Revenge of the Earnest

In a first for Mockingbird, we are thrilled to release the debut of a stand-up comedy special! “Revenge of the Earnest” is written and co-produced by Kevin Makins (pastor of Eucharist Church in Hamilton, Ontario, author of Why Would Anyone Go to Church?, and creator of two previously released hour-long specials).

This project marks Makins’ venture into the realm of stand-up comedy, and Mockingbird wanted to ask him a few questions about his hilarious (and genuinely moving) new special:

M: I want to start by asking how this project came about. How did you go from regularly preparing sermons to thinking about a comedy special?

KM: Sometimes you’ve got something you want to say, and it just wouldn’t be appropriate in the pulpit. Sermons are about God, about good news, and about daily bread for hungry souls. I love preaching. But I also love comedy and recognize there are certain freedoms afforded in the club that you can’t find in the church. Once I realized “Revenge of the Earnest” would be in the medium of stand-up, the whole project clicked.

M: Beyond the obvious similarities (a captive audience and a speaker whose self-worth is dependent on it going well), what other overlaps do you see between preaching and stand-up?

KM:I think of stand-up and preaching as long-lost cousins. Both have a structure of tension and release (whether it’s set up/punchline or law/gospel), both require the speaker to remain attentive to the particulars of the room, and (while this may seem odd at first) both comedy and preaching are always witnessing to spiritual realities, whether consciously or unconsciously (in the Seculosity sense, everyone is religious). I’d like to see the two mediums interact more. Comedians shouldn’t be afraid to dig a little deeper, and pastors could take themselves less seriously.

M: The comedy special is entitled “Revenge of the Earnest,” which I think encapsulates so many of the themes you explore — but also is put forward as an antidote to what ails us today. Why do you think irony and cynicism are so corrosive?

KM: I should clarify that I really like irony, done well and in its proper place, but decades of cynical storytelling and marketing have contributed to an “irony poisoning” that I see toxifying our relational and public discourse. It’s become ubiquitous. The water we swim in. Our ironic detachment buffers and distances us from one another in very subtle ways, making genuine, spiritual connection and friendship difficult, if not impossible. A shot of sincerity can be a real antidote to cynicism.

M: Your bit about remembering each other’s names is hilarious and spot on. Can you elaborate more on why names are so important?

KM: Calling someone by their name is so close to the core of personhood, as primal as Adam in the garden, but it’s become very difficult to do in our information-saturated age. Our minds are just full. Running into people whose names have slipped my mind is a daily worry. That’s why I wanted to joke about it, both to normalize the experience and also to make a practical suggestion for moving forward.

M: Your suggestion of “name mulligans” (saying “mulligan” if you get someone’s name wrong) seems like a fairly benign way of asking for grace in everyday life. Is this something you actually do? Does it actually work?

KM: These days I’ll drop a casual “mulligan” before I apologize for forgetting someone’s name. Some people catch the mini-golf reference and chuckle, but most don’t even notice. Which is fine by me! The dream of “name mulligans” isn’t to save face in one interaction, but to participate in a linguistic contagion which creates a window of grace for anyone, anywhere, forgetting anyone else’s name. Perhaps we’d be less stressed out by names if we knew there was space for us to get it wrong. A little word game, be it “mulligans” or something else, seems as good a way forward as anything.

M: Amid all the laughs (and occasional expletives) you move from being embarrassed by your weirdness to embracing it in the finale. It’s sort of a magic trick in that way. How do you think someone can move from fear of their awkwardness to confidence and fearlessness?

KM: For a lot of my life, I looked to others to find my security or confidence: If the people around me thought I was cool, then I was cool. This proved a poor long-term strategy. Once I separated my sense of worth from other’s projections, I was free to honour deeper convictions, those that emerge naturally from the Divine within seeking the Divine without. Results are overrated. If you’re confident in your attempt, you can live without fear. As my daughter reminds me in the special: “As long as you think it’s cool, it’s cool.”

M: One final one for you. The interpretive dance you had throughout was great and adds an unexpected layer to what you’re saying. But why did you choose to do that, rather than a more traditional multi-camera standup format?

KM: What would you rather watch for thirty minutes: Me, a near middle-aged man, pacing back and forth in a dingy comedy club, or a beautiful dancer, moving balletically through the streets of a wild city? Pretty obvious to me.

I’m surprised Birbiglia hasn’t done it yet.

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So without further ado, here is “Revenge of the Earnest”!