FAQ: Hiring a Standup Comedian for a Corporate Gig in Poland (or anywhere)

Why should I hire a standup comedian for a corporate gig?

A live standup show is the exact opposite of a Zoom meeting. Most corporate integrations involve aspirational fun, forced team-building exercises, or (please god no) overlong PowerPoint presentations that are meant to hype up and unify the team. Nothing’s inherently wrong with any of that, but even when these types of activities go well, there’s an undeniably low ceiling on how much fun people are having (unless you have an unlimited vodka budget).

Laughter has a powerful unifying effect on groups of people - can you remember the last time you were laughing uncontrollably with a group of close friends? Imagine if you could have that experience with your entire team. At is best, standup replicates this infectious togetherness in a controlled environment, and leaves everyone feeling like they’re part of a greater whole.

But also, good standup is fun and it’s fun to have fun. It doesn’t have to be more complicated than that.

What if there are people at my company who don’t like standup or don’t like the show?

Attending the standup performance should not be mandatory. Not everyone likes standup, just like how not everyone likes jazz, horror movies, or mimes. Imagine if you catered a corporate event with hamburgers, and you forced your vegetarian coworkers to eat the hamburgers. That’d be weird. That’d be a weird thing to do. But that doesn’t mean you can’t serve hamburgers at your event for people who like them.

Some people don’t actually know whether they like live standup (or a particular comedian), just like they might not know whether they like Ethiopian food. It might even be a good idea to let people know that it’s acceptable to leave the room during the show if the show is not to their liking. Standup (especially standup in English in Poland) is becoming quite popular, and you won’t have any problems with attendance if you make the show optional. People will come.

Even at its worst, standup is still a memorable experience that galvanizes the audience. When you hire a standup comedian to provide the entertainment for your corporate event, you are offloading a huge amount of the fun-generation-pressure to an experienced performer who exists outside the company. If there are people at the show who don’t like the performance, it will still generate discussion and conversation in your team. And more importantly, their dissatisfaction will be directed at the comedian, who they never have to see or talk to again, rather than your CEO Michał who decided it would be a good idea to spend 2 months planning and executing a 3-hour recreation of The Dundies awards ceremony from The Office (that actually does sound pretty fun, but my point is that it’s risky).

Why should I hire a standup comedian that performs in ENGLISH if my company is in Poland?

Whether your staff is entirely Polish or a mix of Polish nationals and foreigners, a standup show in English is a pretty safe bet. Chances are, there are plenty of team members at your company whose native language is English or at the very least have some difficulty with Polish. Like it or not, English has become the default global language for international communication and typically includes more people than it excludes.

Even if your default work language is Polish and your entire company is made up of Polish nationals, most Polish native-speakers appreciate the opportunity to attend English-language events (of which there are not very many in Poland). I’ve even had an English teacher bring their entire class of beginner-level English as a Foreign Language students to one of my shows as a way of learning English. That show was probably more useful for them than it was fun for me, but I survived.

Will the standup show be “clean”?

Only if you want it to be. A “clean” standup show typically means no naughty curse words, no dirty material, and no sensitive or overly politicized topics. I am perfectly capable of putting on a 40-60 minute “clean” standup show, but I don’t prefer it. Personally, most of my material isn’t that controversial or dirty, and none of it is intentionally inflammatory (except one bit about how Polish pierogis are actually just Chinese dumplings). However, you should know that a lot of my material does acknowledge that human sexuality exists and that it is often pretty funny.

Whether the show should be clean depends entirely on the context and your team. If it’s a 2PM mandatory-attendance show at the headquarters of a non-profit company that manufactures crucifixes - then yes, whatever comedian you hire should probably put on a clean show. But if the show is at 8PM at an offsite venue and your company builds websites, then I can guarantee that almost nobody on your team actually wants a fully clean show.

If you’re not sure what your team wants, you can do an informal Slack poll like this one:

• We are hiring a standup comedian for our next integration. Please choose you preferred option:

  • A) I want the show to be fully clean (no bad words, no mention of sexuality, no controversial topics).

  • B) The show doesn’t have to be fully clean, but I don’t want it to be especially dirty, shocking, or offensive.

  • C) I want the show to be as shocking, offensive, and controversial as possible.

  • D) It doesn’t matter to me. Whatever the comedian does is fine.

You can probably expect a few people to choose A, whether it’s because they actually want that or because they want to be seen as wanting that. If you make it a blind survey, you will definitely have fewer people choosing A.

Most people will choose B or D. That’s the kind of show I would put on by default. Some people might choose C. Those people are pretty brave and a little bit scary to me. If everyone chooses C, you should probably hire a different comedian because at my core I am a fairly gentle person and I just like to make people chuckle.

