Jonathan Deamer

Most people who know me will probably remember the time I took a stand-up comedy course, culminating in a live gig.  For anyone else though, let me explain why I did it.

Like many people, public speaking makes me a bit nervous.  I like to try and develop myself and overcome such fears and weaknesses though.  So I decided to do what any sensible person would, and throw myself into the most personally nightmarish situation I could think of.  I hoped it would be much like in Fight Club (but fighting replaced with making-a-dick-of-oneself); “after that, the volume on the rest of your life is turned down”.

It was an also a bit of an attempt at thrill-seeking.  But whereas most people in need of an adrenaline rush go bungee-jumping or hang gliding, I told jokes in the back room of a pub to a couple of hundred drunk Scousers.

I won’t recount my entire adventure in stand-up comedy – that’s for another blog post - but I will say that ever since I’ve been very interested in the process of writing jokes.  And to that end, entered the recent heavenly humour contest at the Humour Power blog.  I was pleased to find today that one of my lines was picked among the top few:

“You know you’re in heaven when you’re hanging out with Einstein, Shakespeare and Hendrix.  And you’ve not been drinking.”

I also quite liked some of my other lines (but I would).  They were:

• You know you’re in heaven when there’s nothing on the news about terrorism.  And it’s not just because Paris Hilton is out of jail.
• You know you’re in heaven when you can always find a bathroom when you need one.  And it’s not in a McDonalds.
• You know you’re in heaven when Richard Dawkins admits he’s wrong.
• You know you’re in heaven when spam is nothing but a tinned meat product.

As you can see, some were better than others.  But at least when a joke bombs online, you don’t get bottles thrown at you…