Stand-Up Preaching - by Jacob D Myers

Book Synopsis

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.

Review Quotes

"At this point, it is cliché to say that humor ought to be taken seriously. What Myers does is show what those committed to the serious work of social critique can do with humor when they understand its potential to open up new ways of seeing the world and people. He reinvigorates the relationship between comedy and religion for those who want to critique the holy in the name of the sacred."
--Steven A. Benko, Meredith College

"One the most powerful tools in preaching has historically been ignored. Yet, it is an art form that can alter perspectives, bond communities, and transform the very way people receive information. What is that tool? Stand-up comedy. Thank goodness for Jacob Myers and his book Stand-Up Preaching, which ushers comedy into the academy by celebrating its full exegetical and homiletical power."
--Susan Sparks, author of Preaching Punchlines: The Ten Commandments of Comedy

"Jacob Myers is one of our most creative and profound commentators on preaching today, and this book does not disappoint. He provides a close reading of several major stand-up comedians--some of them edgy and controversial, all of them wickedly funny --and then manages to draw insights from each of them to sharpen the ways preachers can be faithful to the edgy and often controversial gospel. A smart and thought-provoking book!"
--Thomas G. Long, Candler School of Theology, emeritus

About the Author

Jacob D. Myers is the Wade P. Huie, Jr. Associate Professor of Homiletics at Columbia Theological Seminary. He is the author of Making Love with Scripture: Why the Bible Doesn't Mean How You Think It Means, Curating Church: Strategies for Innovative Worship, and Preaching Must Die! Troubling Homiletical Theology. He is an ordained minister in the PC(USA).