Member-only story
‘The One Where’ I Tried Stand-Up Comedy
Not all dreams are meant to be followed
When I was in my teens and twenties, I loved Friends. Much like the boyfriends of my youth whose flaming red flags I ignored, when I think about my once-favorite TV comedy now, I cringe in embarrassment.
During the COVID pandemic, I tried to rewatch the antics of Chandler, Monica, Phoebe, Ross, Rachel, and Joey, and the humor felt forced, flat, and grating. I couldn’t relate to these “friends,” and their rent-controlled Manhattan apartments that still cost more than the quasi-employed characters could ever afford.
Despite the clever, click-bait titles of Friends episodes (for example, “The One Where Everybody Finds Out”), the sitcom I once embraced now makes me wince. Similarly, stand-up comedy, with a few exceptions, has lost its beloved status in my life. I’ll watch a fantastic comedy special, fall in love with a new comedic voice, and want to binge a comedian’s work. Yet by the time I’ve seen an act twice, the jokes become stale and a comedian’s “on” persona gets on my nerves.
Nevertheless, in the not-too-distant past, I frequently attended comedy shows and laughed until my stomach hurt. My friends and I socialized with traveling comics after their sets and several urged me to attempt my own foray into the weird world of stand-up.
