Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hello and welcome back to the Occasionally Funny Podcast with me, Joshua Fox, and are you ready for a brand new intro track? Last week's audio was giving more 90s game show than funny new podcast, so I've whipped up something special and here we go!
Get ready for Josh, he's your host, and his jokes are almost the most. It's the Occasionally Funny Show, here we... occasionally funny.
Look, that was better than last week, yes. Is it the one we're going to stick with? Probably not. When generating that though, I did think like, shit, I'm going to need something not so upbeat for any serious episodes I may do. And I asked the AI program. I've been using, like, hey, can you generate me a sad version of this intro? And, yeah, this is what I ended up with.
MUSIC PLAYS
Now, I've got no idea what half the shit just sung in that was, but I suppose that's most opera, isn't it? Anyway, thank you for the lovely response to the first episode. I'm glad you're all pumped for this. And as both Sam and my mum now work on their episodes, which will be the one after this, and their official auditions as co-hosts,
I'm going to use this time this week to work on my own content too. And as I mentioned in episode one, I've decided to try and upskill myself in the art of entertaining and try my hand at stand-up comedy, which, to be honest, I am dreading. And initially when I said I was going to do this, I planned to do it at an actual venue in front of strangers.
But after spending several days researching stand-up comedy, and the various different styles of it, and seeing how so, so, so many people just crash and burn on stage, I thought to myself, not a fucking chance. I am not doing that. I'm not ready for that yet.
So I've decided I'm going to start by trialing my stand-up material in front of two colleagues, Pedro and Josu, and then base, you know, off their reactions and responses, potentially rework a few jokes based off what they say and, you know, build my confidence up a bit more with the aim of ultimately...
maybe in five episodes time on here, actually pushing myself to get out there and overcome my fear of public speaking and do actual stand-up in a stand-up venue in front of actual strangers. which even saying that, I'm still terrified. But for now, baby steps, you know.
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Chapter 2: What inspired Joshua to try stand-up comedy?
And just by snakes, I mean dicks there, by the way. Just to clarify, since we're in Australia and you have literal snakes slithering out amongst us. No, not the reptiles. I mean this year's maths cast. That was good. Fucking hell. I spent a whole day on this yesterday. A public holiday.
The next issue I faced mid-set was me trying to figure out live, in real time, in front of the audience, what was actually a joke and what was just, well, a factual statement. It was the sight of David Beckham playing for Manchester United that first made me realise I like boys.
And it was a stranger on a shit-quality webcam waving his dick at me as I watched Confused in my school uniform that made me realise I wanted to have sex with them.
I'm setting up the podcast of my life for a comedy sketch.
Pedro, there was no guidelines for us millennials as we figured out the internet in real time. The only person we could turn to was Tom from MySpace. And now the next problem I encountered while stood up there, now starting to sweat under the pressure was, yeah, realizing arguing with your audience, not the best idea. He bought it when it, no, for God's sake.
The generations after us, like you Josu, kids these days, their new normal, oh no, this is their new normal, and they're raised as slaves to screen time, but they've got their parents so aware and protective. And the generation before us, our pa- And the generation before us are parents, Pedro. Well, half of them still haven't quite mastered the internet.
If they're not falling for Nigerian love scams, they're still calling it the Google. That was funny. Come on, I bet your nana calls it the Google.
My nana doesn't speak English.
Well, it's the Spanish way of saying the Google. As I pushed through though and despite wanting the ground to swallow me up and just disappear, I started to race through the jokes to just try and get this over as quickly as possible which did leave me struggling to even speak and read. I'm standing up here today to prove two things to both of you. First, I am funny, occasionally.
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Chapter 3: What are the essential elements of a successful stand-up set?
That part was funnier than the other one being so far.
Now, by this point, I'm going to be honest, I was actually getting quite mad. And I was mad at Pedro for farting. I was mad at Josu for not even pretending to find it funny since technically I am his boss. And I thought, well, if I was a young kid and my boss was trying comedy in front of me, I would just force the laugh because they pay my wages. But no, apparently not for Josu. No worries.
But most of all, I was mad at myself for... No, actually, no, I wasn't mad at myself because I still stand by these jokes. All of those jokes. All right, excuse me. I'm trying to do a set here. All of those jokes surprisingly had one thing in common. What was it? Just quickly interrupting again, sorry, I was actually so flustered there that what you're hearing is me setting up this joke wrong.
It was meant to be all of those jobs had one thing in common, not all of those jokes. At one point, they all led to me crying on the internet.
What is this shit? It's more of a storytelling than a comedy show, though.
Well, it's storytelling with jokes.
Yeah, but... Like, I can't tell what's a joke and what's... Yeah. Look, I... I don't know if that's because... You two aren't the demographic. No, I don't want to crush your dreams. I really... I want to be supportive. I don't want to be mean, but it's just not...
As I then realized that I completely lost the audience and there was no winning them back, I had two options. Accept defeat, use this as a big learning and go back to my laptop and rewrite it all and just try again. Or I could kick Pedro and Josu out, bring in Sarah and Tab, two trusted women who I see daily in for the rest of the set because I know my girls, they'll get it.
Well, ladies, for my new podcast, Occasionally Funny, I'm trying to prove I can be funny. So I've done a stand-up comedy routine, which I tried on these two and they said not one part of it was funny. Oh, no.
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Chapter 4: How did Joshua's debut stand-up performance go?
Who knew that humor could cut so deep and apparently mask so much? Now, on a serious note, though, I genuinely, like when I sat down to write this, my stand-up routine, I did think, okay, this will get some laughs. Yeah, it'll be awkward in a few parts, which I kind of wanted, but I believed the jokes were funny, which apparently not. You know what, actually? I still think the jokes were...
almost there like the topics and the punchlines I do stand by but I think it was more the structure of them and especially the delivery because stood up there I really did lack confidence in everything I said which I suppose set the tone for the set and yeah I did say one of the main reasons I wanted to do this was because of my fear of public speaking and honestly standing up there even in front of friends
It was terrifying and, yeah, I suppose we live and we learn. But public speaking is something I really do need to get better at probably quickly as my day job away from all this, my career, I'm actually being booked.
for like consulting things, going to brands, teaching them about their social media, saying, hey, this is good, this not so good, maybe do this as a strategy, which is so fun and exciting and kind of flattering that people trust me. But like, yeah, getting into boardrooms and even Zooms, I'm a bit like, oh, this is terrifying. Actually, a couple of weeks ago now, it's funny, I got offered...
a thing to teach at AFTRS, like a couple of lessons. AFTRS is like the Australian Film and Television School for future producers, radio hosts, whatever. And they reached out like, hey, we love what you do. They heard me on the Game Changers podcast a couple of months ago talking about my career. And they were like, we'd love you to come and speak to the students. And I was like, no way.
But then I thought about it and then I said, hey, I would love to if I can do it with Pedro, who's my business partner, because we just bounce off each other so well. And then we did that Zoom session together and it was great. And me having Pedro, I didn't really feel nervous. And then off the back of that, they've booked us for more.
And tomorrow, actually, I'm going in person to an actual campus to stand up and do a four hour class again with Pedro. So I'm not nervous.
that nervous but I know that you know in my life going forward I'm not always gonna have Pedro by my side or like that safety net or like that person so this really is something I do need to get better at and doing it through the podcast I think is a fun way for me to push myself but Yeah, for now, thanks for listening to my stand-up set.
Next week, I promise, the occasional will be back in Occasionally Funny as my mum and Sam find their funny for their co-host auditions. See ya!
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