4th week of class, each of us had created and polished 6 minutes of stand-up comedy material.  Our last class was on stage at The Laughs Comedy Spot, www.laughscomedy.com, an upscale comedy club in Kirkland, Washington.  We performed our first stand-up comedy in front of 125 people.

The next morning I got busy and updated my resume’.  It reads: Businessman – 25 years.  Deputy Sheriff – 23 years.  Stand-up comic – 6 minutes.

The students and the audience all had fun. We laughed.  We clapped and we laughed some more.  It certainly was a different life experience.  I can now say I went where guys like Lewis Black, Jerry Seinfeld, Mitch Hedberg and George Carlin have been.  They all started, like me, with their first night on stage.

A part of what I learned will apply to my writing efforts with The Suburban Times.

It is clear to me that there is a huge difference between entertaining through the written word and entertaining through the spoken word of stand-up comedy.  Having said that, there is still a relationship between the two and a certain amount of crossover.

While I do not know where stand-up comedy might take me, I think it might be fun to explore the subject a bit further.    I have my eye on a top caliber comedy school in New York City.  That sounds like an adventure.  I will keep you posted and plan to take you along for the ride.