How we organized an IT standup at a corporate event
How many developers does it take to make a room laugh? Five were enough to convince us that nothing brings a team together better than corporate humor.
How did the idea come about?
According to Rabota.ru, every third Russian company spies on its employees on social networks. If this includes friendship and mutual subscriptions between colleagues, then our experience was positive: it was on social networks that managers and HRs spotted potential stand-up comedians from the team.
F5 copywriter Dinara Zinnatova published excerpts from her stand-up performances on her personal page, while others made sparkling jokes in stories and posts. This is how the understanding came: the company has people with a sense of humor and a person who can edit jokes.
Irina Savelyeva, HR manager Factory5:
“The idea came during a team brainstorm. We really wanted to make this corporate event not just another fun event, but an event specifically about us, reflecting the internal life of the company. So we came up with the idea of doing a stand-up with our guys who can joke about work cases, stories from the team routine. So that it would be understandable only to us, and, accordingly, funny to us too. Something that will create some kind of unity, will strengthen the feeling of the team.”
How comedians were attracted
The stand-up performances at the corporate event were supposed to be a surprise for everyone, so potential comedians were approached selectively – proposals were sent to Telegram private messages. This is where you could see the myth of IT specialists being introverted being debunked! The idea turned out to be so fresh, ambitious and exciting that almost everyone immediately agreed. After all, you can't do it in IT without the ability to challenge yourself.
It wasn't hard to choose: in a team, you always notice people who joke and know how to add humor to any situation. It was to such team members that we approached them in a personal message with a proposal to write a stand-up monologue for a performance at a corporate event. Putting together a team turned out to be much easier compared to the subsequent work – preparing the performances themselves and organizing “readings”.
Calls and dispersals
As soon as the team was complete, a chat of participants was created and the first call was scheduled. The team consisted of people from different cities, so it was decided to meet once a week for joke warm-ups on Zoom. This is the case when you can’t do without a camera on: to appreciate a joke, it is important to see and hear not only the text, but also the acting.
In addition to comedians, the HR team was present at the calls: jokes are jokes, but no one has cancelled the eco-friendly atmosphere in the team. It was important for everyone to “live through” possible pains and difficulties in the life and work of the team through humor, without offending anyone.
Irina Savelyeva, HR manager Factory5:
“We started preparing about a month and a half in advance. We gathered every week with prepared materials and simply read to each other, threw in some jokes in the process, remembered funny moments that could be played out somehow. From meeting to meeting, all this was polished, overgrown with new material.
We met every week, and here we must give credit to the guys: everyone approached the task responsibly. Even if they missed a meeting, they always sent us their monologues in writing so that they could be read and commented on. Everyone was extremely interested and involved: no one needed any additional motivation or persuasion. The fact that the team had a person with experience in stand-up also played a big role: copywriter Dinara helped edit the texts not only from the point of view of grammar, but also from the point of view of humor, and also gave advice on oral delivery. I think that for the guys this served as a kind of support – the realization that the team has an expert whose experience can be relied on, and this is not just some kind of our conditional amateur performance.
The main difficulty at the very beginning was to determine the range of topics that the guys would joke about and distribute them so that there would be no overlaps, so that different areas would be covered. The next difficulty was to sketch out the main skeleton. When we had dealt with all of this, we began to string new jokes and memories onto this base – and that's how we collected material for everyone.”
From theory to practice
Between calls, copywriter and practicing comedian Dinara Zinnatova would throw a theoretical base into the chat. This is what one of her first messages in the comedians' chat looked like:
“Look, in stand-up, the key emphasis is usually always on the hero – no matter what topic he takes, it should be about him first and foremost. In stand-up, the audience is primarily interested in the personality. If he only talks about work, it won't be very lively – it will look more like a speech at a conference.
Experienced comedians (for example, residents of the Kazan stand-up club who participated in open mics on TNT, with whom I had the chance to communicate) recommend that beginners learn from the very first episodes of Stand-up on TNT. It can be noted that these comedians began their journey with jokes about themselves: they revealed facts from their biography, debunked stereotypes, and included self-irony.
I suggest that we build our performances on this too: start with jokes about yourself, and then, when the audience has already understood who you are, joke about the company/work through the prism of your experience.”
