A Random EFL Teacher Muses

STAND-UP

I guess it’s time to share my Stand-UP experience as both a performer and a part of the audience.

In June I had a chance to take part in an amazing educational event – Rozetka in Saint-Pete. It was great to see so many like-minded and enthusiastic teachers! I was chuffed to bits to make acquaintance with a lot of them.

What’s more, there was an open-mic evening for those who consider themselves relatively funny. Relatively is very relative, I was in stitches half the time as the people performing hit home. I also took part and was really excited, but petrified at the same time. People actually laughed at my jokes!

Can you imagine that? - Personally, I still can’t.

Will I do it again? – If the chance arises, that’s a loud, resonating YES.

Yesterday I went to a Vika Skladchikova’s concert (If you don’t know her, there is a link in the comments). The decision to get tickets was a spur of the moment thing – my colleague and I are travelling around the south of Russia at the moment, and, incidentally, there was a concert on the day we arrived to Novorossiysk.

It was entertaining, but my expectations were probably too high – I reckoned I would be literally rolling on the floor laughing (as much as leg room allowed, of course). I wasn’t. The performance did strike a chord, it was amusing, it was fun.

However, I left the concert hall with mixed feelings, because what Victoria joked about is not actually very laughable. Alcohol addiction is not funny, for instance, neither is domestic abuse. The core of her humor is self-deprecation, and it resonates with the audience. But this response tells a lot about our traumas and deeply (or not so deeply) rooted issues.

To sum up, in both cases (when I tried to be a stand-up comic, when I was in the audience) the jokes were about what brings us problems, and laughter made them seem relatively small. But again, relative is very relative.

❓ Do you laugh at or about your issues? Does it help in any way? ❓

P.S. Once in a meeting with the Elegant speaking club (by Natalia Egorova), we discussed humour and decided that the funniest comedians are those who have had a lot of problems in life. What’s your take on that? ❓

#humour #random_musings

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317 viewsYulia Bondarchuk English Teacher, edited  Jul 24, 2024 at 07:45

STAND-UP

I guess it’s time to share my Stand-UP experience as both a performer and a part of the audience.

In June I had a chance to take part in an amazing educational event – Rozetka in Saint-Pete. It was great to see so many like-minded and enthusiastic teachers! I was chuffed to bits to make acquaintance with a lot of them.

What’s more, there was an open-mic evening for those who consider themselves relatively funny. Relatively is very relative, I was in stitches half the time as the people performing hit home. I also took part and was really excited, but petrified at the same time. People actually laughed at my jokes!

Can you imagine that? - Personally, I still can’t.

Will I do it again? – If the chance arises, that’s a loud, resonating YES.

Yesterday I went to a Vika Skladchikova’s concert (If you don’t know her, there is a link in the comments). The decision to get tickets was a spur of the moment thing – my colleague and I are travelling around the south of Russia at the moment, and, incidentally, there was a concert on the day we arrived to Novorossiysk.

It was entertaining, but my expectations were probably too high – I reckoned I would be literally rolling on the floor laughing (as much as leg room allowed, of course). I wasn’t. The performance did strike a chord, it was amusing, it was fun.

However, I left the concert hall with mixed feelings, because what Victoria joked about is not actually very laughable. Alcohol addiction is not funny, for instance, neither is domestic abuse. The core of her humor is self-deprecation, and it resonates with the audience. But this response tells a lot about our traumas and deeply (or not so deeply) rooted issues.

To sum up, in both cases (when I tried to be a stand-up comic, when I was in the audience) the jokes were about what brings us problems, and laughter made them seem relatively small. But again, relative is very relative.

❓ Do you laugh at or about your issues? Does it help in any way? ❓

P.S. Once in a meeting with the Elegant speaking club (by Natalia Egorova), we discussed humour and decided that the funniest comedians are those who have had a lot of problems in life. What’s your take on that? ❓

#humour #random_musings