Code blue: Laughter! Nurse Blake injects a double dose of humor at Harrah’s
STATELINE, Nev. – Scrubs-wearing, stethoscope-wielding viral comedy sensation Nurse Blake Lynch will administer a double dose of humor at Harrah’s Lake Tahoe on Saturday, October 26. After his 7:30 p.m. show sold out, Blake added a 4 p.m. performance where he’ll dispense a prescription of punchlines that’ll have the audience in stitches. This time, that’s a good thing!
“My comedy isn’t so much joke punchline to punchline or why did the chicken cross the road,” Nurse Blake told the Tahoe Daily Tribune. “It’s storytelling. When I start my show, I tell the audience I’m going to be real. I’m going to be raw. It’s going to be like inserting a Foley catheter with no lube. So, there are jokes that patients will get and jokes that nurses get.”
Since 2023, the laughter epidemic has been in full swing as Nurse Blake prescribes a potent booster shot of humor in his already wildly successful international Shock Advised Comedy Tour. With freshly updated jokes and an expansion of 45 dates, he will tickle funny bones in 170 cities by year’s end.
“This is all real, true stories of my life,” said Nurse Blake. “It’s a Shock Advised Tour, so what’s special about it is you’re going to see a different side of me that I wouldn’t really put out online … it’s probably the most shocking moments from my life growing up as a gay kid in Orlando, Florida, being a nurse at the hospital that is now on the road doing comedy.”
In his almost two-hour routine, Nurse Blake uses audience interaction and improv.
“I never ever thought I would be a comedian,” Nurse Blake said. “It was never a part of the plan or path. I went to nursing school to care for patients, not to learn how to put together a joke.”
Public speaking
Nurse Blake’s career took an unexpected turn when he began sharing his personal stories and championing nurses’ causes at healthcare conferences and medical centers.
“They would be like Blake, you can’t curse, you can’t say this or that,” said Nurse Blake. “And I’m like, I’m a nurse. We are some of the funniest, most inappropriate people out there because we’ve seen it all and touched it all. I’m like, I’m going to say what I want.”
Nurses thank him for saying the things they can’t.
“That some hospitals suck,” Nurse Blake responded with a list. “They only care about the profit more than they care about the patient. That they understaff us to where it affects patient outcomes and success rates of patients.”
He said there’s a lot of mental health strain on the nurses and the providers.
Hospitals say they care, “but yet they don’t really take care of their staff. They only take care of their patients in a way that just makes them money, even though they’re a nonprofit.”
Peter Pan job
While Nurse Blake was doing his pre-requirements for nursing school, he worked as Peter Pan at the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Fla.
“It just taught me a lot about energy, and connecting with people when you only have a short amount of time,” Nurse Blake said
Nurse Blake said he suffers from anxiety.
“I hate speaking in front of small groups,” Nurse Blake said. “If I’m in a group and you have to say your name and one thing, your favorite color, I freak out. But if you get me in front of 2,000 nurses, I’m just able to connect with them and relate with them where it feels like we’re family.”
Pre-show routine
“I’m always one joke away from a panic attack,” said Nurse Blake. “That’s kind of how I say it. I’m so thankful … for my mental health medications for keeping me on track.”
Before he performs, Nurse Blake goes to nearby restaurants and surprises nurses.
“It’s an easy icebreaker for me,” Nurse Blake said. “It makes me feel comfortable with the audience that’s coming into the show.”
That’s part of his routine.
“When I go into a restaurant and it’s all nurses, it gets so loud and rowdy and so much fun,” Nurse Blake said. “Those nurses are definitely going to be tearing that casino up. It’ll be a wild crowd.”
Alcohol-free
Nurse Blake said he used to have his favorite drink after his shows, Jack and Coke.
“I am celebrating almost four months of sobriety,” Nurse Blake said. “So, no liquor for me anymore.”
Nurse Blake said he’s not an alcoholic. Not drinking anymore is a life choice.
Nurse Blake admitted himself to the Beachway Therapy Center in West Palm Beach, Fla., in June. He thought it was a wellness retreat. It ended up being an in-depth trauma therapy program.
“I got to highlight a lot of the issues I joke about on stage,” Nurse Blake said. “Instead of joking about them from a place of trauma, I joke about them as a place of just like, it’s a part of me. It’s my life.”
What’s next?
Nurse Blake will announce his next tour in the spring and embark on it in the Fall of 2025.
“All new show that I’ve been writing for the past year,” Nurse Blake said. “All new content, all new material.”
Warning
“If you have an emergency the night of my show, no nurses are going to be at the hospital,” Nurse Blake said. “You might as well have the ambulance drop you off at the casino and all the nurses will take care of you there. It’s the safest place to be.”
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