Work Is a Joke
Work Is a Joke is a live comedy experience about the absurdity of work. It's part stand-up show, part social experiment, and part excuse to laugh to keep from crying about our jobs.
So why has work gotten so damn weird?
Somewhere between endless email notifications, pointless meetings, heartless layoffs, and pretending we're all fine, we've forgotten something pretty important:
We're more than our jobs.
The most fascinating people rarely fit inside one box.
They’re never just their title.
Neither are you.
They are:
Sales people who play in a band.
Soccer coaches who are artists.
Engineers who are yoga instructors.
Teachers who start side businesses.
People with passions, hobbies, dreams and identities that extend far beyond whatever logo happens to be on their W2 paycheck.
And yet, most of us need to have traditional jobs to pay the bills.
That’s exactly why we’ve created Work Is a Joke.
This event is an interactive comedy experience for people who still care about doing meaningful work, building interesting things, and meeting dope people, but are completely over the current state of work and all the performative BS that comes with it.
This is less of a traditional comedy show and more of a social experiment.
Some folks will sign up to do a one-minute stand-up set. Others will never touch the mic. Both are totally fine.
This isn't about being funny. It's about showing up, laughing together, and remembering that we're all a little nutty.
What to Expect:
One-minute workplace stand-up sets from brave volunteers. Think roasts on culture, HR or corporate jargon.
There are 6x stand-up performer tickets available. First come, first serve. Please note, these will be recorded.
These attendees will have an opportunity to arrive 30 minutes prior to test their material and refine their delivery before the main event (invites for the pre-event sent separately).
A Shark Tank-style improv game where confidence matters more than preparation.
Workplace confessions.
And time before and after the experience to grab a beverage from the bar, chat it up, and have the kinds of conversations that don't start with, "So... what do you do?"
A full bar will be available throughout the evening with drinks available for purchase.
**We’ll be recording select moments of the evening including the one-minute stand-up sets and improv game—for future social media and promotional content.
The Flow of the Eventing:
6:00–6:30 PM - Doors open. Grab a drink and settle in. No awkward networking required.
6:30–7:30 PM - The interactive comedy experience begins. Participation is encouraged. Never required.
7:30–8:00 PM - Stick around to keep the conversations going, meet someone new, and enjoy the rest of the evening.
This probably isn't your thing if you're looking for polished stand-up from professional comedians, hoping to collect sales leads, or wanting to publicly bad-mouth your company or coworkers.
But if you've ever thought…
"There has to be more to life than hustling for this job"
… you’ll fit right in.
Come laugh about the group chat we call corporate America with people who get it before you head home to doomscroll.
Hosted by Jessie Jakes
Like many of you, Jessie refuses to fit neatly into one LinkedIn headline despite her nauseating 'thought leadership' content.
As one of CMX's Best B2B Community Professionals in the world, she's spent the last five years building the largest global HR community while secretly wondering why more workplace conversations couldn't involve a little more laughter.
Turns out, they can.
Work Is a Joke combines her background in community building, meeting facilitation, event experience design and a lifelong love of comedy into a new kind of gathering built around one simple belief: laughter builds better connections than networking.