There is a naked comedy show in Boston.

I never thought I would do it.

I was wrong.

Quick plug before naked comedy talk.  I’m hosting free comedy at Iron Furnace in Quincy every Tuesday 8pm AND open mic comedy same place on Sundays 7:30.

I’m not sure where to even start with this post but I’m sure you have a lot of questions.  Why did you do that?  Why does that show exist?  What do you get out of it?  Is your wife mad?  Was it cold?

Why did I do it?

I have known about the naked show for years, a lot of my friends had already done the show.  Everyone that has performed on the show has said that it’s a really great crowd.  They have said that people don’t really stare at your body, they glance down once probably out of curiosity but that’s it.  I was told that you don’t even have to talk about being naked or about your body, you can just do your regular jokes.  I was told that there’s nothing sexy about the show and that nudity is not inherently linked to sexuality.

I believed all of these things but I still wondered if I could do the show when the time came.  I was curious to see if I could overcome my own insecurities and body issues and feel comfortable enough to just stand there and tell my jokes in the buff.  So when I saw a post about the show a couple of months ago, I decided to throw my hat in the ring, and also my shoes and shirt and pants.

Why does that show exist?

I don’t know exactly but it’s popular.  So I guess that’s why it exists because people will pay to watch 8 comedians tell jokes naked.  I once tried to run a show that was just guys named Shawn/Sean/Shaun and that didn’t work at all so we never did it again.  The naked show exists because people will buy a ticket.

What did I get out of it?

A new perspective but I’ll go into that in a minute, let me get these other two questions out of the way first.

Is your wife mad?

I’m divorced soooo, I’m sure she’s still mad about something but most likely not this show.

Was it cold?

Yes.  It was December.

Alright, now that all of that is out of the way, I’ll tell you my thoughts on the entire experience.

I signed up for the show.  I could have done it in either November or December and I chose December because it would give me four more weeks to do push-ups.  In those four weeks I did zero push ups.  Once I agreed to do the show I didn’t tell many people, just a few comedy friends and one girl on Bumble because she said she wanted to come to my next show and I figured I should give her a heads up.  Once I told Bumble girl about the naked on stage thing she said she might come to the show.  She didn’t.  We haven’t talked since then.  (or maybe she did and didn’t tell me).

A couple of my friends that were on the show posted to Facebook to promote it.  I did no such thing.  In fact I went on Facebook and posted “I definitely don’t have a show tonight.”.  One of my good friends saw that post and called me offering me a pair of free Bruins tickets because he didn’t feel well and he knew I didn’t have a show.  I said no thanks and explained why I wrote the post.

My brother who hasn’t asked me about a comedy show in three years texted me that day to see if I had a show.  I told him “yes”.  He said he could actually come out for once.  I told him “you don’t want to go.  this is a bad show.”  He didn’t go to the show.  (or maybe he did and didn’t tell me).

On the day of the show I was still thinking about canceling my spot.  Once I got in my car I knew I was going on stage.  I didn’t travel from Rockland to Cambridge fighting traffic and looking for parking to just go inside and not show my dick to everyone.  Seriously though, once you’re in the car you know you’re doing the thing.

When I arrived at the venue I noticed a couple of comedy friends there, some of them were on the naked show and one was on a different show in a secondary space at the venue.  Everyone that was on the naked show seemed to have the attitude “oh, you’re on the naked show too?  cool.”.  The comedian that was not on the naked show had more of a “Ooooooooooooooohhhhh,  you’re on the naked show?   Ooooooooooooooohhh.  I might peak in.  Was that creepy, I’m sorry.”  attitude.  I was fine with it.

Then unexpectedly three friends that I met while hosting the shows at Iron Furnace walked in and they were as surprised to see me as I was to see them.  It felt much more strange to have people I know in the audience than if it was just a bunch of faces I didn’t recognize.  One of the friends very sweetly offered to cover her eyes while I was on-stage but I said that it wasn’t necessary.

Probably the strangest thing about the experience was how normal everyone acted while I was standing there in front of them naked.  People laughed at jokes like any other crowd, they looked me in the eyes while I talked to them like any other crowd and when leaving they said “thanks, nice job, good night” like any other crowd.  After the show I got a new friend request on Facebook, and I message saying I looked good, which is not typical.

Overall I’d give it 4 stars, would recommend to a friend.