…My dad always says, “Life is mess management.” That seems truer and truer to me every year. It’s not about making sure things always go well, it’s about figuring how to handle the mess when everything inevitably comes apart. A good part of being a comedian is that disasters and chaos are a lot richer comedy material than when everything is going well…
As a part of our series called “Five Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Became A Professional Comedian”, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Chris Duffy. Chris Duffy is a comedian, television writer, and radio/podcast host. He’s the creator/host of the game show Wrong Answers Only, where three comedians try to guess what a leading scientist does all day, in partnership with LabX at the National Academy of Sciences. Chris currently hosts TED’s hit podcast How to Be a Better Human. He has appeared on Good Morning America, ABC News, NPR, and National Geographic Explorer. Chris wrote for both seasons of Wyatt Cenac’s Problem Areas on HBO, executive produced by John Oliver. He has performed live in venues as big as a sold-out Lincoln Center and as small as a walk-in closet (also sold out). Chris is both a former fifth grade teacher and a former fifth grade student. He is currently writing a nonfiction book about humor for Doubleday.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?
It all started when I was just a zygote. I spent most of my time hanging out, enjoying zygote-hood, before I decided to become an embryo and, from there, a fetus. Before I knew it, I was a baby in New York City, being honked at by taxi cabs and entertained by a never-ending parade of pigeons, rats, and European tourists. Each night, I would go to sleep and will myself to grow. Many nights, I succeeded in lengthening my bones. I repeated this process for decades, until I reached the height that I am now: between 5’10” and 6’0″ depending on if I’m lying or not.
Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path as a comedian?
I have always loved making people laugh. But even more than making people laugh, I have loved hanging out with people who make me laugh. That’s been top of my criteria for friends since first grade (in kindergarten, my top concern was “is this person willing to share their snack with me?”). The great part about being a comedian is that you get to meet and spend time with professionally funny people.
When I first started out, I was living in Boston and just going to the local comedy theater as often as I could. Then I started performing more and more and eventually, I realized that people were coming to see me perform. But I kind of had the sense that, while I was entertaining people, I wasn’t really talking about anything that mattered. And I was simultaneously meeting all these incredible, brilliant graduate students and scientists who went to places like Harvard and MIT. They were doing important, fascinating research but no one outside their field ever heard about it. That was where the seed of the idea for a show that combined comedy and research, where the funniest comedians in the country interviewed top scientists about what they do all day and why it matters. More than a decade later, that’s evolved into Wrong Answers Only, the comedy show that I host for LabX, a program of the National Academy of Sciences.
Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
Performing live comedy and writing for TV has led to all sorts of interesting moments. I’ve gotten to write jokes for Ted Danson, Jeff Goldblum, and, strangely enough, the news anchor Dan Rather. One time, I got flown to Madrid to perform standup comedy in a fancy hotel for an audience of Spaniards, who clearly were not expecting my performance to be in English. At the time, I spoke no Spanish and suffice it to say, it did not go well. But that’s certainly one of the more interesting moments of my career. I basically traded 60 minutes of excruciating public humiliation for free airfare to Europe.
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
The thing about being a comedian is that I don’t have “funniest mistakes,” because if it’s funny, that means I did something right! My mistakes are painfully unfunny, as many of my past audience members can tell you. One lesson I have learned though is that if you just keep powering through, trying your best to entertain and not getting mad at the audience or making a big deal about how they’re not enjoying your jokes, sometimes you can recover, and people won’t even remember the bad part. Once I did a show where it was going badly and a drunk guy kept heckling. At a certain point, the club’s bouncer came and told the guy he had to leave. But as they kicked him out, it became clear that he had a broken foot and was using crutches. So rather than getting escorted out quickly and quietly, this man crutched slowly all the way across the room, accompanied by the bouncer, all the while loudly explaining how terrible the show was. It was such an outrageous situation that afterwards many audience members came up to me and told me how brilliant and hilarious I had been to script that out. They thought I’d planted him in the audience!
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
Whenever a young person or someone new to comedy asks me for advice, the biggest thing I tell them is that this job looks like something you do solo because you’re up on stage alone, but the way people succeed is by being part of a scene and by treating other people well. Comedians get jobs by being recommended and vouched for by other comedians, so you have to treat people well! I’ve been so lucky over the course of my career to be helped at every step of the way. There are too many people to name them all, but one example that immediately comes to mind is I got my first TV writing job because the standup Josh Gondelman recommended me to the producers. Now, a decade later, Josh and I still get to work together all the time. He’s a frequent panelist on Wrong Answers Only and an absolute joy.
You have been blessed with great success in a career path that can be challenging. Do you have any words of advice for others who may want to embark on this career path, but seem daunted by the prospect of failure?
