You are not that funny: Stories from Cleveland Stand-Up

By Joshua A Womack

Josh Womack had a short run in stand-up comedy, but along the way he met some interesting people who left a profound impact on him. In his second book, Josh talks about falling in and out of love with comedy. You'll recognize some of the names, but you'll also hear the backstories of why certain venues hold a special place in the hearts of forme

• Language: English
• Publisher: Joshua Womack
• Release date: Jul 3, 2023
• ISBN: 9781088108857

Book preview

Joshua Womack

Copyright © 2023, Joshua Womack

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

First Edition 2023

EBOOK ISBN: 9781088108857

Cover design by Agape Creative

Book design by Meredith Pangrace

To Mark

Big heart, big muscles, and a big help in making this

thing happen.

Foreword

I think I was asked to write this foreword for a few reasons:

Josh feels guilt for promising me stage time that didn’t exist. (Sorry, Josh. I know you hate when I bring that up, and I promise now that it’s forever in print, I won’t bring it up anymore.)

He looked at the list of comedians in the area and decided I was the most reliable one.

In all seriousness, I think the actual reason Josh asked me to write this foreword is because our stories run fairly parallel to each other. We may have started doing comedy at different times, but we felt the fire in our bones once we had our first taste of making people laugh on stage.

When I met Josh, Twitter was at its peak. It was a great place for comedians to practice jokes; the element of brevity forced us to make our jokes tighter. I actually met a lot of comedians online before meeting in person (which probably horrifies every Baby Boomer who specifically told us not to meet up with strangers from the Internet). Josh seemed confident, his Tweets were sharp, and he was working all the rooms he describes in this book. He was someone to look up to for sure.

He brought me along in a way that I think a lot of up-and-coming comedians hope they get noticed by more seasoned professionals. He valued my writing and delivery, and as a female comedian, it meant a lot to be seen for those things. We forged a friendship that has now spanned nearly a decade.

In this book, Josh describes the ephemeral high comedians get when being on stage, but not just any stage … a highly coveted stage. Another thing Josh and I have in common is we both don’t have many vices. But one thing we both love is the euphoria that comes from reaching that next goal.

The chase is amazing until it becomes, well, the grind. Some people have the will, stamina, ego, or all of the above to continue to grind until it pays their rent. And that’s great!

But it’s also cool to find other ways to make people laugh. Josh was the co-founder of Laugh Staff, which was a group of comedians working to write speeches for best men and maids of honor. When he asked if I wanted to be part of that (one of only two women at the time), it was instantly another goal to chase. And when he asked if I would represent Laugh Staff for an opportunity to win some grant money we desperately needed as a start-up, that filled me with fire, too.

When comedy for Josh slowly tapered off and he was ready for something that felt a little more stable—copywriting—he pursued that single-mindedly until he landed a pretty cool gig. I wasn’t that far behind before I felt similarly, and he was there to metaphorically hold my hand until I reached my goal of becoming a content writer.

And now? I can say without a shadow of a doubt I’m honored Josh asked me to write this foreword. This is a high I didn’t even know I wanted.

So Josh, where does this leave us? I don’t know what thing each of us is going to want to chase next, but what I do know is we can always bounce stuff off of each other at Herb’s Tavern. I do believe it’s my turn to pay.

—Kali Fencl

Content Writer & Speech Consultant

Voted Most Likely To Subscribe to Zoobooks

Cleveland, Ohio

February 2023

Introduction

Do you miss stand-up?

It’s tough to answer. I love where my life is at right now, but stand-up was the launching pad that gave me just about everything.

I think of the Bob Seger song, Real at the Time. The song is about a relationship:

"I still recall the love in your eyes,

Blue like the sky on a clear sunrise …

You were a lioness, tall and lean.

You were the best thing I’d ever seen."

I fell in love with stand-up the way one falls for their first boyfriend or girlfriend. The same emotions applied: exhilarating highs, extreme lows, and a lot of learning in between. I fell in love, and eventually fell out of love, too.

In my last book, I’m not a copywriter, but…, I talked about curiosity being a prerequisite trait for a copywriter. The same is true with comedians. Not only do you have to be curious about the world around you to write material, but you have to be curious about how you get onstage to spew those intimate thoughts.

Like any relationship, the thrill is in the chase. And most of us are hardwired to chase. Authors Brad Stulberg and Steve Magness talk about chasing in their book, The Passion Paradox: A Guide to Going All In, Finding Success, and Discovering The Benefits of An Unbalanced Life:

Unlike other-feel good chemicals that are released after you’ve accomplished a goal, the far more potent dopamine is released prior, during the pursuit. We don’t get hooked on the feeling associated with achievement, we get hooked on the feeling associated with the chase.

Chasing stage time was a rush. Getting on certain stages are concrete goals for comedians. Sebastian Maniscalco (who we’ll get into later), now one of the most popular comedians in the world, named his book after this notion: Stay Hungry.

And I was hungry. The quality of the gig didn’t matter. It was a gig. Beggars can’t be choosers. And I ain’t too proud to beg. (Captain, was that a TLC reference?)

So, what do I miss most? The short answer is the anticipation and the excitement: the anticipation of a packed house and the 10–15 seconds of excitement before I stepped on stage.

There’s a certain buzz that comes with a hot crowd. You can just feel it. The crowd wants to laugh and is ready to laugh.

There’s not a feeling in