This tape is from T4T, a monthly all trans comedy show in New York. For the last 3 years they have done a pride month extravaganza where nearly every trans comic in the scene (and beyond) does one minute of stage time. The last two years have been at the Bell House in Brooklyn which holds about 350 people. Shoutout to Um, Jennifer? for playing the comics on and off! I wrote about this show in one of my earlier substack pieces!
I’ve posted this joke online before (last pride, I think?), and to some reposting jokes is a total faux pas.
I know so many fellow early career comics who I’ve heard say things to the affect of “I posted that joke online so I retired it” or “I just need to tape this 5 minutes and put it online so I can stop doing it.”
Sometimes I think I would have preferred to be a standup 20 years ago. I kind of hate posting online. I don’t do much crowd work, so I didn’t jump on that trend. Nor am I a content creator so the urge to post videos of myself does not come naturally. Its honestly why I’ve turned to substack, I’d much rather write something thoughtful than give you a 30 second hot take on why sapphic leaning bisexuals make the best weekend trip planners.
Over the last 4 years I’ve been slowly but surely crafting the hour I’m touring this fall. Its all about my experience and early days of coming into my own as a trans man and all of the incongruities that come with being newly out and navigating legal, medical and social transition. Many of the core jokes of the hour existed in some rudimentary form or another within the first year or two of my career. They were strong seeds of an idea or solid premises from the jump, but what has made them into something I’m proud of is all of the work and new life I have breathed into them over the last few years while running them over and over and over again.
This extended story about going to the gynecologist as a trans man used to end at “I didn’t think we’d get this far!” but in preparation for my set on Late Night with Seth Meyers in January 2024, I was interested in having a slightly longer bit as part of my set and pushed myself to keep building it out. I ran that 5 minutes about 30 times in the 3 weeks leading up to the taping. Some of my peers may make a case for retiring the joke after it being on Late Night, but I disagree. I still don’t think I’ve fully figured that joke out yet - and I put it on television! I think that’s the feeling we need to chase as standups. Chiseling away, sculpting slowly but surely until you know you’ve landed on the right wording and pacing. I’m paraphrasing a Jewish proverb that I think of often: turn it, turn it, turn it again, for everything is in it. I think of this when I’m stuck on jokes or scripts - its all in there, just keep trying.
I was at the Van Gogh museum lat week in Amsterdam and I felt so inspired by and connected to his dedication to repetition and innovation of craft within the same subject matter. Its no different for jokes. I would argue - especially for jokes - because standup is a live art form. Though the joke is the same, each time I tell it its different. The size or age range of the audience, the temperature of the room, who else is on the show, how long my set is - all of that plays a role in how the joke is going to land, which jokes I decide to tell that night and how I set them up or contextualize them.
So, back to the joke above. This is one of my favorite jokes to tell because its so stupid and unexpected and I love to jump around on stage. If I do it at the top of my set it gives me a sense of how familiar the audience is with trans people. If they understand I’m generalizing about trans women being tall and trans men being short, they’ll probably understand most jokes I tell. Whereas if I can tell it takes them a second or they kind of don’t get it, I know this audience will need their hands held a little bit more - perhaps the OBGYN joke will help.
I told this joke at T4T because I knew the audience would be perfectly in on the joke and I was talking about my experience at T4T last year, so it felt like the perfect way to spend my one minute of stage time.
All of this to say, I think its important for the art of standup in the digital/clips age that we resist the algorithmic urge to churn and burn. The fear of reposting is of course that it won’t be as funny the second time. Well guess what? Its never as funny on your phone as it is in the room, so kind of.. who cares?
I think comedy audiences enjoy a peak behind the curtain of the process and perhaps in this era of parasocial relationships and content fervor, we can satiate the desires of fans to know more about us by showing them a window into the evolution of material. Here’s how the joke landed for a bachelorette party and here’s how it landed for a room of gay people. My hope is that my online presence, specifically through my clips, is a taste of what its like to come see me live. I hope an audience member can see how much fun we are having in the room and it prompts them to come to a show. I’m not in the business of being a little guy on your phone, I’m in the business of being a little guy on a stage near you.
THE WEE LAD TOUR - FALL 2025
9/3 - BROOKLYN, NY
9/4 - NASHVILLE, TN
9/5 - PITTSBURGH, PA
9/6 - DETROIT, MI
9/12 - WILMINGTON, NC
9/13 - WILMINGTON, NC
9/14 - RICHMOND, VA
9/25 - DALLAS, TX
9/25 - HOUSTON, TX
9/27 - TULSA, OK
10/17 - BLOOMINGTON, IN
10/18 - BLOOMINGTON, IN
10/22 - BOSTON, MA
10/25 - PORTLAND, ME
10/26 - PORTLAND, ME
11/7 - CHICAGO, IL
11/8 - MINNEAPOLIS, MN
11/9 - APPLETON, WI
I’m posting every Wednesday at Lunch! Sometimes they’ll be long and thoughtful and sometimes they might be a listicle, but either way, you’ll hear from me on Wednesdays at Lunch!
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