DELRAY BEACH – The tightrope comics often walk on-stage can be even thinner off-stage.
For most stand-up comedians, performing is the second job.
Among South Florida comedians alone, some are servers, bartenders, small businesses owners, construction workers or paper pushers. Heck, one is even an elected government official.
The unintentional intersection of those jobs can be life-altering – and not in a good way.
Today’s Stand-Up Spotlight leads with stories about comedians who lost their day jobs because of something they did – or said – at night.
It’s axiomatic that the best stand-up comedians are fearless when writing and delivering their material. Worrying about losing a primary source of income can understandably cause a comedian to self-edit.
That’s unfortunate and unfair. Yet it’s also amazing that so many people are willing to risk so much for their art.
Also in today’s Stand-Up Spotlight, comedian Sam Morril discusses how teaming with Julian Edelman for outdoor pandemic shows aided his career. It’s a story that had Applause Break reminiscing about the Sadman Comedy Productions cul-de-sac shows.
There’s also a story about a comedian who would love to get heckled, and a fellow female comedian who was told that if she had a child she’d never be able to tour again.
Crazy-funny Wednesday last night at the Dania Improv with Nadeem Awad and Friends. Follow our social media for pics and video. Let’s see whether Thursday can match the funny.
STAND-UP SPOTLIGHT – March 9, 2023
A WHYY journalist was fired for his stand-up comedy videos. Comedians face a tricky balance of promoting their act and keeping their day jobs.
When Jad Sleiman lands a joke during his stand-up routine, the 33-year-old uses the skills he learned as a journalist.
“It’s the efficiency, the economy of words,” Sleiman said.
In January, his two worlds collided. That’s when Sleiman’s employer, Philadelphia’s NPR affiliate, WHYY, fired him from his job on the station’s health and science show The Pulse. Sleiman said he was terminated for what management called racist, sexist, and antisemitic jokes in videos he posted to his personal Instagram account.
Comedian Sam Morril on elevating his game and teaming up with Julian Edelman
Sam Morril has been doing stand-up comedy for at least half of his 36 years. He’s been a headliner since he was in his early 20s. Oddly, though, it was the pandemic that pushed his career to new heights.
Literally: To get around the mandates against indoor gathering, Morril staged a series of private, not particularly legal comedy shows on the rooftops of apartment buildings around New York City. “Up on the Roof,” his 2020 YouTube special, made him one of the first comedians to reappear onstage after the shutdown began.
For Philly’s ‘token terminally-ill stand-up comic,’ it’s all fair game, including death and 9/11
Stand-up comic Kirsten Michelle Cills is pretty sure she knows why you haven’t heckled her yet, Philly, and she’s kind of salty about it.
“Because I’m terminal nobody has the balls to heckle me. It’s the inverse of the bystander effect, everyone is standing around watching, but nobody will bully me,” Cills said. “I want hecklers so bad.”
Amy was told she couldn’t be a comedian because she had a baby
“You won’t be able to tour comedy anymore.”
Just eight words.
That’s all it took for Darwin resident Amy Hetherington to be determined to make it as a working comic and mother.
