John Cena: It’s So Odd How Stand-Up Comedy Runs So Parallel To Pro Wrestling
John Cena compares stand-up comedy to professional wrestling.
At first glance, the two professions don’t seem to have much in common. But in a new interview with Trevor Noah on the What Now podcast, Cena went into depth about the parallels that they share.
“It’s so odd how stand-up runs so parallel to pro wrestling. There’s so many parallels. First of all, even at the highest level — most of the time, there are very rare cases — you pay your own way, you book your own travel, you organize your own life. You are responsible for your own gear. The act is yours, even though you’re a part of this giant body. You’re out there, usually with one other person, in front of thousands of folks who are hecklers and enthusiastic and know that they’re part of the show. You plan a routine in the back, but you also have to be ready to tell that first joke to crickets. When the crickets happen, you got to be like, ‘Change it up right now, do this’ or if you have a whole elaborate thing planned and you go out and look at each other and people are going nuts, scratch them plan, do this. So, you have to be quick, you have to pivot. You have to know your audience, you have to know timing. Pro wrestling/sports entertainment is timing. It’s not what you do, you have to do things at the right spot. The guys who have been in the ring either me, I’m the loudest talker. If you’re in the first six rows, you hear the match before the match. I have never been athletically skilled as the greatest talent in the ring, but I’m always present and I’m always sensitive to the energy of the audience. I think that was something that allowed me to have such a long career. It’s not what I did, it’s doing it at the right time. Funny can come out of nowhere, funny can come from timing. You could hear somebody say something and be like, I got something for that. You know when to land a joke and you know also being out there, you know when the audience is leaning forward with interest or maybe you know that, oh, that didn’t work in real time. We’re all gypsies, it’s all road shows. You start small, you start working these POS places that are like underground clubs. In wrestling, it’s like flea markets.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Cena recalled eating a burger that Hornswoggle puked on. Check out his full comments by clicking here.
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