SEAN BROWN: And my coach starts walking down the line of the bench, and he grabs my jersey and said, "Brown, get in."

I looked up and I said, "You sure?"

(audience laughter) AJAY G: This is Boston.

And you put mulch in your garden in December?

Can you even buy the mulch in December?

(audience laughter) ANOUSH FROUNDJIAN: This is the mid-'90s, when my only means of survival as a new middle school kid was to not scare anyone away with my first and last name.

WES HAZARD: Tonight's theme is "Laughing Matters."

♪ ♪ When life throw us in chaos, or even just momentary confusion, it usually isn't very funny at the time.

However, laughter is so often what enables us to look back and make sense of it all.

Tonight, our tellers will talk about moments when small missteps or major blunders force them into memorable moments, where they learn lessons that they weren't expecting, and found connections that they never could have dreamed of.

♪ ♪ BROWN: My name is Sean Brown.

I'm from Long Island, New York.

I come from a small town named Uniondale.

And I'm a corporate trainer by day and a stand-up comedian by night.

So, you... pursue both storytelling and stand-up.

Why?

What draws you to both of them?

With storytelling, you're just telling it how it is.

You're telling exactly how it happened and you're delivering that message in a way where somebody might shed a tear.

Comedy, you don't want people to cry.

You definitely don't want people to cry doing comedy.

But in storytelling, sometimes you're going to make... be... to make somebody cry.

To let out something that was hurting them or holding them back.

And they relate to you in such a way where they shed that tear, and they leave a better person.

I understand that tonight is your very first time telling a story on stage.

How you feeling?

Nervous.

I watch this show myself.

Once I found out about it, I watched as much episodes as I could on YouTube.

The stories were great.

I went through so many emotions watching it on YouTube.

I'm excited-- I'm definitely nervous.

Definitely nervous-- I'm excited.

- (chuckles) - And I want to make people laugh.

I want them to enjoy my story.

I want them to feel my pain and the joy, through it all.

♪ ♪ ♪ Boomp, boom, boom ♪ With the number one pick in the 2009 NBA draft, the New York Knicks select Sean Brown!

(chuckles) (cheers and applause) From the University of... Nassau Community College?

(audience laughter) That did not happen.

(audience laughing) As you can all see, I'm currently 5'6" in height.

And it's the tallest I've been my whole entire life.

(audience laughing) I did not make the NBA.

But you couldn't tell me any different when I was growing up.

I was your typical basketball fan in the '90s.

I want to be just like Mike.

And by Mike, I mean Micheal Jordan, the six-time NBA champion of the Chicago Bulls.

Not Michael B. Jordan... (audience laughs) the actor from the movie Creed and Black Panther.

Who, for some reason, everybody seems to confuse me for.

(audience laughter) My dad bought me my first basketball hoop when I was about nine years old.

And I'll never forget it.

Fisher-Price.

(audience laughter) It had the big black base with the thick blue column with the red rim leading to the black backboard.

Whoo.

What a beauty.

(audience chuckling) This is where my hoop dreams would begin.

Shortly after getting the basketball hoop, my mom and my dad had some serious issues in the their marriage and he was removed from the home, making my mom a single mother of three boys.

I went to my brother one day, I'm like, "Aw, man.

"Could you believe it?

We're growing up in a single mother household."

I'm definitely going to the NBA!"

(audience laughter) Look at LeBron!

Single mother, greatest player of all time.

I was no LeBron.

LeBron got drafted to the NBA when I was in the sixth grade.

And he's still playing today, making millions of dollars.

Meanwhile, I'm in here telling stories to you guys.

(audience laughter) I was what you would call a benchwarmer.

I always made my school's basketball team but I never got in the game.

I sat on the bench for so long people started to think I was an assistant coach in training.

(audience laughter) See, the thing was, my high school basketball team was one of the best on Long Island.

We were expected to win the championship every single year I attended.

All the players were good.

