Who’s funny now?

If you suggested to any normal person that they should do stand-up comedy, they’ll probably scream obsentities at you and hope that you’d die.  Me on the other hand, took this as one of the best challenges in the universe!

A few months back, I did my very first stand-up comedy routine in Sydney, Australia.  Rob McHugh was my mentor who helped me along with a bunch of other funny peeps figure out how not to die a slow painful death on stage … through the arduous, but very rewarding process, we performed to a packed house with great success!

Then, I fell off the comedy bandwagon for a few months to make way for #AroundIrelandOnAPushie.  “Pushie” basically took up most of my actual down time.  It wasn’t a bad thing, because what happened next was amazing!

Since I’ve been taking challenges via my #AllTwitterRequestLine, I discovered Bright Club!  Bright Club is a chance for the science community to mix things up a bit and be funny.  I am neither a scientist nor a comedian.  However, I like science.  I’ve done NASA things and well…. they were taking a big gamble on someone like me to make space funny and I knew it.   There was absolutely no Pressure!  GLUP.

I had a pretty good idea on what I was going to talk about but I mean, every crowd is different so I prepped like a MOFO.   My first joke (not space related) had to do with my accent and it flopped… it’s worked in Sydney months ago – but no biggie, I made sure to pay everyone out for not laughing and seemed to pay out in laughing dividends!

I’m pretty lucky that my brain doesn’t work like a normal person.  I see the world a bit different – I mean, why the heck would any NORMAL person go #AroundIrelandOnAPushie for three months – they wouldn’t.  But, this bizarre brain of mine seemed to help with my comedy routine.  That, and the fact that I’ve spent a bit of time at NASA.  So, the audience got it.

In the end, I pulled it off.  I spoke about what seemed 10 minutes but was probably closer to seven.   I delivered some comedy space gold with a few launch pad and International Space Station punch lines…. and the greatest part is… the crowd got that, too!  PHEW… Normally, space jokes flop because some concepts are kinda hard to wrap your head around.  In my defence, I didn’t mention anything about the Drake equation, math related or anything from the beautiful, warped mind of Stephen Hawking…   What better way to win over the crowd than to use an International Space Station “put Kim Kardashian out the airlock” joke… #WINNING.  I was in some serious good company, too.  Fellow Aussie and Mars 100 candidate Josh Richards was headlining so I felt a bit more at ease having a bit of Australia in the room!  And, Dr. Niamh Shaw tested our Irish pronunciation knowledge which was an incredible laugh.  It was such a warm and relaxed and fun environment!

 Would I do it again?  Yes!  And, thanks to Bright Club I am now an International stand-up Comedian specialising in outer space !  Oh and to top it off, this all happened in a frickin CASTLE in IRELAND.  The Irish seriously know how to do things right. It was just pure awesome.  Thanks for taking a gamble on me!  Watch this space for more stand-up comedy in the future!