By Julia Train
On Tuesday, March 4, Rory Gardiner, a Canadian comedian, TEDx speaker and country artist, visited Atlantic Cape Community College’s Mays Landing campus to talk to students about getting comfortable in the uncomfortable.
Currently, Gardiner is on his “Stop, Drop & LOL” tour speaking about how he’s used comedy to face adversity and Atlantic Cape was a stop.
Gardiner held a comedic and interactive presentation, filled with songs he wrote, stories and inspirational tidbits.
He talked about his wife and kids, along with the road that led him to where he is today, tying his life’s events into three main lessons: embrace uncertainty, take action and turn setbacks into opportunities.
Turn setbacks into opportunities
Before being a comedian, TEDx speaker or musician, Gardiner was a software engineer and it was during that time that he started creating music, leading to pursuing the art for 15 years.
He wrote music for television, opened for Keith Urban and was nominated for a Canadian Country Music Association (CCMA) award, but the success didn’t come until after multiple radio stations rejected his music.
Instead of giving up, he kept trying and eventually was rewarded for his work.
During his time as a country musician, Gardiner came up with hacks to hold himself accountable and get work done.
“There were times when I’d have to create a song, but I didn’t have anything. I had writer’s block. I didn’t have everything ready. So I would book a session with the studio for [the] next week,” he said. “I didn’t want to waste the engineer’s time. I didn’t want to waste anyone’s time. So I had to come up with something. So by putting the appointment on the calendar, I forced myself to focus and create a song for that next session.”
That trick helped him jump into becoming a comedian.
Take action
For six years, he attended comedy shows and wanted to be on the stage too, but he was scared.
He eventually decided to take action and signed up for a comedy competition to hold himself accountable.
“I had to show up because I was registered for that particular day. So I finally got on stage,” said Gardiner. “I did the competition. I did not win, but I’ve done comedy every week for the last decade after that. Once I realized it wasn’t as scary as I thought it was, I continued to do it.”
Embracing uncertainty
In 2018, Gardiner lost his house in a tornado. The next day, he created an “Extreme Makeover: Tornado Edition” parody video to find humor in the negative situation and spread a resilient attitude to the community.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Gardiner started posting on TikTok to cope, hoping to have the same impact he did after the tornado, but on a broader scale. His videos led him to the opportunity to host a TEDx Talk in Colorado Springs; his account now has millions of views and has amassed 150,000 followers.
Before the talk, Gardiner was entertaining audiences through comedic sets, but that was different, he said.
“So TED was the first time I had to create, I had to talk in public and create value for people [and] that scared the hell out of me,” said Gardiner. “I’m used to entertaining people, but then I actually had to create a message—an idea—worth spreading. So I did that, and I saw how it impacted people.”
After multiple career pivots and creating several hacks for himself, Gardiner performs comedy sets that also help his audiences at the same time by tying his life events into important lessons.
“I’m trying to do my best to still entertain people, but create a nugget message along with it…teaching [the audience] something without them knowing it is my M.O.,” he said.
