In 2022 I was sitting around with some friends around a campfire and said, “I am going to try to do an open mic.” Everyone in the circle laughed at that idea so I thought I was off to a great start! I’ve worked as a pastor for 25-years and during sermons I have found moments to involve humor but I started to think to myself, “Could I make strangers laugh?”

Creating laughter in a sermon isn’t that hard. Most people in attendance on a Sunday are there to learn about God through His Word, so if the pastor says something slightly funny you can get a pretty good laugh because they weren’t expecting you to be funny. But people show up at a comedy club to laugh and laugh quickly, so I thought trying an open mic in Austin, TX would be a good challenge.

Needless to say, all of 2022 came and went and I never made any progress on that open mic. In 2023 my friend asked me again, “Have you done the open mic?” I said, “What?” He said, “You said you wanted to do an open mic, you should give it a try.” I spent all of 2023 thinking about what I would say at an open mic. It’s harder than you might think. You have 3-4. You get up on a stage. Bright lights are shining in your face and the audience has this attitude like, “Say something funny.” It’s terrifying!

In January 2024 I visited three open mics in Austin, TX; Cap City Comedy Club, Creek and the Cave, and Comedy Mothership. If you don’t know, Joe Rogan moved to Austin in 2020 and opened up Comedy Mothership, so hundreds, maybe thousands of men and women have moved to Austin to try their hand at comedy, so there are plenty of opportunities.

In January 2024 I signed up at Cap City Comedy Club and the host called my name to the stage for me to deliver 4 minutes of what I had spent 12-months thinking about and trying to come up with something funny. It was a blur!

My wife was in the audience. You can go to my Instagram Page to see some of the clips but it was a complete blur. People will tell me that it’s easy for me to try stand up comedy because I am used to being on a stage as a pastor. It is familiar but preaching a sermon and doing stand up feels completely different.

When I was done I walked off the stage and told my wife, “I don’t ever want to do that again.” She said, “Great! You tried something new!” But by the time I got to my car I thought to myself, “I bet I could come up with something funnier.” The next week I signed up again, got picked and it went worse! Honestly, the most painful experience is to stand up in a room full of strangers and try really hard to say something you think is funny and they just sit in silence. It’s horrible!

But the same thing happened again. I got off the stage, regretted trying it again and by the time I got to my car I thought, “I bet I can figure this out.” Eventually through a conversation with another friend she encouraged me to talk about being a pastor. My first thought was, “I am never getting up in a room full of strangers and talk about being a pastor to be funny.” I didn’t want to make fun of my faith. I didn’t want to make fun of people in the room. I didn’t want to make fun of the church. But the next week I had a couple of ideas, so I signed up again, got picked again and actually got a few laughs.

Ever since then I have been trying to pull out the funny of being a pastor. Most people in Austin have never met a pastor and aren’t really sure what pastors do in their everyday lives, so it creates an opportunity for something interesting immediately.

The best part has been meeting the men and women who have moved to Austin to try stand up comedy. People are coming from all over the country and some from all over the world! It’s been pretty fun!

Right now my goal is to try an open mic once a week and try to keep coming up with ideas. 90% of the ideas aren’t funny but every once in a while I will hear a chuckle and it makes me want to keep trying. Along the way I get to talk about my faith with other comedians, answer questions about being a pastor and hopefully give people a different perspective on what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

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