Viral Comic Nurse Blake On Finding Humor in Medicine and Bossing Doctors Around (Exclusive)

Blake Lynch, aka Nurse Blake, is showcasing the humor and hard work in the nursing profession on his Shock Advised comedy tour

Blake Lynch, also known as Nurse Blake, got invaluable training for the comedic life while playing Peter Pan in college.

“Because the nursing school schedule is so crazy, I ended up getting a part-time job at Disney World in Orlando,” Lynch tells PEOPLE. “I was actually Peter Pan. So that time as Peter Pan just really helped me in my interactions, in my improv, and also giving people these special moments.”

He adds, “Being a gay male from Orlando, I mean, you have to work at Disney World and then you have to become a nurse. That’s just the flow.”

Lynch, a licensed registered nurse, might appear to be an unlikely stand-up comic. Both of his parents were in the medical healthcare profession: His father is a respiratory therapist, and his mother was a medical device sales representative. In high school, Lynch was a part of the Health Academy, and he started working as a patient transporter at 17.

Though the path from medicine to comedy isn't an obvious one, he found comfort in his high-stress field by making humorous online videos.

“It was an outlet for me after I had my first panic attack after I was leaving work, after working in an intensive care unit in Houston, Texas,” Lynch says. “I needed an outlet for myself, and I realized that by making funny videos that helped other people. So this is mostly what I do now — I help the people that help others.”

Related: Caring for COVID-19 Patients: 'As Stressed and Fearful as I've Been, This is Why I Became a Nurse'

Lynch’s TikTok account, filled with short skits about the nursing profession, currently has 20 million likes. In one video, he pokes fun at how hard it is to coordinate plans with another nurse because of their schedules. In another, he shares what he believes emergency room nurses think intensive care unit nurses do during their shifts. In addition to the humor, Lynch also highlights the important work that nurses do, and “always [has] a clear line in terms of how I want to come across.”

“I think people have this misconception that we either just get into nursing to marry doctors or we get into nursing because we're not smart enough for medical school," he says. "No. We got into nursing because we love to spend time with our patients."

"Out of all the other healthcare professionals, we are the ones who spend the most time with patients and their families. A lot of people think we just do what doctors tell us. I would say, no, doctors do what we tell them.”

No one seems to understand this better than Lynch’s fans, both online and in the audience at his comedy shows, which include the stops on his current Shock Advised tour. Medical professionals of all ages are among his fans, and they're in on Lynch’s jokes. His use of audience interaction and participation, as well as props, stories and music, create a sense of community at his shows. 

“I think what’s so cool is that there’s nursing students at my show who are 20, laughing next to retired nurses who are in their eighties," Lynch says. "The fact that they could both come out of different ages and celebrate the profession and laugh at the same thing, it is pretty touching.”

He also notes that his DMs are full of stories from people who have seen him perform. At one recent show, he helped a guy in the audience propose to his girlfriend, whom he'd met in nursing school.

Lynch’s comedy, however, is only one aspect of his work for the nursing community. He has launched a number of endeavors to support his fellow healthcare professionals, such as NurseCon at Sea, a nursing conference he designed to make “boring” conferences both like a vacation and a celebration of learning. Its first land-based event with be held next September at Orlando's Universal Studios Florida.

“It's not only just a party, even though we do have theme nights and DJs and drag queens from RuPaul's Drag Race that come on board as part of our entertainment," Lynch says. "We also bring in pretty highly accredited nursing educators to teach continuing nursing education. So when nurses come in, it's part of a vacation, and they're also able to get their mandatory hours they need to maintain their licensure.”

Blake also created Nurse Blake Magazine, which shares stories of nurses that aren’t normally told. Another project are his children’s books, which aim to teach a younger audience about the nursing profession. His latest book, Santa Sent to the E.R., explains the potential severity of food allergies.

Related: Meet the Texas Mom Fighting for Food Allergy Laws After Her Son Died From a Take-Out Taco Made With Peanut Butter

“I realized that there wasn't anything for kids to really learn about nurses and nursing,” Lynch says. “It’s always like, ‘Oh, here’s a doctor’s stethoscope,’ or ‘You could buy this doctor kit.’ It’s all geared towards teaching kids about doctors instead of nurses, yet there’s 4 million nurses in this country.”

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During the pandemic, Lynch went on pause with his videos, because he “felt challenged to create humor and to make comedy within that stressful environment.” As he returns to his stand-up on tour, he notes that letting other nurses know they’re not alone is one of the most fulfilling aspects of what he does onstage.

“The most rewarding part is having felt the sense of loneliness in nursing, having felt the sense of burnout in nursing, and then people coming up to me before and after a show, telling me, ‘Thank you so much for doing this. I needed this night out just to laugh.’”

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