So, I have a confession…I had never been to a standup comedy show before last week. Ok…not much of a confession (I’m trying clickbait now! Cool, right guys?). I digress. Anyhow, I’ve always been a bit more of a theater kid than an improv or standup kinda guy. In fact, Yetta and I have made it an annual tradition since the year we got engaged to go to a Broadway show each year. (Covid was tough! Destroyed our unbroken record) And don’t even get me started on asking my opinion on the best Broadway shows. Let’s just say I have a lot of opinions. BUT…I had never been to a comedy show…that is, like I said, until last Friday. And boy, it was a good first.
Yetta and I went to Nate Bargatze’s show at Capital One Arena in DC and sat in the middle of a stadium filled with 16,000 people. The energy was palpable. And considering how much I love Nate’s comedy, it’s safe to say I was a bit giddy.
(Above: Nate surrounded by 16,000 people. Imagine the pressure of talking and making that many people laugh.)
What struck me most was how effortless he made it feel. No gimmicks. He just tells simple stories in a deadpan way. Stories about family, travel, everyday life. And somehow the entire arena was locked in. In tears one second. Dead quiet the next. He pulls you into the ordinary and reminds you how absurd and funny it all actually is.
But the thing that stuck with me longer than anything was how he ended the night. He pulled out his phone and opened a family text thread. Then he started telling a story about how one day while caddying for Jimmy Fallon (long story), he got drawn into this absurd family conversation with his sister who had just been arrested in Mexico for getting into a fight on the beach. It was the sort of “real life story” that rang totally true: Nate is at a mountain peak moment, and meanwhile elsewhere in his personal life: total chaos. And somehow, that’s the point. The whole set builds to this quiet realization: success doesn’t simplify life. It complicates it. The higher you go, the stranger it gets.
Then, last week, I was reading a new favorite book, The Eyes and the Impossible by Dave Eggers (a story told from the perspective of a dog who guards a wild, beautiful park). It’s simple on the surface, but the language is anything but. Eggers has this way of writing that feels both playful and profound at the same time. Every sentence is precise, but never heavy. And his pacing is unbelievably gripping.
And this line caught my attention: “If we expect life to be complicated, and life is complicated, then life is simple, right?” (Remember, a dog gave this nugget of wisdom. Yeah, read the book. It’s great).
Anyhow, perhaps we make too much of life’s complications. Perhaps the chaos isn’t something to escape, but something to recognize for what it is: a sign that we’re alive, in the middle of something real and something special. That life, in its chaos, is beautiful.
I think there’s a kind of freedom in that. To laugh at it. To step outside. To notice the world God made and realize that you don’t need to have it all figured out. You’re just called to enjoy it, enjoy Him, and walk faithfully.
Everything is fine.
Not perfect. Not tidy. Not safe. But good.
Here’s to Human Flourishing.
-Ian
P.S. If you want to give The Eyes and the Impossible a read (which I highly recommend), you can buy it on Amazon here!
(Above: A picture of Yetta and me after the Nate Bargatze show. I had a bunch of poison ivy. Maybe that’s why I look crosseyed. haha)