They were tall, athletic, and fast.

I was short, unathletic, and slow.

(audience chuckles) So, the back of the bench I would go, season after season.

But I really wanted to play in the games.

My dream was to be the number one pick in the NBA draft.

So, I did everything possible to get in the game.

I never missed a practice.

I went 100%-- every possession, every single drill.

I even would sneak into my school's gym, at night, on off days, and get some extra practice in.

I would run my sprints.

I would do my drills.

I would practice my free throws.

And I was there so often, the school janitor started to notice.

And one day, as I was in there, working out, he was on the opposite side of the court, mopping the floor, making the court look all pristine and beautiful.

And as I was wrapping up, he approached me.

He walked up to me, he said, "Young man, I see you here almost every single night.

"I see you practicing your free throws, "doing your drills, running your sprints.

"And I'm here to tell you that if you keep this up, "if you keep putting all that extra work and effort "into your craft, you still ain't getting in the game."

(audience laughter) I grabbed my basketball and I went home.

My senior year, my team made the playoffs.

And making the playoffs was a big thing.

We would play at a local college.

And the whole community would show out.

The first game was completely sold out.

And on the night of the game, me and my team gathered on the school bus that was taking us to the arena.

And we got about five minutes away, when one of the star players on the team realized that he forgot his basketball sneakers at home.

He rose up and said, "Coach!

I forgot my sneakers!

We have to go back."

Well, we were already too far.

So, to fix this, my coach said, "You know what?

"Sean, you give him your sneakers "and you take the sneakers from the equipment manager "so he can play in the game and you could sit on the bench and still be in uniform."

But the problem was, I wear size nine and they gave me a size 11 shoe.

(audience chuckles) That is two whole sizes bigger than my feet.

But I wasn't expected to play.

So it didn't make a difference, right?

That game ended up being a huge blowout.

We were up by 25 points.

There was three minutes left on the clock and my coach starts walking down the line of the bench.

And he passes all the players that normally plays in the game.

And then he stops where I'm sitting and he grabs my jersey and said, "Brown, get in."

(audience laughter) I'd never heard those words before.

I looked up and I said, "You sure?"

(audience laughter) He said, "Hurry up before I change my mind."

(audience chuckling) So, I jumped up.

I hurried to the scorer's table, and I remember it like it was yesterday.

The referee said, "Sub, step in."

And I stepped on the court and the crowd went crazy.

But as I'm jogging on the court, something felt completely off.

(audience laughter) I'm jogging on the court... (chuckles) (audience laughter) ...and I look down, and I see that I have these size 11 clown shoes on... (audience laughter) ...my feet.

But it's too late already, I'm here.

Let's play ball.

So, my first possession in the game, I was on defense.

And I was backpedaling, an arm's reach from my man.

And I see the person with the ball make eye contact with the person I'm defending.

So, in my mind, I say, "I think he's going to pass my man the ball."

And I know all their plays.

I've been watching them from the bench the entire game!

(audience laughter) And I was right.

He passed the ball to my man, but I jumped the pass and I intercepted the ball.

(audience reacts) (cheers and applause) I stole the ball!

This was my moment.

This was my moment to score one basket, so all the college scouts in the crowd could see.

(audience laughter) But as I took my last dribble, the ball hits the tip of my size 11 clown shoes... (audience groans) ...and rockets out of bounds.

(audience groans) I could not believe it.

I did not know what to do.

It just looked like I kicked a field goal... (audience laughter) ...after a football team scored a touchdown.

I turned to all my teammates on the bench and all the supporters behind them, and I said, "Touchdown!"

(audience laughter) The field goal is good!

(cheers and applause) (cheers and applause) This was the first time I got a big laugh in front of a sold-out arena, and it felt amazing.

And at that moment I knew that I was no longer going to be the number one pick in the NBA draft.

But that was the day this stand-up comedian was born.

(audience applauds) Thank you.