Before the first call, Dinara sent the future comedians this homework assignment:
“I. Watch the very first episodes of stand-up on TNT
II. After viewing, each person writes the following list of facts about themselves:
1. Who and how long have you been working at Factory5?
2. What are some fun facts about your biography/career?
3. What feature of yours do your friends/relatives joke about most often?
4. How do you feel you are different from other employees at Factory5?
5. What surprised you on your first day at F5?
6. What funny stories happen to you at work?
7. What is your biggest work-related pain point?
8. What funny facts about your colleagues can you share?
What were they joking about?
Initially, the guys came with funny stories and observations about work processes. Since the team of comedians gathered both techies and humanities students, during the readings they helped make each other's humor more understandable, diluting technical jokes with stories from life. For example, this joke was born in a monologue of one of the developers:
“Everyone has friends who are like, 'Oh, by the way, I was offered a promotion x2.' What is x2? I only know “XXX” with Vin Diesel, which was on video. Although why was it on video, I still watch videotapes – normal films in Russia are only on them. And anyway, instead of Netflix in my life, I now have Bitrix.”
They joked not only about life and work, but also about the company's corporate values. This is how one of the jokes that passed the HR “censorship” sounded:
“One of the principles of our company is: everyone can ask everyone a question. So, I have a question for everyone – I'm so tired, guys, how can I survive until the end of the year?”
Project manager Ruslan Sabrekov also touched on this topic:
“When working in a team, it's important to be empathetic, to help others and sympathize with each other – especially those who are new to Bitrix. But I usually grumble like an old devs.”
Copywriter Dinara Zinnatova added national identity to her humor:
“Girls, if you are looking for an IT specialist husband, do not get involved with Tatar IT specialists. Because you will not be able to simply live at their expense. Most likely, he will tell you: “Why do you earn so little, let me at least teach you testing.”
Ruslan Sabrekov, Project Manager:
“I decided to participate in a corporate stand-up because I had accumulated a lot of unprocessed worries. You discuss them with someone one-on-one, but it is not enough to “let go”. Humor is often a defensive reaction to events. I think that in IT and in the army you can't do without humor.
It's much easier to perform in front of a group than in front of strangers. You already have a lot of common context, and you don't have to prepare people for the joke for long – they immediately understand the references and hints.
For me, the best jokes come from analogies. For example, you tell someone a story from work and either you notice something funny, or your interlocutor enriches yours with their analogy – you write it down in your notes. Or vice versa: someone is talking about work, and an absurd comparison comes to mind – here, too, it is important to write it down right away, otherwise you will forget. Then you need to decide what you want to talk about, because jokes are a tool, but without a story and a message, they are a collection of jokes. I needed to speak out, so the story was simply about what was happening around me. The hardest part was cleaning up the wording so as not to offend anyone.
The most vivid emotions were received during the preparation process, when you tell the material in a small circle. It is at this moment that you understand that it is really funny. And the performance itself turned out to be more exciting. I have very little experience, so I was not able to relax on stage.
I continue to engage in humor every day. I have accumulated enough new stories, it only remains to decide when and how to tell them now.”
Full house
Everything turned out as we expected: the stand-up comedy at the corporate party was a big pleasant surprise for the team. The audience was extremely warm: each comedian was greeted and seen off with thunderous applause, each joke was followed by a bright reaction from the audience.
Irina Savelyeva, HR manager Factory5:
“I think it was a super cool experience. We were really nervous, worried about how it would go, how the audience would perceive it. And everything went great. Even for me, who listened to all the monologues several times, it was still funny that day. The preparation, brainstorming, creative efforts, and resources spent were worth it to ultimately produce such cool content. Even after some time, the guys remember this stand-up, quote jokes. I think this is an indicator of success.
The feasibility of such unusual formats always depends on people. If there are creative guys in the team, in the collective, who are focused not only on work, but are also ready to do something like this in their free time, then great: they will be your support. If people are not open to activities outside of work, it is useless to persuade them – it is better to concentrate on some classic versions of a corporate party. This will make it easier for the organizers themselves, and the guys will be able to relax in a format that is comfortable for them.”
