How Pro Wrestling Can Improve Your Stand Up Comedy

If there's one thing I love, for both entertainment and nostalgic reasons, it's 1980's and 1990's professional wrestling. I'd like to think somewhere in a multiverse I was a professional wrestling booker and heel (bad guy)  throwing sand in the eyes of a baby face (good guy) and being escorted by security to my car just in case some rednecks try to slash my tires before I can get out of Dodge.
From 1988 to 2001, I watched WWF and WCW wrestling religiously. I was more of a WWF fan, idolizing Rowdy Roddy Piper, Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, and The Bushwhackers. But after reading pro wrestling magazines, I realized Ric Flair and Dusty Rhodes were the real draws when you went into the South (Texas, North Carolina, etc.). There's a real "Americana" to the industry then. Pro Wrestling is the McDonalds of entertainment. It was the most popular form of junk food athletic displays. But it was more than that. Classic architypes of good v. evil played at the heart of it all. Grown men trying to redeem the damage done by evil men.

And as I rewatch old matches and interviews 30 and 40 years ago, I'm seeing the influence it had on me in my personality traits and stand up comedy. I've come to realize that my comedy pursuits are really just my best attempt to live the life of a professional wrestler - a life I never could have had, but still provides me with the same reward and template for the overwhelming joy of performing.

The Similarities Between Comedy and Professional Wrestling 
The life of a comic and a professional wrestler are eerily similar. A life on the road, traveling from city to city performing 10, 20, 30, and 60 minutes at a time.

• Both have a booker deciding the lineups.
• Both are 1099 Independent Contractor jobs.
• Both require a lot of reps to master the techniques required to perform night after night.
• Both have a finishing move aka closing bit.
• Both require a lot of individual promoting.         
• Both are male dominated with only recently bringing women into the fold.
• Both have reaginal and international stars. 
• Both have a lot of drugs and alcohol attached to the daily routine.
• Both have a Vice series called "The Dark Side Of..."
• Both have no retirement plan, letting aging stars still perform as needed to keep them employed. 
• Both have "real life" and "gimmick" characters. 
• Both require a response or "pop" from the crowd to navigate a match or set. 
• Both bring a smile to a person's face when done correctly.

But what truly connects them is a platform for grown men and women to showcase a joy of performance. Whether you are a brand new open micer or a seasoned vet, the joy of performance has to be visible on stage for the audience to connect. Too often comics are stuck in the persona or too rigid in the wording, in an attempt to get it perfect, only to miss connecting with the audience. A great comic and a great wrestler both listen to the crowd and play to them the best they can. 

Both Wrestling and Comedy Require Finding Your Voice  
Whenever I watch pro wrestling promos (interviews or 30 second speeches before the match), I can see the great performers had a distinct voice. Whether it was Hulk Hogan's emphasis on 1980's American values, Ric Flair's playboy, Dusty Rhodes and his "everyman" American Dream persona, Jake "The Snake" Roberts nihilism, or Bobby "The Brain" Heenan's over the top common sense stupidity, each wrestler or manager had a clear point of view. You see this with Jim Gaffigan's lazy dad, Ray Romano's tired husband, Kevin Hart's endless energy, Chris Rock's preacher persona, or Taylor Tomlinson's snarky sarcasm.  

Now, comedy has a more hyper realism approach attached to the performer, but you can't watch sketches with Trevor Wallace or a podcast with Theo Von and not see a sort of professional wrestling wink in their eye when they play up their personalities. Their point of view is clear, and the comedy attracts people who share those ethos and values. You might not like Joe Rogan or Bert Kreischer, but their fans see themselves in them or desire to be like them. 

There's a strong reason Andy Kaufman was drawn to pro wrestling, battling Memphis's greatest son Jerry Lawler in the ring and on Letterman. Kaufman saw that wrestling let's a person "pretend," but through a platform that lets them be antagonistic, in a way comedy does. You can't tell me Bill Burr and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin aren't doing the same "stick it to the man" routine. 

There's also a strong accent of vulnerability in both arts. Telling jokes and running out to the center of a stadium in a speedo both require a lot of bravery. Just like a comic needs every joke to land, a wrestler needs every move to look believable. I've been watching old Wrestlemanias  and Vice's The Dark Side of the Ring episodes, and after watching the interviews and numerous times a wrestler had to lose in front of thousands requires a vulnerability maybe only a comedian can understand. Yes, wrestling is a "rigged" show; it's not the same as the NBA season, but the abuse on the body is just as real as any pro athlete. Comics deal more with the emotional abuse, but both lead to long nights on the road or in hotels rethinking the performance from that night's show. 

Final Thoughts 
Some of you might disregard these observations because wrestling is "rigged." But it's not fake. People get hurt. And the emotional stakes are real. It's a traveling circus. A magic show making you believe that men aren't mortal, that Hulkamania can overcome anything, and that someone can survive a chair smashed over their head. But stand up comedy is a magic show too. A series of jokes that make you think something that happened 10 years ago actually happened last week. Comedy makes you laugh at things a workplace would call bullying. Comedy is a traveling circus show as well. The truth is, wrestlers took cues from comics and pastors to develop their larger than life characters, and if we look back at them we can learn how to emotionally connect to audiences the way they did. Calling wrestling fake is like when your family member says "put that in your little skit."

Ask yourself this question: Have you ever made 93,000 people cheer? Well, those great performer athletes did. And they did it with a smile and wink. When I was in high school as a wrestler I would pretend to be Rowdy Roddy Piper as a way to draw strength and charisma. And the beauty of pro wrestling then was even if they lost the battle, they still found a way to win the war. So after a tough loss, I would carry that attitude onward, if only to protect my fragile ego. Just like Piper would. 

​Whether it was Ric Flair's "Woooooo!" or Rowdy Piper's "Just when they think they got the answers, I change the questions" or Bobby "The Brain" Heenan hitting below the belt in a promo, these men are shining examples of committing to the bit and demonstrating the joy of performance. The late great wrestler Gorilla Monsoon once said the purpose of pro wrestling was to have fun and make a lot of money. And if we're honest, didn't we get into comedy for the same reason? So why not learn from the masters of that craft to perfect ours?