You are going to fail! That’s part of it. Failing doesn’t have to be the end of the road. But no comedian has ever had even the tiniest amount of success without experiencing lots of rejection. If all of your jokes work all the time, that means you’re some sort of diabolical warlock or you’re not pushing yourself to try new material and experiment enough. So don’t worry! You’re going to fail. You’re going to bomb. You’re going to be embarrassed. But you’ll just keep going and you’ll learn that those things aren’t as painful or bad as you thought they’d be.
You have such impressive work. What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? Where do you see yourself heading from here?
I’m currently writing a book about how to laugh more and see the humor in everyday life like a comedian does. That will come out in 2026. I’m hosting the live show Wrong Answers Only which is going to be in Los Angeles every other month in 2025 and at several festivals and events around the country. And I’m hoping to get to just keep making people laugh and collaborating with great, funny people.
What do you do to get material to write your jokes? What is that creative process like?
I’m literally writing a whole book about it. You can read it in 2026.
Super. Here is our main question. What are your “Five Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Became A Professional Comedian” and why? Please share a story or example for each.
1. Always ask for the details on where you’re performing — Standup comedy requires almost nothing more than a microphone. So you’d think we’d be covered at every venue imaginable, but I once showed up to perform at a college where they had a stage and a microphone but… no lights. The stage was fully dark while the audience was lit up. I thought they were pranking me but the panicked 19-year-old in charge of running the event informed me that he’d forgotten to hire someone to turn the stage lights on and no one knew how. So I just did told jokes from a dark stage. It did not go well.
2. Tell other comedians when you think they’re funny — Every artist likes to be complimented! That’s why we do this publicly. We’re desperate for approval. Early on, I thought that it would be embarrassing to tell a more established, famous comedian when I liked their performance. But now I know almost everyone is insecure and self-conscious and hearing a compliment is always welcomed. Yes, this is also me fishing for compliments in case you happen to read this and then see me perform.
3. Don’t count on a regular paycheck — A strange thing about comedy is that sometimes you perform for zero dollars and other times you do the exact same material, and the check covers your rent for months. There’s no rhyme or reason! But I have learned the hard way to squirrel away cash from the big paydays to cover the months where the gigs aren’t coming. If you want to make money consistently, there are much easier career paths like banker or guy who makes PowerPoint presentations for CEOs. Comedy is a lot more fun, but you’ll save yourself a lot of anxiety if you save for an emergency fund.
4. Just because the club gives you free drink tickets, it doesn’t mean you have to use them — Relatedly, comedians often perform at bars or clubs where a significant portion (or all) of your pay comes in the form of little pieces of paper that you can redeem for free drinks at the bar. It took me far too long to learn that just because you’re offered a free drink, does not mean that you have to drink a free drink. I no longer drink alcohol at all anymore and I am much happier and better at comedy. I’m still working out what to do with the drink tickets I don’t use though. Maybe I’ll save them all up and then one day create a giant paper-mâché work of modern art. Watch out MoMA!
5. It’s okay if not everyone thinks you’re funny — My biggest flops have come from trying to do work that seems like it will “be successful” rather than things that I enjoy and make me laugh. No matter what you do, it’s not going to be for everyone. Comedy is subjective! Once I performed for an audience where every single person was over the age of 70. A white-haired grandmother in the front row looked me up and down after my first joke and then calmly announced, “Not for me!” It was one of the most savage heckles I’ve ever received because of her certainty and nonchalance. But you know what? My comedy probably wasn’t for her and that’s ok. At least that’s what I keep telling myself in therapy.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
My dad always says, “Life is mess management.” That seems truer and truer to me every year. It’s not about making sure things always go well, it’s about figuring how to handle the mess when everything inevitably comes apart. A good part of being a comedian is that disasters and chaos are a lot richer comedy material than when everything is going well. No one wants to hear about your perfect life and happy marriage, but everyone wants to hear about the time you accidentally pooped your pants while hiking up a volcano.
You are a person of huge influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
I would certainly dispute the idea that I am “a person of huge influence.” More like a “person of medium to light influence on a good day”, but I think if I could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, it would be to go back in time and invent the moral philosophy of utilitarianism. Take that, Jeremy Bentham!
Is there a person in the world whom you would love to have lunch with, and why? Maybe we can tag them and see what happens!
If I could have lunch with anyone it would be Annie of Annie’s Organic Shells and White Cheddar Macaroni and Cheese. She is a culinary icon and, while I believe that she may, in fact, be a rabbit and not a human, that does not change my answer.
Are you on social media? How can our readers follow you online?
You can follow me @chrisiduffy on both Instagram and TikTok.
This was so informative, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!
Chris Duffy: Five Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Became A Professional Comedian was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.