Stand-Up Comedy in Tbilisi
INTERVIEW
Stand-Up Tbilisi (S.U.T.) is a group of people interested in growing the art of stand-up comedy in this city, comprised of diverse performers that want to get better at stand-up comedy and make people laugh. The team is currently around 10 regular performers and several others who occasionally get on stage. Georgia’s first English language stand-up comedy event series was founded by Rezi Arsenidze, Jora, Pasqualino Masa, and Nate Eubanks. GEORGIA TODAY sat down with Nate to talk about his involvement and the city’s growing comedy scene.
How did you get started?
My brother and I have always loved comedy. Possibly because my dad was so funny, and my mom had such a great laugh. I encouraged my brother to perform, and I wrote some jokes for him. He started performing more improv comedy, so I also gave it a shot. I love it. I think I will always write jokes and try to make people laugh. I moved around the world for work, so I started performing wherever I went. I have been fortunate enough to perform in over a dozen countries on excellent shows and made friends with comedians around the world.
I moved to Georgia to be close to my wife’s family. My wife is Georgian. We met when we were both living in Kuwait. I know it’s little cliché. Move to Kuwait, fall in love, end up in Georgia. You probably get that all the time. I love Georgia. I love how close people can be to family, friends, and neighbors.
When you started, what was the comedy scene like in Tbilisi – what made you think English stand-up would work here?
The comedy scene here was not much. Many people told me comedy here was a TV show. There were some chances early on to perform for internet TV which was excellent, but I have since learned it is no longer running. Stand-up comedy is in a global boom. People want to laugh. There has never been a better time for stand-up. We were fortunate enough to find each other and make it happen, but if we did not, it would have happened here eventually.
English comedy works here because English for the most part is a global language. English is a very common second language and the first language for many expats in the city. We do not only want to promote English. We want Georgian stand-up events as well. In fact, S.U.T. will be holding Georgian stand-up events again soon.
You’ve performed all over the world. Do you have to tailor your jokes to audiences in different countries, what about Georgia in particular? What is people’s sense of humor like here?
Always. I edit my material for the country in which I perform. Performing internationally, the focus has to be on what is universally funny. It is beautiful when people from different countries and cultures laugh together.
Laughing sounds the same in every language. People from different genders, cultures, religions, ethnicities, sexualities and nationalities can laugh together. We all have unfulfilled desires, sadness, and inept or unsympathetic leaders. We also have love, joy, and some degree of hope things will be better. When we laugh, we are fundamentally the same.
It took some time to write specifically for Georgia. I was incredibly surprised to find a joke that was my best joke, my closer, when performing regularly in Sydney, Australia and the USA, gets absolutely no laughs here. I had to write about my experiences in Georgia and the differences between our cultures, and the different ways my wife and I experience the world.
Georgians are funny. From time spent with my in-laws in Kutaisi, most Georgians can tell a story that makes those around them laugh and what great laughs! Georgians are a durable people and have experienced incredibly difficult hardships in their history. They find joy in each other and relationships.
How has the development process been for Stand-Up Tbilisi?
We want to make something good and something that lasts. For us, that means expanding when it makes sense. Our home is Creator Bar and recently, we have had up to 10 comedians performing and a nearly completely full room. It is starting to look reasonable to expand to other nights. Once people found what we were trying to build, people with the desire to perform or see local comedy grow and thrive have found us. We are grateful for every guest or performer with the desire to get on stage.
What are your biggest challenges?
Our challenges are to make a quality event, grow as performers, attract an interested audience, and bring them back again. Since Tbilisi has a small metropolitan area, we have to write new material more often which is challenging. In comedy, the biggest challenge, of course, and the whole reason we exist, is to make people laugh.
What is your long-term vision for Tbilisi stand up?
My long-term vision for Stand-up Tbilisi is huge. In the near future, we hope to bring regional English-speaking headlining comedians to Tbilisi. But my vision is bigger than that.
With regular performances, our local comedians will improve to where they perform internationally in shows and festivals.
Looking at Comedy Estonia, in less than ten years they built a multilingual comedy scene throughout their region, and they host internationally famous comedians. It will take time, but we can build that here. The scale may be different as Tbilisi has economic and geographic challenges Estonia does not, but the model for a successful post-soviet comedy scene is out there.
The English comedy scene in Turkey, Russia, the Middle East and GCCs are also growing, and they are only a short flight away. Comedy around the world is growing. We will grow too. I have such high hopes for what we are trying to build here.
What is the best part about doing stand-up – and what is the worst?
The best feeling in the world is making a room full of strangers laugh. The worst feeling is bombing. Every performance is the chance for either of those outcomes. A friend of mine recently performed for the stand-up for the first time. He claimed stand-up was scarier than when he was in a war zone. He may have been exaggerating, but there is some truth to it.
Writing jokes takes listening to your own thoughts, and communicating your ideas to strangers and hope they think it’s funny. If they hate it, in a way, they hate you because it is your thoughts they hate. The euphoria of the magical connection where shared thoughts make a laugh spontaneously appear from nothing, is often worth those harrowing, excruciatingly painful bombs.
Do you think you’re a natural comedian or does it take some effort?
Both. I have always loved laughing and making others laugh, but it takes a great deal of effort.
I believe anyone can be a comedian. Some disagree, but I think it’s true. It takes listening to thoughts, writing them, communicating to strangers, edit, revise and repeat. If one can do that, they can be a comedian. It is not a personality type. It is a desire combined with effort, but one cannot be a good comedian if they are not aware of the need to revise.
What kind of people perform stand up?
People who see the world differently. There are as many ways of seeing the world as there are people in the world. There is room for many perspectives in comedy.
How can someone get involved in performing?
The thoughts or stories you find yourself repeating, write them down. Have an idea what you want to say. Then, either contact us on Facebook, IG, or twitter and we will put you on the lineup Thursday evening. We welcome new performers. We are especially looking for more female comedians. Performing is frightening, but our audience is kind. They want you to succeed.
A common mistake is drinking before performing. Do not get drunk before performing. It is not better. It is worse. Only you think it is better. Do not do it.
For those not quite ready to get up on stage, come watch, says Nate, “Watching a new comedian develop, and get more and more laughs is a beautiful thing to see…you are witnessing the infancy of future great comedians and the birth of a comedy scene in Tbilisi. Come laugh with us!”
Learn more about Nate at http://nateeubanks.com/ (including a sneak peak at his comedy routine!) and catch the next Stand Up Tbilisi show by following facebook.com/standuptbilisi and @Standuptbilisi.
By Samantha Guthrie