You have heard a lot about my latest challenge, going on the comedy stage.
People often ask me how I can get up there and do that. As I remarked on the Evening Magazine program recently, it was the most difficult thing that I have ever done in my entire life.

At age 89 just to stand up for twenty minutes is more than most people my age can manage. I say when going on stage, “I am the oldest standup comic in Seattle who can still stand up.” That is a feat in itself.

Recently I received my first pay for being a comic. The MC that night also took the money at the door. He said that he had enough to pay me in cash. Then he asked me if I wanted my last five dollars in ones so I could save the first dollar I ever made doing standup. I said I would frame it along with the government check I got in 1949 for one cent which, I kid you not, was our tax return for that year. And guess when it was dated---April Fools Day.

Well, after receiving my pay I remarked that I used to get several hundred dollars for my speeches during the women’s movement years. The MC came back with, “Well, if you stay with standup comedy you will be taking a pay cut.” I guess that standup is a lot like any of the arts. It is self expression that cannot be denied. One must do it at any price, right?

Three days after my first paid gig I was given the title of headliner on stage at the Seattle Comedy Underground. My neighbor brought his video camera and taped my whole performance which ran for 21 minutes. I couldn’t believe that I could hold an audience for that long but they kept on laughing so I kept on dishing out laugh lines. I plan to use part of that evening’s performance to go on You-Tube if someone techie can produce it for me

You may ask where I get my material. I dip into my long life of experience, and with the right timing and body language, keep the audience laughing. But it wasn’t always that way. My first night on stage I was really nervous. I brought notes and studied them all the while other comics were appearing before they called on me. Luckily I caught on that first night that I needed to use what other comics had said and react to that and play off the audience as well. It also helped to bring my own supporters to cheer me on. One night one of my old friends (who recently died) held my tape recorder so I could critique my standup appearance later. When I played it back that night, all I could hear was her laughing above my comedy lines. I now save that tape as a memorial to my dear old friend. .

People are asking me what I am going to try next. My dream is to sing jazz scat with a jazz band. I also believe in age integration so I accepted an offer to help prepare a duo comedy sketch with a young lifeguard at the YMCA who does improv. That dream is coming true on January 21st when we appear at Market Theatre downtown. Yes, my calendar is full and I love it.

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