Being Vulnerable on Stage

It is easy to think “just me getting on stage is me being vulnerable” and yes, that is true, but to really grow in your comedy, you need to be willing to go further. People want to know who you are, who they are listening to, and how their lives connect to yours. To do that, you need to share, be willing to go there.

It’s tempting to stay surface-level. It is comfortable to talk about things that feel universal, or neutral, or safe. What’s the deal with airplane food? Do you remember when Super Bowl commercials were good? Men do this, but women do this. And those jokes can work—they can even kill. But if you want to stick in someone’s brain after the show, if you want to start building a voice that feels unmistakably yours, you have to let people see you. It is scary, but it is worth it.

Audiences aren’t just there to laugh. They’re there to connect. Not just with your punchlines, but with your perspective. What shaped you? What do you have in common? What is a new take you have on something that they have never thought about before? I’ve had people say out loud during my set, “I’ve never thought about that before.” So even if it isn’t something that they personally experience or have even had a thought in their brain about, they now feel connected to my material.

So yes, standing on stage is vulnerable. But next-level vulnerability means telling the story behind the story. It means letting a little more of yourself leak out—your queerness, your grief, your childhood pet that haunts your dreams, whatever it is that makes you YOU. It means saying something that makes you a little nervous to say. And if you do it right, the reward is huge: you don’t just get laughs, you get recognition. The kind where someone comes up after the show and says, “That thing you said? I’ve felt that.”

That’s the magic. That’s how you grow. Be someone they remember.

So the next time you're writing, ask yourself: is this safe, or is this me? And if it's not you yet... maybe it's time to put yourself out there.