He was never just telling jokes; he was translating a language most of us were too afraid to speak. When his voice shook, we recognized our own. When he spiraled onstage, we watched him alchemize dread into something survivable, something we could clap for without admitting we were clapping for ourselves. The stage lights made his ruin look rehearsed, but anyone really watching could see it was a live wire, humming at the edge of collapse.
Now the empty mic stand feels like a memorial and a dare. His absence lives in the messages we type and delete, in the invitations we decline with a lie, in the “I’m good” we answer by reflex. What he left us isn’t closure; it’s an assignment. To interrupt the silence before it hardens. To turn toward each other before the breaking point. To say, clearly and without a punchline, “I’m not okay,” and stay.
