Mental Health in Stand-up with Andrzej Sosnowski

The Comedy Hole: English Standup in Europe

On this especially strange, meandering episode of The Comedy Hole Podcast, Andrzej Sosnowski (@comedyandy) joins Ariel Bialski (@arielbialski) and Jordan Thomas Gray (@jordanthomasgray) to have a wide-ranging conversation about the delicate issue of mental health in standup comedy. We are not mental health professionals - we are comedians - so please ignore this entire episode if you are looking for advice on mental health.

Nothing feels better to a comic than a fantastic set, and nothing feels worse than an epic bomb. When writing new material, comedians typically have to endure a lot of bombing to work out even a small amount of reliable, polished material. This push and pull cycle of on-stage success and failure has a way of exacerbating underlying (or overt) mental health conditions, and it's unfortunately a common occurrence for comedians to have a psychological break, especially in the open mic circuit. The gang makes several attempts to talk about this problem, but mostly they get distracted and talk about other stuff.

The Comedy Hole (@thecomedyhole) is run by Beatrice Rossano (@beatricerossano), Jordan Thomas Gray (@jordanthomasgray), and Ariel Bialski (@arielbialski) - three standup comedians and comedy show hosts based in Warsaw, Poland. The Comedy Hole hosts standup open mics on Tuesdays and Wednesdays in Warsaw, and we also produce standup shows in English all over Europe.

In addition to standup, Ariel Bialski (@arielbialski) DJs every week in Warsaw. Follow his instagram to find out about the next show.Jordan is touring all over Poland and Europe forever. Upcoming shows include Warsaw, Ghent, Amsterdam, Krakow, Gdańsk, Lublin, Odense, Copenhagen, Aarhus, Dublin, Białystok, Łódź, Toruń, Zielona Góra, Szczecin, and Wrocław. Get tickets here: https://linktr.ee/jordanthomasgray