How I started in Stand-up Comedy and Where I am Going With It

For nearly a year now I have been performing stand-up comedy. I’ve performed in front of crowds of hundreds people and crowds of, well just one person. I’ve performed in major cities across the country including Boston, New York, Baltimore, Dallas, New Orleans and of course all over greater Houston. I’ve made thousands laugh and yes, I have also endured the occasional “bomb.” I’ve made a few dollars here and there from performing on shows -- from collecting a few crinkled-up dollar bills after a “pay what you can” show, to earning $1000 for winning a comedy contest. The two burning questions everyone asks when I tell them I do stand-up comedy (1) How did I get started and (2) where is this all going?

“THE ICE CREAM MAN IS COMMMMMMMINGGGG!!!!” From Eddie Murphy’s 1983 stand-up TV special for HBO “Delirious.” My friends and I back in high school must have watched it together at least two dozen times. I still know every bit by heart. Eddie Murphy in his tight red leather suit at a large sold-out theater. He made it seem like performing comedy was only for Rock Stars, but it serves as my earliest inspiration for comedy.

A decade later, I discovered and fell in love with a show on NBC called “Last Comic Standing” where they would travel the country curating top comics to compete for a large sum of money and a TV deal. This show provided more tangible inspiration. It helped me realize that anyone could get into stand-up comedy, so why not me?

Shortly after starting a business, I began working on public speaking by joining a Toastmasters Club. I loved it. It helped give me the confidence I needed to start a podcast called “Big Ideas Small Business”, to start teaching/instructing at the University of Houston Small Business Development Center, to write as a guest contributor for the Houston Business Journal and other various speaking projects.

In parallel, Grady, the son of one of my mentors was experiencing some success on the local Houston comedy scene. I didn’t even know there was a local Houston comedy scene! And wouldn’t you know it, one of the most popular weekly comedy shows was at Rudyard’s Pub on Monday nights, just a five minute walk from my House! I would go and watch Grady perform and was impressed by his progress over the years. Eventually Grady would go on to win a major comedy contest in Texas and started getting real work as a feature or host for big names in comedy that were coming through Texas. Once Grady got his own show headlining the biggest comedy club in Houston, he gave me the final inspiration I needed to give this a try.

A week after Grady's headlining set at the Improv, I signed up at Rudyard's open mic. Appropriately on April Fool’s day 2019 I delivered my first five-minute comedy set and the best and worst thing happened – I got a few laughs. I was hooked. I found another mic the next night, and then a mic the next night, and before I knew it I was doing 6-10 open mics a week and have continued to do shows since.

So where is this all going? I'd like to move up the comedy ranks and be able to get feature work and one day headline. For now I still call it a hobby, although it is approaching "side hustle" status. Comedy serves as a faster way to grow as a speaker and as a communicator as a supplement to Toastmasters. It gives me something to do when I travel – it’s very easy to use social media or my growing comedy network to get on a showcase in any city in America when on the road. And lastly, I have been able to use this platform to raise money for charitable causes with my own production Haha For Hope. At my core, I have a heart for giving back for children related organizations and this is one avenue of many I have to carry out what I am called to do.

For anyone who is considering trying stand-up comedy or improv comedy or really anything that puts yourself out there, I encourage you to give it a go. Don’t over think it! For stand-up, open mics are going on in every city across America, usually it's a simple as showing up a little before the show starts and signing up. I am happy to help you in any way I can to get you started but here's the basics -- Write five minutes of what you think is funny and go up, have fun, be yourself, be prepared to bomb, and maybe try it again if you like it. And if not cross it off the bucket list, you grow as a result of just trying it.

Lastly, I mentioned my charity comedy production Haha for Hope. This began when a non-profit approached me about creating a comedy event and I was ecstatic to do it! I quickly booked a venue, the comics, found sponsors, sold tickets and then about 45-days out from our show, I got the call that the non-profit didn't want to go forward with the event. They were concerned that the content of the show could potentially offend their donors. It was at that point I decided to move forward with the production as my own platform for fundraising.

My first production was held on October 16th, 2019 at the Secret Group in Houston and we raised just over $2,000 for Sky High for Kids to support pediatric cancer and research and had over 125 people join us that evening. Our second production “Haha for Hope Volume 2” is on March 4th, 2020 at the Houston Improv! I'd like to do one more Houston show in the fall and then submit to have Haha for Hope featured on comedy festivals across the country.

For our March 4th show we are partnering with the Hearts Company, a 501c3 non-profit formed by Jamie Larson, Hannah Borel, and Paulina Priskee. They're purpose is to create a more educated youth through providing scholastic resources to children in impoverished, vulnerable and at risk areas. All proceeds from tickets and sponsorship sales will go to the East Bali Poverty Project which will help in building them an elementary school in the tiny town of Tianyar.

Tickets start at $20 [buy] and sponsorship starts at $500 [Learn more]. I hope you can join us on this incredible evening, I will be hosting and performing, we have a comedy contest, a business networking happy hour, and a comedy show featuring Houston’s rising stars in stand-up comedy. More information can be found on the event website http://hahaforhope.com or by contacting me at hahaforhope@gmail.com or by text/call at 281-529-5487.

For any other booking inquires including emcee/hosting, comedy productions for private events or public venues, acting or other entertainment requests, or information about upcoming shows and events please visit my website to learn more - http://thebriangendron.com