There are a lot of misconceptions about Christian comedy. “All Christians who are comedians suck” is the most obvious one. Usually I’ll hear about this from people who come up to me after a show to say “Man, I thought that was going to be terrible but I had so much fun!” Thank you?
But there’s one misconception I really want to help erase from pastors’ minds.
"My church isn’t big enough to host a comedy show."
I totally understand where this thought comes from. You don’t want to invest all this time, energy, and money into a big event and end up with a tiny audience. Laughter is contagious and you’ve got to have a crowd in order for a comedy show to be successful. If you don’t think you can pack out your auditorium and have as many people as you’ve seen in the crowd on Netflix comedy specials, why even bother?
But here is the truth: it is not the size of the crowd that matters. It is the size of room you put them in.
You can have an incredible show with a ton of energy and excitement with an audience of only 40 people. You just have to put them in the right room.
Put 40 people in a room that fits 500 and it’s going to be awkward. It’ll feel empty. Everyone feels disconnected from each other. The laughs won’t be as loud and the energy feels low.
But if you put those same 40 people in a room that BARELY fits 40 people and it’s a totally different show. Everyone is close together. You feel packed in. There’s excitement because the crowd looks big in that room. The laughs are louder because they’re contagious.
The size of the room is really important.
When I did my tour of house shows I’d perform for 30 people and it felt AMAZING because we were packed into a living room.
If you want to plan a comedy show at your church, figure out how many people you think you’ll have attend, and choose the room you’ll have the event in based on that.
If you only have access to the main sanctuary, use pipe and drape to curtain off back sections to make it feel like a smaller room.
I promise it’ll make a difference.
Want to book a comedy show at your church? Contact Taylor Johnson, a very funny comedian and all around nice guy.