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On Saturday 6 July, Peer Recovery Worker, Chris Longworth, stepped out his comfort zone to deliver a stand-up comedy routine and raised £125 for Solent Mind. Here he reflects on his fundraising journey.
At the beginning of the month, I broke out of my comfort zone and stood on stage in front of an audience to perform a stand-up comedy routine in aid of Solent Mind.
I work in the peer support team in Southampton, and a few of the people I help had mentioned how comedy helps them get through the hard times, so when I saw a post for the Ultra Comedy stand-up for charity course in Southampton, I clicked for more information. Before I knew it, I had signed up to 8 weeks of training that would end in a comedy performance live on stage. I didn’t want to be telling people they could overcome their anxiety but remain unwilling to do it myself.
We were taught some of the fundamentals of stand-up comedy, from microphone etiquette, and creating a persona, to getting a joke from premiss to punchline. We also had to sell a minimum of 10 tickets to secure our place on event night.
The first week of the course was horrible. Part of my job is to help people step out of their comfort zone by attending groups, getting on buses, or sometimes just leaving the house, so I could understand how my clients must feel. I get social anxiety. It’s better now, but I’m also pretty sure I have Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria. It’s undiagnosed, but all the signs fit, and at best, it’s impostor syndrome.
The course was daunting. Going to an unfamiliar place full of strangers is one thing, but trying to be funny on top of that, was nearly too much for me! After some clumsy ice breakers, we went through joke formulation and I made a couple of people laugh, which was a good start.
By week 3, our group had shrunk, and as the pressure of selling tickets started getting to us all, we bonded, and created a WhatsApp group. We helped each other with material and went through our set with each other, trimming things, extending bits and seeing how far we could go.
On the afternoon of our performance, we received the running order, and I was going on last. I was flattered to get the headline spot, but my anxiety was not thrilled! After much pacing and tactical vomiting, some chin ups and a run through of my set, my name was finally called, and I went up on stage.
As soon as I heard people laugh at my first joke, the anxiety melted away, and I really enjoyed it. I raised £125 for Solent Mind, and combined, my group raised £3,493 for our chosen charities, which is brilliant.
I think it’s important for us as peers to push ourselves and get out of our own heads to help show people we are more than our lived experience.
Afterwards me and a few of the guys in the WhatsApp group put our names down to perform at Eastleigh, so watch this space.
If you’ve been inspired by Chris’ bravery, you can take on a challenge and raise much-needed funds for Solent Mind here.
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