The Night I Discovered My Funny Side
I’ve always wanted to try comedy.
The problem is, I’ve also spent a large part of my life being terrified of standing up in front of people.
Those two things don’t exactly go well together.
But recently, something changed.
At Chester Toastmasters we tried a different version of Table Topics. Instead of simply being given a question and speaking for a couple of minutes, we were thrown into a scene and had to improvise.
No script. No preparation. No time to overthink it.
I stepped forward, adopted a completely different persona and just ran with it.
And the room started laughing.
Not polite laughter either. Proper laughter.
For about a minute, I stopped worrying about how I sounded, whether I was saying the right thing or what everybody thought of me.
I was just having fun.
The photograph from that evening has become one of my favourite photographs from my public speaking journey. You can’t even see my face. I’m standing with my back to the camera while the people in front of me are laughing.
And perhaps that’s why I like it so much.
For years, the thought of having an entire room looking at me would have terrified me.
Now I have a photograph of exactly that happening, and I’m making them laugh.
Confidence is changing me
Something interesting is happening as I continue pushing myself with public speaking.
I’m not becoming a different person.
I’m becoming more comfortable showing the parts of myself that were already there.
The humour. The silliness. The characters. The slightly outrageous comments that previously might have remained safely inside my head.
I’ve always been a fan of Julian Clary and love his wonderfully dry, outrageous style of comedy. There’s something about delivering an outrageous line as though you’ve just commented on the weather that makes me laugh.
I’m beginning to realise that confidence isn’t necessarily about becoming louder or more polished.
Sometimes it’s simply about giving yourself permission to play.
One minute matters
I’m certainly not pretending that one funny Table Topic suddenly makes me a comedian.
But it does prove something to me.
I stepped forward without knowing what I was going to say. I trusted myself. I took a risk.
People laughed.
And most importantly, I loved doing it.
Not so long ago, I was concentrating on simply becoming more comfortable speaking in front of people.
Now I’m wondering where I could take it next.
Perhaps one day I’ll actually stand on a stage and perform a few minutes of comedy.
That thought still scares me.
Which is probably a very good reason to do it.
I’m not booking the London Palladium just yet.
But I’ve cracked the ice.
Watch this space. 😏
Ray
