Comedy for Good

So a crazy thing happened recently. After a year of doing amateur stand up around Toronto, I actually made some money doing stand up! I am not talking about free drink tickets or the odd $10, I am talking about an amount of money that you would sit back and say, “Hmmm, what should I do with that money?”. That is not to say that the drink tickets and the $10 are not greatly appreciated, because they are. It is amazing when any producer will share the spoils of a night of comedy. I don’t want to sound ungrateful for the small sums of cash because:

1. I am grateful for the small sums of cash

2. It is meaningful to pay comics, not matter how much you pay them

3. Free beer helps me to convince my husband to come see me do comedy even though he knows all of my jokes in excruciating detail

But sometimes I feel guilty receiving these small sums because I have a day job. Recently I didn’t hang around to wait for my cut of the cash after a show because I knew it would be a small amount, I thought the other people in the show could probably use it more than me, and, oh yeah, because the show was so Incel-ly and rapey that I panicked and ran to my car. (Will save that thought for another day…)

My day job is being a veterinarian. As a group, we are not rolling around in cash, but we do okay. We are okay. I have a car, a nice place to live and matching towels. I get Starbucks when I want to and I have a nice duvet. What I’m saying is, I’m living the dream.

One month this year, I made a whopping $155 at a comedy event! This was Black Sheep Comedy’s event at Arch Brewery in Newmarket. I might have overachieved in the “bring your friends” department, something I have never done before. I generally bring between zero and three friends out to any given show, but this close-to-home show brought out the peeps. Twenty-seven peeps! This translated into cash money and the Black Sheep Comedy hosts, Darcia and Cathy could not be more generous. (Thanks Darcia and Cathy!) I also did a veterinary corporate event for my fellow veterinarians, which was weird and cool and different and also for Pharma and, well, Pharma pays.

All this to say is that now that instead of making tens of dollars, for this one month anyway, I made a few hundred. Can I say I am a comedian now? I…