Workplace 36 - Funny Stuff

Have you ever watched a stand up comedy act and thought “I wonder if they’re that funny ALL THE TIME?” 

Unfortunately, the answer is no. A comedian offstage is trying to be that funny and that is a different thing altogether. Mostly it comes across as immature and makes for slightly disjointed conversation. See, most comedians take their material from everyday stuff so they are either performing or researching. If anything remotely amusing happens in the course of their day they’ll immediately add it to the never ending iPhone note called ‘This Could Be Good Material’. 

How do I know this? Another job, ofcourse. I worked for the Sit Down Comedy Club in Paddington on and off for about a year. It was a tiny little office in what was (still mostly is) a one bedroom apartment. No joke, my office was in the kitchen. As was the foyer and front entrance. People regularly got confused trying to find the place, and stayed confused after they had found it.

I was the receptionist part time there, answering the phones, booking in the open mic-ers, updating the facebook and twitter accounts and folding and stuffing MILLIONS of letters into envelopes. They were big into mailing stuff. They owned another apartment down the street which travelling comedians stayed at so some days my job was folding all the sheets and towels for the next person. Over time I also helped out occasionally on the door of the venue and eventually scored a sweet gig managing a comedy room at the Transcontinental Hotel every Friday night. 

The Trans is actually a beautiful old building, built in 1883 to cater to the upper class of Brisbane and was known for only stoking the best liquor. Unfortunately that is no longer the case and most weeks when the comedians and I were leaving at about 9pm on a Friday night, they were already packed up and empty, having shoved the last of the lunch drinkers out of the pokies room.

Anyway, running a comedy room is awesome. I would arrive about 6, technically to set up the room but after showing the staff how it should be set up on the first week, they always had it ready for me. So I would have dinner and a drink and chat to the staff, the comedians would arrive anywhere between 5 and 10 minutes before they were due to go on so I didn’t need to look after them. I’d pick up my til from the manager and, take/sell tickets at the door for about half an hour then sit and laugh myself stupid at the show for a few hours. And that was it. And I was paid for the whole time. Fantastic gig. 

The other random opportunity that came out of working for the Comedy Club was getting to judge a high school Theatre Sports competition (If you don’t know what theatre sports are, just think of that Who’s Line Is It Anyway? Show). Anyway, one night they were short a judge and I got to fill in for them. Before the comp I was super nervous as I hadn’t done theatre sports in ages and spent my high school years being routinely rubbished by a particularly unpleasant drama teacher but it was awesome! The kids were so funny and creative and scoring was pretty simple. I was never too different from the other two judges (Yay for panel judging!) so I figured I must have been doing alright. (Added bonus – got to judge the horrible drama teachers team. Ofcourse I judged the kids fairly but her face at seeing me on the judges table made up for at least two years of soul crushing drama classes.)

Working for the Comedy Club was at times deathly boring – weeks of letter stuffing – and at times an unexpected adventure so all up I consider it a win. You should definitely get along to one of the shows and if you tell them when you’re birthday is you’ll get two free tickets in the mail for that month – huzzah!