Comic Fisch stands up to vagaries of life
Jon Fisch gets paid for talking about getting his back waxed, his ex-girlfriends, and the hazards of meeting someone online.
As a stand-up comedian in New York, no subject is taboo. And the more personal he gets, the more audiences seem to empathize with the 34-year-old single guy.
In Manhattan, Fisch is a regular at venues such as The Comedy Cellar, the Gotham Comedy Club, and Comic Strip Live, where Jerry Seinfeld, Adam Sandler, and Chris Rock got their start. Fisch also appeared on Season 4 of NBC's "Last Comic Standing." He'll return to Massachusetts tonight to perform in a benefit show for the Pan-Mass. Challenge at the Dedham Community Theatre .
Jim Colliton from Comedy Central hosts the show, and the acts include Robbie Printz, winner of the Boston Comedy Festival in 2002; Kelly MacFarland from NBC's "Biggest Loser"; Shane Mauss, an HBO Comedy Festival award winner and guest on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien"; and Anne Maneikis, a Norwood resident who performs at the Comedy Studio in Cambridge.
On his CD "Notice Anything Different," Fisch, who grew up in Newton, talks about the initial passion he used to have with new girlfriends, wondering if their connection would last forever. Now inured, he says he's more realistic and, "I wonder how this . . . is going to end?"
Breakups are so abrupt, Fisch says. You spend all this time with someone and then nothing. It should be like a job and you can give two weeks' notice.
"This isn't working out; consider this my two weeks!" Fisch muses. "I'll tie up some loose ends, collect my [stuff], and I'll train the new guy."
Fisch recalls the first time he spent the night with a particular girlfriend; the next morning she told him that he was a good cuddler.
"That's like telling a chef: You're really great at washing the dishes," says Fisch to his audience.
Growing up, Fisch says he often had good one-liners, but wasn't really the life of the party. But things began to change once he got to college. His first stand-up audience was the Delta Psi fraternity at the University of Vermont, where Fisch was the president. "I did a weekly current events update and used that time as my forum to be funny," recalls Fisch, who majored in psychology.
After graduation, Fisch waited tables and checked IDs at John Harvard's Brew House in Cambridge. He soon landed a job as a mental health counselor at Westwood Lodge Hospital in Westwood, working with children between ages 3 to 12.
Fisch found that his quick wit came in handy during the more difficult times with the children. "That was always a good time for me to use my humor to do something fun and distracting," he says.
In 1996, Fisch moved over to Children's Hospital, where he spent four years leading youth groups and helping patients with eating disorders.
During that time, he took a stand-up comedy class through Brookline Continuing Education taught by Rick Jenkins, founder of the Comedy Studio in Cambridge. The final exam was to perform a five-minute stand-up routine in front of a live audience.
Fisch says that for most of the people in the class, the five minutes on stage was enough. But he wanted more and searched for other outlets. He took an acting class, and another in improvisation, where he connected with Maneikis and Mike Dieffenbach, now a television writer in Los Angeles.
The three friends would spend time writing together at The Parish Cafe in Boston, bouncing jokes off one another before taking them on stage. Weekends and evenings they'd go to open mike nights throughout New England.
During the next four years, Fisch spent his nights on the road and days working at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, doing research for nutritional medicines and managing the computer database for gastric bypass surgery.
One night at The Comic Strip in New York, Fisch was watching Mike Birbiglia , a Shrewsbury native, host the show when one of the acts was late. Birbliglia persuaded the manager to put Fisch on stage. He's been a regular act for the past six years.
Fisch says he's very happy to have finally made it in the stand-up comedy business, but someday he would like to branch out into television writing. When he's not performing in New York, he can be seen in clubs elsewhere across the United States, which is fine with him, except for actually getting there: "When I travel I put a tag on my luggage, which makes me nervous if it gets stolen. That's like I'm saying, 'Here's some of my clothes and my valuables -- if you enjoy them, here's my address; that's where the rest of my stuff is.' And I'll be in Florida for a couple of weeks, but you know that, because you have my day planner."
For more on Jon Fisch and to purchase tickets for tonight's Pan-Mass. Challenge Benefit Show, log onto www.jonfisch.com. Susan Chaityn Lebovits can be reached at Lebovits@globe.com. 
