Brian McKay Story

Those who know me; especially those from my work environment, are often surprised to hear about me doing standup. People often ask me how I got started. The short version: I was shooting my mouth off (those who know me are not surprised by that) and my wife called my bluff. The longer version: when I was much younger and managing a pizza joint, I would work late hours. When I would get home at 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning I would always watch Evening at the Improv and Stand Up Comedy Spotlight; I used to laugh really hard and de-stress from the night. Just for context the pizza joint was not in the greatest safest area of town.

Fast-forward twenty years. I had been watching some of the newer comedy shows on TV and was not finding many of them funny. I would often say to my wife, “I’m funnier than these guys.” I have since found out, it is much harder than it looks. A few weeks later, my wife and I went to a show, along with several other couples, to See Darryl Hammond. After the show, we were standing around in the parking lot talking, and I casually mentioned that I would like to learn to do stand up and even Improv. It just looked like fun. My wife, always looking for creative gift ideas, went on line and found an Improv class, put on by the city, and stand up classes at a local comedy club. For my next birthday, she enrolled me in both classes.

I absolutely loved both classes. The main difference in the format of the two classes was that after 6 weeks of standup classes, the students put on a showcase performance for all of our friends and family. My friends and family are a huge part of my life and I am grateful for the support they always show me. My Mom and Dad never missed a show, just like when I was a kid in baseball; they are always there for me. The night of the show was one of those comedian dream nights. I killed it. I was funny, maybe even very funny, and it was my first time ever on stage. The owner of the club was in the audience and on the spot, offered me paying gig as an opening act for the touring comedians he booked for his club. After that night I was hooked. The rush of performing and doing well was like nothing I had ever experienced.

I am pretty sure that when my wife signed me up for classes in 2005, she never envisioned that all these years later I would still be performing and loving every minute of it. I am especially pleased that my mom was also proud of my comedy! She would tell her friends when you go to a show with several comedians, my son is the one with the clean jokes. He is my Clean Comedy Guy.