“It was awful,” I told my husband, tears streaming down my face as I drove up Laurel Canyon, back to the valley.

I’d delivered a half-hearted “rant”….

Something along the lines of “people shouldn’t be able to vote without taking a test that demonstrates they have the first clue about what they’re voting on.”

And that’s why I don’t vote. <- That could have been a punchline, but I wasn’t prepared enough to have had that ready.

So I nervously prattled on, enough to fill one minute, on a subject I had no interest in talking about.

Just before this, I had no idea I was about to get thrown onstage.

This was the first day of a stand-up comedy class…

I’d expected to be taught a bunch of techniques and walked through exercises, not get thrown to the wolves. (The wolves being an audience of my peers.)

Before she told us we were going to get onstage, she gave us a workbook with vague writing prompts I half-responded to.

Turns out the real value of the class was getting up and doing the thing.

The very next class, despite having taken a Xanax to even be able to show up…

My adrenaline was pumping, knowing I’d have to get up on stage.

The vague writing prompts were met with fight or flight energy, and just by being there, I’d already chosen not to fly the coop.

All too soon, it was my turn on the mic.

“I was super nervous about being here, so I decided to live stream a joke on Periscope and I got a lot of useful feedback from the lovely people of the internet.

“…So I’ll be doing the rest of my set topless.”

Group laughs

And that’s how I took my first baby step before getting booked all over southern CA and sharing stages with some of the biggest names in comedy.

Tell me about your first public attempt at humor in the comments.