Wolsamnoraa's Blog

I’ve always wanted to be a stand-up comedian.  Looking back over the years, I’ve gotten a huge response from people just by talking and acting the way that I do.

I read this article that explained making your friends laugh doesn’t actually make you a funny person.  Sure, my friends laugh at me, but they laugh at lots of other stuff, too; real comedians, for example, or the musical stylings of  the Play-him off cat (see below), to name something else.

Fortunately for me and my dream, I have an uncanny ability to make strangers laugh or, at the very least, cringe.  While I believe in my inherent abilities to humor people, my desire to get up on stage is hindered by a small hurdle.  Quite frankly, I am scared to be on stage.  I attribute the fear to a poor performance I gave in the third grade.  I was playing Anonymous Man #2 alongside the wonderfully talented Falon Mahoney in the Westgate Elementary sensation, A Christmas Carol.  I had one line – “I’m just a man whose anonymity should remain intact”.

I bombed in front of the whole school, parents and talent scouts.  I forgot the line.  I stammered on my speech and on my feet.  I tripped into the set and knocked over a backdrop which broke a spot lamp above the stage.  It fell directly on top of our school’s only prodigy and the play’s leading man, Nathan Hale.  He was injured instantly.  After that hack job, I second guessed myself whenever I got in front of an audience bigger than five deaf-mutes.

The underlying problem may be that I have just convinced myself that I’m scared.   I haven’t actually performed on stage since then and it stands to reason that I don’t know what I’m scared of.  I’ve always heard that courage is something you gain after you overcome your fear.

Maybe the best way to achieve my goal is to just go out there and give it a try with my nerves fluttering.  But if I accomplish my goals, what will I have to complain about not achieving?