A Real Stand Up Guy
By Terence Patrick Hughes
About the Work
In A Real Stand Up Guy, Hughes steps backstage into the dim, awkward, truth-revealing world of small-club comedy. The “green room” at LMAO — a space only technically a room — is where comics lick their wounds, inflate their egos, swap lies, and try to remember why they chose a life of standing under hot lights hoping strangers will laugh.
The story follows a comic coming off a bad set, sitting beside weary headliner Tony Starch, and captures the mix of bravado, insecurity, and desperation that hangs in the fluorescent dark. Hughes is at his sharpest here: the dialogue cuts, the observations sting, and the whole piece hums with that familiar tension between the persona onstage and the person alone in the shadows afterward.
It’s funny, sad, and painfully human — a story about timing, failure, and the fragile armor comedians wear.
Publication History
Published in: Egg + Frog
Year: 2023
Excerpt
THE GREEN ROOM AT LMAO IS NOT REALLY A ROOM AT ALL. It’s a 10 x 20 foot space sectioned off from backstage by musty drapery that often overlaps, making entry or escape a difficult endeavor. Yet, in either witty taste or cheapskate irony, the curtains are all green. At one end of this quasi-room is an old table upon which stand a half dozen plastic bottles of water, a box of snack-sized chips and a camping lamp. At the other, more shadowy side are six metal folding chairs, two of them presently occupied by the comic who had just come off stage after a bad set and the night’s headliner, Tony Starch.
Critical Notes
A darkly funny backstage study of ego, insecurity, and the quiet spaces where performers face themselves.
— Egg + Frog Reader Response
Related Works
If you enjoyed A Real Stand Up Guy, you may also like:
So You Want to Be a Rock and Roll Star (performer arc + humanity behind the stage)
Standing on the Edge of Some Crazy Cliff (human behavior under pressure)
Inquiries
For reprint or rights: admin@terencepatrickhughes.com
Image Credit
Image generated using AI, art-directed to reflect the atmosphere of A Real Stand Up Guy.