Denial is another joke I’ve told on stage that I’m pretty fond of. Granted, I changed it up a little bit so that it works better for dialogue so that it’s not just one character standing and talking to himself. It’s a joke that gets mixed reactions but I really enjoy it. I’m a sucker for meta jokes or subversion or simply flipping things around.

An example of something similar which never really landed was my impression of a person who “actually” suffered from Homophobia. The joke was that this person was legitimately afraid — terrified — of homosexuality, like some might be afraid of spiders or clowns or heights. Most of the homophobia we see these days consists of people just being dicks about homosexuals. My character was straight up scared of gay culture. So I’d roll up into a little ball on stage and scream and shake. I thought it was hilarious, but nobody else really did.