Laughing At Cancer

Last night was awesome on so many levels. I had the opportunity to share the stage with veteran clean professional comedian, Johnny Watson. It was his first show back from not just the pandemic but also since his diagnosis with Stage 4 cancer.

17 months without going on stage, 9 months since getting the scariest news possible and a few weeks after completing his last chemo treatment…he got back to his happy place!

He didn’t just go back to his old jokes, either. He talked about what he’s been going through; cancer, a pandemic and a divorce.

I probably would have been scared to go up with all new stuff but he let it all hang out. Maybe his experience made him care less about taking risks? Either way, it was an absolute thing of beauty.

This was the first time we met but it had a profound effect on me. He was worried about running out of gas because his treatments have sapped his strength. However, you wouldn’t have known that when you saw him on stage. He performed. He put his heart into it. He left it all out there.

He did run out of steam eventually but that SOB let ‘em have it! He reminded me that the reason I started comedy was to get paid to have fun. The longer I’ve stuck around the purpose of comedy is to bring lightness to darkness and help people have fun with heavy topics. We could all use more of that right now and Johnny needs to keep making people laugh at his pain.

I salute you, Sir.

BTW! Johnny does clean comedy and is available for corporate comedy shows. If you’re looking to book a clean professional comic for your business conference or corporate comedy event, we can make that happen!