Nurse Blake brings ‘Shock Advised’ comedy tour to Midland this Sunday
Photo courtesy of Sheila Kenny
Social media star Nurse Blake is bringing his 100+ city Shock Advised comedy tour to the Midland Sunday, November 5, 2023.
This tour comes in the wake of his 2022 PTO Comedy Tour, which started with 14 cities and grew to 55 cities, selling out every show. He has nearly 4 million followers on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.
Blake Lynch knew he wanted to be a nurse from a young age and started working as a patient transporter at 17. He also worked as a patient care tech and surgical assistant while putting himself through nursing school. As a nurse, he primarily worked in adult trauma centers, working in six different major hospital systems.
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Three years into his career as a nurse, in 2017, he had a panic attack on his way home from work and realized that he needed an outlet for his stress and to reset. He began posting videos on social media, and he quickly went viral and was picked up by news stations.
“I realized I’m not alone in nursing, like no matter where you work or live, we all relate to one another,” says Lynch. “Because there were nurses and nursing students all over the world that were liking and commenting and sharing my content.”
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The show is roughly an hour and 45 minutes long and starts out with Lynch’s family life and goes through his journey into nursing, beginning with nursing school. The story is mostly told through the point of view of a nurse and utilizes audio, video, and visual elements. Just like in his videos online, he utilizes a lot of dark humor.
“That’s what my show is all about,” says Lynch. “It’s called ‘Shock Advised’ because some of the things I say on my show are shocking.”
Similar to his show, his videos and memes lightheartedly poke fun at the job itself and the work culture, which can get interesting, given that his audience nearly always breaks the alcohol sales record for every venue.
Outside of doing comedy, Lynch created and hosts NurseCon at Sea, a nursing conference held on a cruise ship. NurseCon is a chance for nurses to fulfill the education hours needed to renew their licenses, with classes accredited by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) and the California Board of Nursing. It also doubles as a vacation, with themed nights, parties, and drag shows. The next one is for five days in April and will have roughly 35 nursing educators and 3,500 nurses on board.
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Lynch wrote the bestselling children’s book, I Want To Be A Nurse When I Grow Up, and ultimately uses his platform to advocate for healthcare workers. In 2013, while he was still in nursing school, he started Banned4Life to help end the FDA gay blood ban, which led to him being part of an advanced study put together by the American Red Cross and eventually contributed to the lifetime ban being ended. He also raises awareness about staffing issues in healthcare settings on his page, and he goes out to strike—something nurses have been doing in record numbers since COVID.
“I feel like COVID made us realize how bad things are in terms of staffing and equipment and how healthcare workers are treated by management and leaders,” says Lynch. “And then, after COVID, we realized that nothing was changing. So now we’re taking it into our own hands and really putting the feet to the fire for these hospital systems to treat us better.”
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Despite the healthcare system being a bit up in the air right now, he encourages people to pursue nursing.
“If you’re really passionate about it, do it,” says Lynch. “It’s all about the right time. There’s not a perfect age to get into nursing. I know students who are in their mid-50s who are going back to school. So, if it’s something you’re passionate about, do it. You’re going to cry, you’re going to have meltdowns, but that’s totally normal.”
Most importantly, Lynch hopes to create a safe space for healthcare workers through both his social media pages and his shows.
“The message that I’m trying to send to healthcare workers is that we’re all kind of in this together—this mess of an awesome profession,” says Lynch. “So never feel alone, know that you have a voice, and also make them realize it’s okay to laugh at the things we go through. I think so many times you take it so seriously, which leads to burnout, stress, and anxiety. So, just being able to sit back and just laugh at each other. What we do, I think, is what I want all the nurses to take away. And if you’re not a nurse, and you’re not in healthcare, I want you to take away that there’s more to nursing than, ‘Oh, they just want to date doctors.’”
Visit the Midland’s website to purchase tickets or Nurse Blake’s website to learn more.