(cheers and applause) ♪ ♪ FROUNDJIAN: My name is Anoush Froundjian.

I was raised Armenian American.

I, uh, I live in New York City.

And I'm a storyteller and cartoonist.

Why do you feel it's important for you to bring your stories to a stage?

- I think it all comes from seeing me in person, and relating to me.

I want you to feel like you're sitting at my dining room table.

You think, like, "Why am I doing this?"

(laughs) And...

I think it's basic, I'm finding my tribe.

And what better way to do that than in person.

And what kind of stories do you like to share the most?

The ones that are... That even if they are funny and are, like, laugh out loud or will, will make you laugh, uh, kind of just grab you a little bit at the end.

Do you feel that vulnerability is important in storytelling?

- Yeah.

I'm learning also in life that vulnerability is actually what makes you more attractive and more relatable.

And when people let themselves be vulnerable, uh, they're at their loveliest.

♪ ♪ Khrimian Lyceum was not your mother's secondary Armenian school.

Khrimian Lyceum... (emphasizing first syllable): Khrimian.

"Huh, huh, huh" sound.

...Was the recommended secondary Armenian education for all eligible day school graduates where students can come together at St. Vartan's Cathedral in the city, to hear lectures of Armenian culture, history, theology, poetry, learn traditional dance and dining etiquette.

Meeting for one Saturday per month 'cause that was enough.

(audience laughter) My parents didn't force me to go to Khrimian.

They, they knew I was really connected to the culture and they themselves were really involved in the community.

Like, this was the era, when my mom did all that artwork for the diocese.

And when my day had that recurring comic strip in The Armenian Reporter, called Edo and Bedo.

But, um... but they said it was ultimately my decision.

Which is all really nice, but, but at the end of the day, I knew that either way, I was still going to have to be Armenian.

And which is a culture that... with a history that's still so unresolved.

And that nobody really knows about 'cause this was also the mid-'90s.

Before System of a Down was System of a Down.

And before Kim Kardashian was Kim Kardashian product.

When, when, when my sole, my only means of survival as a new middle school kid was to make one whole friend and to not scare anyone away with my first and last name.

And I felt like, at this point, I had already understood misery so well, that an extra Saturday wouldn't make a difference.

So, so I thought, sign me up.

I'll go.

(chuckles) So, so, so how it worked was, on those Saturdays, we'd meet at Holy Martyrs Church in Bayside, New York, and get on a bus.

'Cause that's what Armenians do.

They get on buses.

Like, if there's a screening of an Armenian film that no one knows about, we get on a bus and we see it.

If there's a, a political rally in the city that no one knows about, we'll get on a bus and we'll bring lamb sandwiches.

If we have tickets to see The Cher Show, we will get on a bus and go see it.

(audience laughter) So, we have three buses from three different Armenian churches all going to St. Vartan, in the city.

The mothership, where we all get to the auditorium, and we're greeted by our headmistress, Sylva Der Stepanian, who addressed anyone she ever addressed as if she were Angelica Houston from The Witches.

And whose inspiration for hair, jewelry, and makeup was drawn from actual Cleopatra.

So, so, she stood there... (audience laughter) welcoming us all to Khrimian, and, and read us the Khrimian rule and regulation.

So, so... (audience laughter) and it was like your typical set of, of, of rules, you know.

"No more than one earring in each ear.

"No chewing gum.

"No miniskirt.

No sneaker and no jean."

So, once that was established, we all went to choir practice.

So, there was this one choir practice where something happened that changed me forever.

And there we were, in an empty auditorium, and, uh, standing on a stage and, uh, learning to sing the song "Hingala."

Which, as you know, is the song about an abandoned shepherd, who's sad and alone and... because he's Armenian.

(audience laughter) And... And who has to make himself-- to cheer himself up, by, by trying to remember happier memories.

And when you get to the chorus, you kind of have to put your whole heart into it and sing the song-- the word "hingala" a couple of times.

