DARK SIDE OF COMEDY

I have been watching this show "The Dark Side of Comedy" on Vice which highlights comedians who had a horrible death, a debilitating illness or a hidden darkness that the public did not know about. I highly recommend it for comedy fans. It seems very common in comedy to expect that from those of us trying to bring joy to the world.

Some of us use comedy as a coping mechanism to deal with our sadness or darkness. A lot of comedians were not dark on stage but rather, had their own demons there chased when they got off stage.

Lately I have been talking more about the "darker" aspects of my life, which is hard to do as a comedian, especially when a crowd is not expecting it. I love dark comedians like Anthony Jeselnick and when I started comedy, I was very influenced by him and lately I have been going back to darker material. Its been fun to push the envelope and add the edges to my otherwise clean comedy sets. Exploring new material is always fun, especially when it works. #comedy #standup #careerchange

photo by Joe Loiselle