Stand-Up Preaching: Homiletical Insights from Contemporary Comedians

by Jacob D. Myers, Frank A. Thomas (Foreword)

Few vocations share more in common with preaching than stand-up comedy. Each profession demands attention to the speaker's bodily and facial gestures, tone and inflection, timing, and thoughtful engagement with contemporary contexts. Furthermore, both preaching and stand-up arise out of creative tension with homiletic or comedic traditions, respectively. Every time the preacher steps into the pulpit or the comedian steps onto the stage, they must measure their words and gestures against their audience's expectations and assumptions. They participate in a kind of dance that is at once choreographed and open to improvisation. It is these and similar commonalities between preaching and stand-up comedy that this book engages.

Stand-Up Preaching does not aim to help preachers tell better jokes. The focus of this book is far more expansive. Given the recent popularity of comedy specials, preachers have greater access to a broad array of emerging comics who showcase fresh comedic styles and variations on comedic traditions. Coupled with the perennial Def Comedy Jams on HBO, preachers also have ready access to the work of classic comics who have exhibited great storytelling and stage presence. This book will offer readers tools to discern what is homiletically significant in historical and contemporary stand-up routines, equipping them with fresh ways to riff off of their respective preaching traditions, and nuanced ways to engage issues of contemporary sociopolitical importance.

391 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 24, 2022

Reviews

[Andrew Whaley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this as part of a pastor cohort with preachers from the Cooperative Baptist, ELCA, UMC, Disciples of Christ, and PCUSA traditions. We agreed that we felt like we were reading a doctoral dissertation (perhaps this was Dr. Myers's dissertation). Quotes and footnotes that felt like that were for an audience of homiletics professors and university faculty and not the preaching practitioner. It made the book more cumbersome than it perhaps needed to be.

The overlaps and comparisons between preachers and stand up comics were interesting but not particularly revelatory. Mostly Myers shows how theory and practice of stand up is similar to preaching. He does less to instruct preachers in how they might look at comedians as guides or helpers in crafting sermons and confronting challenging issues.

I found the larger points of overlap more engaging than the particular examples of how stand up comedians do their craft. It is also difficult to put in writing what is an oral practice.

It would probably be more effective for Dr. Myers to take a group of preachers to a comedy club and then reflect together on the experience than trying to do it in this dense work.

[Lauren Patrus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great balance of theory and practical examples from excellent comics. This books created space for me to reflect on several aspects of preaching and challenged me to try new things and seek inspiration from a place (the world of stand-up) I hadn’t previously considered.