Talkin’ ’bout your generation: A baby boomer comic (finally)!

When baby boomer comic Richard Stockton was called a ‘fossil’ at a comedy gig recently, he took it upon himself to change the meaning of the word. Richard isn’t just a baby boomer, he’s a comic that talks about being one – a breath of fresh air for the generation.

He says in a piece for Times-Standard that it is his mission to “present my baby boomer generation with impressions of our moments of evolutionary change to remind ourselves how dynamic we are and all the things we went through to get this way… I’ve gone from “born to be wild” to “born to be riled”!”

Richard went on to talk about how he and his generation of baby boomers have gone from Hi-Fi to Wi-Fi, Minnie Mouse to mini skirts to mini vans, from hippy to hip replacement, from free love to free background checks, and from “Hell no, we won’t go,” to “Where the hell did my gingko biloba go?”

He also discussed the place of baby boomer women in society and quoted his life partner Julie Zito Flannery: “Do not underestimate boomer women in society. We have given birth, buried our parents, laid to rest our girlhood dreams, witnessed the heartache and disillusion of our generation. We have taken on the job of rebirthing hope and meaning to the lives of our ageing peers, and inspiring our grandchildren with our undying optimism”.

In his stand-up routine below, Richard comments on reinventing yourself a baby boomer. Isn’t it about time we had more people speaking humorously for and about our generation?