So, it sounds like... (singing in Armenian) ♪ Hingala, hingala ♪ And then so on and so forth.

So, so, um... so, and... (audience laughter) (applause) But, and, and I never heard the word "hingala" before.

And I spoke Armenian but I never heard it in conversation.

Like, I never heard my dad say it or anything.

And I was hoping that it wasn't just gibberish.

Because there are like ten Armenians left in the world and we're already so misunderstood.

I was like... "Can we afford to be singing things that don't make sense?"

But... (audience laughter) So I, so I raised my hand and I interrupted Maro Partamian.

And Maro Partamian, as you know, is the world-renowned mezzo soprano who, um, has this beautiful, bright Betty Boop face and a deep speaking voice and who told us once that she was "married to an Englishman."

And so, and so I interrupted her and I said, "Um, Maro.

Um, is 'hingala' a word?"

And she goes, "No."

And I said, "Well, does it mean anything?"

And she goes, "It does not mean."

And I said, "Well, why are we singing it?"

'Cause she said, "Because it's in the song."

(audience laughter) And I said, "No, no.

I-- then I don't want to sing it.

And she goes, "Anoush."

And I said, "No, no, no.

I'm heavily Armenian."

"I just started middle school.

"I only pretend to know what lacrosse is.

"I don't have any friends.

"And, and, and I have to walk around "with this big honkin' "'Anoush Froundjian' name all the time, "and I don't have room in my life for anything else that doesn't make sense."

And, and she goes, "Anoush.

"American songs have words in them that don't always make sense."

And I said, "No, they don't."

And she goes, "Yes."

And I said, "So, so... can, can you give me an example?"

(chuckles) And she thinks for a minute and she goes, "It's a hingala.

(mutters) "It is like 'Shoo-bob, shoo-bob.'"

(audience laughter) "Shoo... right, right?

Shoo-bob?

Shoo-bob?"

And, and we all laughed.

No one's every laughed that much or ever at St. Vartan's Cathedral.

And, and, and I was also really moved because, because I love the Ronettes.

And, and, and I had dedicated my life to this cryptic culture and this cryptic language, and it meant so much to me to finally have an Armenian teacher that could speak to me in mine.

And, and, and... ...and, and after all the anxiety and fear of dying alone started to chip away for... (audience laughter) (stammering) Mm-hmm.

For one brief moment, I was finally just a kid singing a song.

Thank you.

(cheers and applause) ♪ ♪ AJAY G: My name is Ajay G. I live in Lexington, Massachusetts.

During the day, I love mentoring start-ups.

And during the night, I am a stand-up comedian.

So, you were born in India.

Can you tell me a bit how Indian culture and humor has affected your style?

- When I was growing up, humorous storytelling was part of... all around me.

And there were some great authors.

There is not much of a stand-up comedy per se, but there was a lot of stand-up storytelling.

So, that definitely has influenced my storytelling and I was really inspired by that style.

Uh, you have performed all over-- Bali, Singapore, Canada.

I'm wondering, have you noticed different ways in which storytelling or stand-up land in each of those cultures?

When I started performing in other cities, I had-- or other countries-- I had certain assumption.

Like, this part of my material or jokes will work.

And they didn't work.

Because I thought that I wrote universally.

And what I found out, interestingly, is how much other countries or people around the counties give attention to what's happening in the American political system.

And so the political jokes I thought that will never work in other countries absolutely work everywhere.

♪ ♪ It was the most beautiful time of the year-- a few days before Christmas-- and I was at the worst place on earth.

The airport.

(audience laughter) The day was 21st December, 2006.

I had to catch an early morning flight at Boston Logan Airport.

And I hate early morning flights.

When I reached airport, I found my flight is three hour delayed.

(audience chuckles) I was still half asleep.

Went to the nearby Dunkin' Donut, gulp a cup of coffee.

And then I joined the security line.

I put my bag on the conveyor belt.

I put my coat on the conveyor belt.

