Me at the Comedy Cellar

As promised, here’s video of me performing at New York City’s Comedy Cellar for New Joke Night!

Huge added bonus: Famed comedian Andy Haynes immediately improvises some hilarious jokes about me. Just watch to the end. My funniness is debatable, but his is not.

Main reflections on the experience:

1. How did I do? Good. 70th percentile of my expectations. Everyone else on stage was a profession comedian, and I wasn’t obviously the worst.

2. Transfer of Learning from regular public speaking to standup, though pretty high in absolute terms, is lower than any other kind of public speaking I’ve tried. Normally, I memorize nothing; here, I felt that I absolutely needed to know my routine by heart.

3. Since Netflix comedians don’t use notes, neither did I. But most of the other comedians actually did. I blanked on a couple of sentences in the second paragraph, but otherwise I was able to stick to the script.

4. Best advice I got when I practiced: Involve the audience. I habitually do this in other talks, but I got so caught up in memorizing the routine that I was talking at the audience instead of to the audience. Fortunately, I rectified this before showtime.

5. Though I started by making fun of college admissions, I avoided actual academic topics. I give enough lectures.

6. But since I am an academic, let me point out that the violation of Social Desirability Bias is the heart of comedy. Even though comedians love hyperbole, they use their hyperbole to expose - not obscure - ugly truths.

7. I would definitely try this again. In fact, I’ll probably do a longer version for Capla-Con. Other attendees are welcome to try their hand, too.