Blake Lynch may not currently be practicing in the medical field, but that doesn’t mean he can’t make his way around the country with a different kind of medicine.
Building off of the digital platform that has brought him “viral” status since he began making videos a few years ago, Lynch — a.k.a Nurse Blake — is excited to bring his bubbly and sassy personality back to a live crowd with his new PTO Comedy Tour, which hits Medford’s Chevalier Theatre on Friday (September 17).
Born out of a need to connect with other nurses to process the mostly unseen frustrations of the profession, Lynch has cultivated a consistently growing audience since launching his first video, “The Scrub Romper,” in 2017. With that in mind, the Florida native has brought his nurse-centered creativity on the road in a myriad of ways, from hosting “Nurse nights” at MLB games (including a record-setting night at Fenway Park) and speaking engagements, in hopes to further connect and laugh with those in the nursing community. With his comedy shows, he’s found yet another Avenue to do so. This time around, though, given the circumstances of the pandemic, it means even more to him to be able to return to the area and give fellow nurses a chance to kick their feet up for a bit and enjoy a night out.
“I think this tour is very unique and very needed in the nursing community,” Lynch tells Vanyland. “We’re all dealing with a pandemic, and nurses have been dealing with it for over a year now, and nurses just want a day off to rest, relax and laugh with their coworkers, which is why I call it the PTO tour. For people not in the industry, you accrue PTO and use it, no big deal, but in nursing, if you have the PTO, it almost always gets denied. So, it’s a nod to all the nurses that have been working so hard during these challenging times, and this tour is one that is very light-hearted and fun, but it’s also going to hit on some of the biggest struggles and challenges nurses have had over nearly the last two years.”
While he’s found immense joy in churning out videos that give his fellow medical workers something that is both humorous and all-too-relatable to indulge in to decompress, nothing beats the feeling of live entertainment for the former level 1 Trauma Unit nurse.
And while he has certainly figured out how to handle his level of fame and recognition since starting out, it was understandably a bit shocking at the start. But that feeling was overshadowed as he quickly realized that his content was reaching far beyond the nursing community, to the point where people in different industries have reached out to him to tell him how his point of view has helped them get through their own work days.
“It wasn’t too long after my first video where people would recognize me in public, and I’d ask them if they were a nurse or a nursing student and they’d be a flight attendant, or a barber, or a teacher, so it was cool to see that people who aren’t nurses are watching and liking my content,” says Lynch. “It’s really cool, because even though my content is really specific to nurses, I think everyone can find the humor and curate it in their minds as to how it relates to them and their industry.”
Although he may not be currently “in the trenches” alongside his colleagues, the emotion and sobering reality of the pandemic has Lynch feeling the same feelings of anxiety and uncertainty that other frontline workers have been feeling, and it affected his ability to find humorous outlooks on the foibles of the medical field as things began to unfold in 2020. But with the joy he knows his content brings to nurses all over the country, and an audience that continues to inspire him to keep creating, Lynch is happy to offer a service that means more as time goes on.
“It was very tough, while the pandemic was spreading, and in this country, nurses were working really short staffed and wearing trash bags as PPE, to create funny content geared toward that,” says Lynch. “It took me a few months to make content related to that, and once I did, people started reaching out and thanking me for helping them get through their worst shift, and at the end of the day, that’s what my videos are for. They’re there for a nurse who had a really long shift, or a nurse who is contemplating their decision to get into nursing after how challenging it’s been, so for those people who reach out to me and tell me that I helped them remember why they got into the field is really cool and special.”
As Lynch makes his way back to the commonwealth, his fond memories of time spent in Boston come flooding back. There’s no telling what his new batch of live material will bring, but Lynch knows he’s got the love and support of his people in Boston, and that’s what has him most excited about his return.
“I just love my Boston nurses. There’s just something about them. Especially the ones who work in [Learning & Development], and the seasoned nurses,” says Lynch. “I remember being at that Red Sox game before the pandemic hit, and there were nurses there that would pick me up, and kiss me on the cheek, and smack my butt, and all I could think was ‘what is in the water here?’ They’re just so fun. So, I’m definitely looking forward to the culture and the awesome personalities of those people in Boston.”
NURSE BLAKE :: Friday, September 17 at The Chevalier Theatre, 30 Forest St. Medford, MA :: 7:30 p.m., $32 to $62 :: Advance tickets :: Event info