When It All Goes Wrong On Stage: What Bombing Taught Me About Preparing To Speak

John: 00:00:00

so I bombed the gig last week.

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Not in a burn the

building down kind of way.

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More in a, I knew before I walked on

the stage and it showed kind of way.

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And I want, I want to talk a bit

about it, not because I enjoy public

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self-flagellation so much, but because

I think there's something genuinely

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useful in here for anyone who speaks,

performs, presents, or puts themself

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in front of an audience for a living.

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So if you'll give me eight minutes of your

time, I promise I'll make it worth you.

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Well.

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So here's the situation.

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I've been doing standup comedy

alongside my speaking work for a

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while now, for just over a year.

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last week I had a gig.

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My, it was supposed to be my first

of the year, but it ended up being my

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second and it was an open mic night.

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Now general audience, and I

was, opening the show, which

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is not my favorite position.

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However, I'd had months of notice

for this months, so I had no excuse

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whatsoever on the preparation front.

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But you know, life did what life

does and weekends disappeared

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and other work took over.

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And prior comedy gig

took priority as well.

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And I found myself on the day of the gig

trying to write new material from scratch.

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Don't even ask me why

I made that decision.

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I had a set ready to go from the week

prior and had made the decision that

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that was kind of specially written

for that event but it still could have

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worked at this particular event too.

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So some decent stuff was coming up in

the writing, but nothing that was ready

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to be done from a stage, certainly not

to a level that I would be happy with.

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So I ended up retreating to

safe ground and so I made the

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call to do some older material.

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Now, the only problem with that

really was that I hadn't touched

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that material in a while and there

was no real time to rehearse it.

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Barely review it, and I made a

decision that I've never made before

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in my life on the comedy stage.

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I took a set list out

on the stage with me.

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Now I've sometimes had a set list in

my pocket, but I've never actually

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taken it out on stage or never

actually, even if I have had it

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out, never actually looked at it.

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Now a set list isn't something unusual

on an open mic comedy stage, but for

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me in that particular moment, pulling

that out wasn't a practical tool.

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It really was me confirming to

myself what I already knew, that I

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wasn't prepared and I wasn't ready.

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And then my opening line died

complete, complete silence.

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In fact, bemused faces . It was that very

specific, very airless silence that every

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performer knows and dreads one flat beat

and I was gone , an opening line that I've

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been so proud of and it died on his feet.

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With that, my body decided

to start sweating profusely.

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My face decided to go beet root red.

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And if you've ever watched a performer

visibly unravel in real time, you'll know

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it is uncomfortable for everyone involved.

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Not only the person on the stage.

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Now, the host, bless him, he

blamed the crowd afterwards,

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and I, I appreciate that.

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I appreciate the solidarity,

but I didn't take the excuse.

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I mean, okay, maybe a contributing

factor, but the crowd was what it was.

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And I've handled tougher rooms.

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So for me it was, it was on me.

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So here's what stings

most about this for me.

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And I, I do actually mean stings

not, here's my humble brag disguised.

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There's a lesson, I already

knew this about myself.

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So what I'm learning music.

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Nobody gets to hear it

until it sounds good.

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Not a note, not a rough version.

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Nothing.

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I talked about this with Clinton

Young on my last episode.

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If you haven't heard it,

go and check that out.

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There's so much gold in that episode.

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I don't let anyone hear a rough version.

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Nothing.

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I don't share my works in progress.

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I never have.

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I'm not comfortable with it.

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I keep things private until

they're ready, so I should have

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known really that standup comedy.

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The creative process would be exactly

the same for me there as well.

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The real failure on that stage

wasn't the flat opener, wasn't

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the sweating or the set list.

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It was overriding my own

self-knowledge under pressure.

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I knew I wasn't ready.

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I went on anyway.

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Now I know there are performers, there

are comedians who can get on there

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and they can pull 'em from the notes

list and they can do stuff on the fly.

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I am not that comedian, not at this stage.

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I'm still a baby comic, and so.

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it's amazing really that I then

had the audacity to be surprised

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when it showed that I wasn't ready.