And like a zombie, I just went through the metal detector.

"Stop!"

Three armed police officer, pointing their automatic weapon at me.

(audience react in surprise) And I thought they were about to shoot me.

"Do you speak English?"

"Yes."

"Raise your hands and hold them."

I'm trying to make sense.

And then I saw from the corner of eye, the x-ray screening agent removed something from my coat pocket.

It was a box cutter knife.

It was my box cutter.

But there was something else, they were all pointing to my front shirt pocket.

And that's when it hit me.

Five years after the 9/11, I'm at Boston Logan Airport.

They just found out a box cutter used similarly by terrorist.

And my ethnicity makes me look like a terrorist.

And the officers are thinking there might be a religious book in my pocket and I may be a terrorist.

"What's that book in your pocket?

Remove it slowly."

I slowly remove the book.

It was Dunkin' Donut coupon book.

(audience laughter) But they cannot just only rely on coupons, so they continue to search me multiple times, search my luggage.

Everything was clean.

And as per the protocol, they handed me to Massachusetts State Police for further questioning.

The state trooper started a background check, started asking me a lot of questions.

My name, where I came from, what... how I come to the country.

And I could answer all those questions easily.

But, I was praying to God, "Please don't him ask me one question.

Why that box cutter was in your coat pocket?"

This is a true story.

Just the day before, I was putting mulch in my garden.

I had a bag of mulch, which I opened with a box cutter.

Put the box cutter in my coat pocket and forgot.

A stupid but honest mistake.

And I'm not proud of that.

But that's the true story.

But I couldn't tell him that.

Because then he will ask me... "This is Boston.

"And you put mulch in your garden in December?

(audience laughter) Can you even buy the mulch in December?"

(audience laughter) I couldn't answer that.

Because I'm not exactly proud to tell that part of the story.

(audience chuckling) I got the mulch in June.

(audience laughter) I procrastinated for six months.

And when December came, I thought that the mulch will go away when it starts snowing.

And this mulch was very important to me.

(audience laughter) But I couldn't tell him that because then he would ask me, "Why that mulch was important to you?

How much did it cost?"

(audience chuckling) I'm not exactly proud to go there.

(audience laughter) I got that bag of mulch for free.

(audience laughter) I love free stuff.

And because I did not pay any price, to me, it was priceless.

(audience laughter) But I couldn't tell him that because then he would ask me, "Where did you get that free bag of mulch?"

(audience chuckles) I'm not exactly proud to discuss that.

(audience laughter) I got the free bag of mulch with a verbal fight with a store manager.

I had a coupon which said "mulch 15% off."

And I went to buy the mulch but the cashier refused, because it was expired in the system.

Then I showed him, the actual expiration date is not printed on the coupon.

I said, "Legally, the coupon is still valid."

(audience laughter) And I threatened him with a complaint to Massachusetts Department of Consumer Affairs.

(audience laughter) So, to keep me quiet, they gave me bag of mulch for free.

(audience laughter) But, I couldn't tell him that, because then he would ask me where did I get that coupon which says "mulch 15% off"?

(audience laughter) Oh, I'm not exactly proud to tell that part of the story.

I found the coupon in the parking lot.

(audience laughter) It wasn't mine.

(audience laughter) While all this backstory going on in my mind, I am praying to the god for some miracle.

And suddenly, his walkie-talkie rang, and the state trooper had to go some other part of the airport.

Everything about me was clear.

The TSA has already cleared me, so he let me go.

I'm here today, and I really appreciate the professionalism that's shown by the TSA agent.

I'm really grateful for them for my life.

They have a very difficult job to do.

I still collect coupon.

(audience laughter) Some useless, some priceless.

But I'm really proud to tell you this now.

I'm a completely changed person.

I don't wait all the way till December to do my mulching.

(laughter, cheers and applause) I get it done just like that by Thanksgiving!

(audience laughter, cheers and applause) ♪ ♪