Jerry Black

Hailing from Anchorage, Alaska, Jerry discovered his passion for comedy early on. At the tender age of 16, he performed his first stand-up gig, igniting a love for the stage that has continued to burn brightly. Decades later, after a career that took him from programmer to program manager across companies around the world, he found himself with one idea: pass that feeling to every engineer and IT pro who'd ever had something to say but nowhere to say it.

 

He's a tech veteran, stand-up comedian, and conference speaker who founded IT Misfits — the live comedy show and communication training community where technical professionals find their voice, build confidence, and occasionally bring the house down. He eventually landed in Phoenix with strong feelings about incident response, enterprise infrastructure, and why the funniest people in any room are almost always in IT.

Jerry has performed stand-up comedy across the United States, hosted live shows at venues from LA to Phoenix to Austin, spoken at tech conferences and corporate events, and coached software engineers, data scientists, IT managers, and cybersecurity professionals through writing and performing their first real set in front of a live audience. His material is pulled straight from real life — the war stories, the absurdities, the moments that are only funny in hindsight — which means his audiences don't just laugh, they recognize themselves.

He built IT Misfits because tech is a grind, and the people grinding through it deserve to be heard, to laugh, and to take up more space than their job title usually allows.

The mic is always open. He just had to build the stage first.

Jerry Black headshot
Jerry Black

Jerry's videos

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Brea Improv

Jerry in his element — opening the show, holding the room, and proving tech people have the best stories!

Tempe Improv

Jerry performing at the Tempe Improv - 'Favorite Game to Play'

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