To sum up, if you’re pretty sure that your company is staffed by adults who can handle the playful use of language and ideas to generate an involuntary laughter response, don’t worry about the potential negative repercussions of hiring a standup comedian. Nothing bad will happen unless you’ve gone out of your way to hire an especially edgy or controversial comic (and probably not even then). It’s typically more fun if there aren’t restrictions on what the comedian can and can’t say, so anything-goes shows are usually better than clean shows. But if you do want the show to be clean, or you are still worried about potential hypothetical repercussions, then it is perfectly acceptable to ask for a clean show.

Will you make fun of my boss?

Maybe. But I’ll try to do it in a way that they feel in on the joke. I promise they won’t fire you because you hired me. And if they did somehow do that, then they are a horrible corporate monster and you will be much happier in your next job.

If there’s anyone at the company who is especially sensitive (or the whole company is kind of sensitive), just tell me ahead of time and I’ll either avoid doing crowd work with them or be extremely gentle with the interactions. If you tell me to make fun of a specific coworker, I will probably not do that, because I don’t know that person, and it’s weird to make fun of a person I don’t know based on information that I received second-hand from you. I am more likely to make fun of you for asking me to make fun of someone else.

We previously hired a standup comedian for one of our events and it was really bad. People hated it. Why should we hire you?

I don’t know who that person was who you hired, but I am probably not that person. Just because it didn’t go well last time doesn’t mean it won’t go well next time (especially with a different comedian). That said, every standup comedian bombs at least sometimes. It’s part of the craft. Standup can be very environment-dependent and corporate standup gigs have a negative reputation among comedians for being “hell gigs” because the audiences are often captive and worried about laughing at the “wrong things.” The majority of the corporate gigs I’ve done have gone well, but they are indeed more challenging than typical ticketed shows.

Look, I can’t gaurantee I won’t bomb at your corporate event. It’s an occupational hazard. But you probably remember that terrible standup comedian who bombed at your last event more vividly than you remember the jazz quartet that played during cocktail hour. So in a way it was worth it for the experience, right? …….right?! Please say yes! Please book me!

Ok. We’ll book you. What should we do to make sure the standup show goes well?

To increase the chances of the standup performance going well, keep these things in mind:

• Have a microphone and mic stand: Few things are more awkward than doing standup without a microphone. The microphone is a non-negotiable requirement. If you won’t have a microphone connected to a speaker at your event, do not hire a standup comedian unless you just want them to show up and eat free food and drink free alcohol and talk to people without formally performing (which is fine, please hire me to do that).

• Make the show optional: Make it clear that anyone who does not want to attend the standup performance does not have to, and it is even ok to leave during it. Side note: Check directly with the comedian on this. I prefer if people are allowed to leave, but other comedians might prefer a captive audience.

• Do the show at night: Standup is funnier at night. I don’t know why.

• Provide alcohol: Standup is funnier when the audience has access to alcohol. For this one, I do know why.

• Keep it short: 20 minutes is ideal for corporate gigs. 20-30 mins is also ok. 40-60 minutes is possible, but it is very hard to maintain the crowd’s attention for this long if they didn’t themselves choose for the comedian to be there. They’ll almost always enjoy a 20 minute show more than a 60 minute show. Not every second of your event has to be planned and programmed. Give your team that extra 40 minutes to drink and mingle and take selfies with the comedian and talk about what just happened.

Do you want to book Jordan Thomas Gray for a corporate standup gig or a private party? See standard rates below. Rates are negotiable based on the client, so please reach out for a quote. You can fill out the form below or email at jordan@jordangray.co.

Private Standup Packages in Warsaw:

3.5K PLN net: 15-25 minute show (single set, max 2 hours at the venue)

6K PLN net: 40-60 minute show (set can be split into 2 parts, max 4 hours at the venue)

8K PLN net: “MC for a Day” Unlimited all-night appearance. Jordan will host your entire event from start to finish, including a 40-60 minute standup show. If possible, Jordan will meet ahead of time to discuss event logistics. (max 8 hours at the venue)

Private Standup Packages in Other Cities within Poland:

Within Poland but outside Warsaw, the client pays travel expenses of 1-2K PLN net in addition to performance fees. These fees are included in the prices below.

5K PLN net: 15-25 minute show (single set, max 1.5 hours at the venue)

7K PLN net: 40-60 minute show (set can be split into 2-3 parts, max 4 hours at the venue)

10K PLN net: “MC for a Day” Unlimited all-night appearance. Jordan will host your entire event from start to finish, including 40-60 minute standup show. If possible, Jordan will arrive a day early to meet about event logistics. (max 8 hours at the venue)

Private Standup Packages Abroad (Outside Poland):

Jordan will travel almost anywhere in the world to perform standup comedy. Reach out for a custom quote if you’d like Jordan to do a private standup show in your city.