Meet Chris Diorio

 

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Chris Diorio a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Chris , so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?

I believe I found my purpose through volunteering and a desire to help others, which was largely instilled in me by my parents. My father is a firefighter, and my mother is a nurse and an absolute angel. I started doing standup comedy because of my involvement with a charity, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Even though I always knew I had a talent and passion for making others laugh, I didn’t try doing standup comedy until I was asked to participate in a standup comedy contest that raises money for the CF Foundation. I agreed to give it a shot, I ended up not only winning the contest but falling in love with standup comedy, and the rest is history!

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

Since that fateful day when I stepped on stage for the first time, standup comedy has been a tremendous passion of mine that is now transitioning into a career. To me there is nothing more exciting and rewarding than walking on stage in front of an audience and making them laugh. Standup comedy is so much more than just being funny. It is an art form where you try to get the audience to see the absurdities and the humor that is everywhere in the world through your eyes. It is a process, and sometimes you will fail many, many times before you get that “aha” moment when you’ve crafted the perfect bit to captivate the audience and get them on board with what you are seeing, and why that is funny. Once that happens and you have the audience on your side, in the palm of your hand, laughing along with you as you share your art with them, it is hard to find a feeling in the world as good as that! I am currently about 5 years into my journey as a standup comedian and I feel I am finally starting to figure it out, and as such depending on when you read this I will have either just recorded or just about to record my first 30 minute comedy album! Once that is complete, I am looking forward to performing across the U.S. and beyond over the next couple of years!

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

So many different things go into crafting a good standup comedy routine. The number one thing you need is persistence. Standup comedy is a journey of peaks and valleys, you’ll have some great nights and some not so great nights on your way to nailing down your routine, but despite that you have to be persistent in performing, writing, and most importantly listening, to both the audience and your peers. The second quality you’ll need to possess, in my opinion, is passion. Believe it or not but in every room where standup comedy is being performed exists a palpable energy, and the audience can feel almost immediately whether or not you believe in yourself and what you are saying, and if you don’t have passion for what you’re doing and are treating your performance like a job, or a box that you need to check, you’re toast. The final thing, and it almost goes without saying, but you have to be funny. Sounds like a no-brainer, but being funny is more than just you thinking you’re funny. You have to have the ability to make others laugh. You don’t necessarily have to be the “class clown” when you’re offstage, but you have to think funny, write funny, and most of all perform funny. Its a talent some are born with, like athletic ability or musical talent, and unfortunately it’s not for everyone.

Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?

Without a doubt, my wife, Kelly. Standup comedy is a very challenging world to be in. As I mentioned earlier, you’ll go through long periods of self-doubt when your jokes aren’t working, you aren’t getting booked, and you’re seeing others have success that makes you envious. With my wife, it’s like working with a safety net. I know that no matter what, she’s going to be there supporting me when I get home so that helps me shed the anxiety of “What if this doesn’t work”, because if it doesn’t, worst case scenario, I still have her there.

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Image Credits

Headshot credit: Tim Howe

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