It has been two years since I wrote about having the nerve to go up on the comedy stage. I really needed to hear laughter at the time I was in full care of my husband and what better place to hear laughter than to appear on open mike night at the comedy club.

Well, it wasn’t always laughter in 2000 when I made my first appearance ever but I decided to persevere while honing my craft.

What did I learn in the past nine years? That you have to be honest and dig down into one’s inner self and share what you find with everyone in the audience. On open mike night you are in the same boat with all the other wannabe comics who have come to bare their souls as well. There isn’t much heckling when each comic knows that when they go up on stage they want to be supported and appreciated and not shot down.

Recently, after my husband died and after a long time without being on the comedy stage, I decided to prepare another routine. This time instead of billing myself as an oldie I could add that I was a widow. So, I literally jumped up on stage and began with, “Howdy, everybody. I am here as the oldest standup comic who can still stand up.”

That brought down the house, especially since I had some two dozen of my friends in the audience.

As Frank Sinatra found out when he had his first big chance on stage as a singer, it helped to plant teenage swooners and screamers in the audience to get the attention of the press. My friends didn’t swoon but they laughed up a storm and gave me a lot of confidence. I had the nerve to talk about a lot of my thoughts about being a widow.

“What will I do if the older men start hitting on me?” I blurted out. “They can only cuddle.”

Then I admitted that I might find a younger man out of work who needs a meal ticket. But that outrageous statement was hardly out of my mouth when I called out to the audience, “Hey, if any of my grown children are out there, your inheritance is safe. I don’t intend to marry any time soon.”

I don’t know how these things came into my mind. I certainly wouldn’t utter them in polite conversation even though some of my acquaintances who overhear me talking my thoughts out loud would say otherwise. And I have been doing a lot of talking under my breath and even some serious weeping as a widow. Laughing is the alternative to crawling into a hole and not being involved.

If you are interested in seeing this oldie on Evening Magazine, keep watching for the upcoming schedule because my feature about my once appearing on Oprah and being the oldest standup comic in Seattle is to be aired in the near future. But I am not sitting around on my laurels until then.

I have already prepared a story to tell on the Storytelling stage at the Rendevous in Belltown. I never thought I would ever make it on the comedy stage and now I am not sure I will make it as a storyteller but I will try most anything once.

I always joke that I am going to save getting drunk until I am on my death bed. And I am the one who says I am never going to die so that will save me ever having to get into a drunken state. Since I don’t drink or smoke I have to have some fun, right? People who tell me it is time to sit back and just smell the flowers don’t realize that I am still going to do my part in improving the world and having a ball while I am at it.

Georgie Bright Kunkel is a freelance writer who can be reached at gnkunkel@comcast.net or 206-935-8663.