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The thing about performing under

pressure, it doesn't reveal your talent.

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It reveals your preparation,

or in this case, lack of it.

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I want to make this relevant for you

because if you are listening to this

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show, you're probably a speaker or a

coach or a trainer, someone who presents

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professionally in some capacity.

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And you might be thinking,

John, I can't do standup comedy.

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What's this got to do with me?

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Everything as it turns out because

the cascade that led to that bad gig.

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Months of notice, life getting in the way.

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Last minute decisions, no rehearsal

time is exactly the same cascade that

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leads to underprepared keynotes, flat

training sessions and presentations that

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don't land the way you knew they could.

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And here's something that

I want to say directly.

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The bar has risen.

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Even at grassroots open mic level

audiences in: 2026

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polished content on Netflix, on

YouTube, on TikTok, that they notice

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when you are not bringing your best.

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The bar is raised, the standard is higher.

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It is true for comedy.

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It's equally true, more true

for professional speaking.

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The audience might not be able

to precisely articulate what's

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missing, but they will feel it.

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So what am I actually

taking away from this?

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Well, two things really.

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The first never go on stage unprepared.

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I know it is obvious, but sometimes

you need a bad night to remind

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you why the obvious rules exist.

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Respect the craft.

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Do the work.

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No shortcuts.

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Second, then this one's more interesting.

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I need to build up my improv

skills because here's the truth.

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Preparation is, is a non-negotiable.

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And you need the capacity to rescue

yourself when things go sideways.

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A flat opener shouldn't be able

to take down an entire set.

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I would say maybe it didn't.

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I did recover it a bit toward the end,

but the ability to read a room, to

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pivot, to recover, bring the audience

back with you, that's a separate skill.

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I haven't yet figured out how to

stop my body from the sweating

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once it's that, or how to stop

my face from going beat with red.

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I'll have to work on that one.

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but I am proactively

working on my improv skills.

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this year.

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And again, you would've heard me

talking about that with Clinton.

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And the last episode,

preparation protects you.

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Improv saves you when

preparation wasn't enough.

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You can see those comics that

do like the, audience work,

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the, they talk directly with the

audience and a lot of interaction.

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They're already prepared material.

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They're riffing on stuff that is a level

of improvisation that I would not be

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comfortable with, but with practice,

with experience with them, flexing

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those improv muscles probably could.

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And I would like to, I'd like to at least

try that not looking to become, you know,

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an or, or audience work kind of comedian.

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And I still like to have prepared jokes

and act, but you know, the second half of

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my set was better, I think, by the way.

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I got some laughs and so, you

know, things settled down.

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I found my feet, the redness in the face.

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I could still, it was my face was

burning and my shirt was dripping.

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but I found my feet a bit more and.

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Well, IM modestly, I'm gonna say

I probably ended up still being

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the funniest comic of the night.

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Not so much saying that to rescue

my ego, but because it matters.

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It wasn't a talent problem,

it was a preparation problem.

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So when I got to material that I

remembered more, that I was more

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comfortable and confident with

things started to flow a bit more.

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I was able to bring things back.

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And the audience, yeah, thankfully

went, came with me somewhat.

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my husband, my husband

confirmed that afterwards.

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Honestly, without softening it,

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It is exactly what I needed, even if

part of me wanted my metaphorically

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grazed knee kissed better.

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First, I shook it off faster than

I expected and that's new, so

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I'll take that as its own kind

of progress, as a win as well.

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The letter I keep coming

back to is this wing it.

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For the Masters, improv is for the

people who have practiced the improv.

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The only people who are really good at

improv are the people who practice it.

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winging is for the people who know the

material so deeply that spontaneity is

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just another form of the preparation.

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They have the head space, the mental room

capacity to be able to be more flexible.

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They're not trying to remember

the next joke, the next line,

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the next point in their talk.

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It's not for the rest of us.

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Not yet.

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So do the work.

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Get on the stage, get your reps in,

and if you bomb, extract the lesson

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and go again wherever you are going.

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Whatever you're doing, have

an amazing rest of your week.

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I'll see you next time.

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Bye now.