Balancing Act

As a non-profit attorney by day and a stand-up comedian by night, I walk a fine line.

Some people believe if you want to make it in comedy you need to go all in. Quit your job and 100 percent focus on comedy. Every waking moment is about writing jokes, social media, doing gigs, promoting your craft. I am not one of those people. I like my job, and I really like my health insurance. If I didn’t have that stability, I don’t know if my brain could ever focus on creativity. I would spend too much time worrying about paying bills to be able to really work on my craft.

But I chose a hard job. I am an attorney at a non-profit. I represent tenants facing eviction. They are often in dire and desperate situations, looking to me for help. They are worried they may not have a home, a place to sleep, the ability to provide for their family. It is emotionally draining and often frustrating. And not funny at all.

But honestly, it helps me in my comedy, and my comedy helps me mentally recover from the drain and strain of my days. It is all about balance for me. I appreciate my free time, and seeing what my clients go through makes me appreciate struggle. Especially on the tougher days, I try to push myself to go to a mic or do a set somewhere, because that brings me back to life. It refreshes me. It resets me.

And there is some overlap. The way you make a legal argument can also be the way you craft a joke. It has to have a logic to it. A throughline. Guy Branam, law school graduate, stand-up comedian, and writer (Hacks and The Mindy Project just to name a few) put it best, “Law is all about integrating a fact pattern with a legal pattern,” Branum continues. “That is helpful for writing jokes because it makes you nimble in the way that you can understand how the facts you are dealing with fit into a structure. It's all about structuring information and what you choose to make explicit and leave implicit.” Your audience is different in both situations, but one of the goals is the same, to connect and have them understand your point of view.

It also makes you quick on your feet. Many times I have been in front of a judge with arguments I meticulously prepared when opposing counsel throws a curve ball. I am forced to think on my feet and take the information and laws I know and the tempo of the room and respond to this curve ball. Same rules for comedy. Sometimes I have a set planned and then someone before me does material on a similar topic and I have to pivot. Or a heckler tries to derail my set and I have to think quick to keep control of the room. There is a certain adrenaline rush that comes with both and I love it.

I generally don’t talk about my work at comedy and I don’t talk about comedy at work. If someone at my office figures out I do comedy, usually they are surprised. You? But you are so serious. If a comedian figures out I am a lawyer, usually they are surprised. You? But you are so unserious. I’m always surprised by their reactions. Because I know both sides of me exist.

Maybe people are surprised because we like to imagine people as one thing. Serious or funny. Professional or creative. But I have never really been interested in being just one version of myself. And I don’t have to choose. I can be both. I love the balancing act.