Donnie Sengstack
Donnie Sengstack likes to say he puts the “stud” in stutter.
Over the past year, the joke has practically become his mantra. Sengstack, a sophomore communication major with a lifelong stutter, performs stand-up comedy that embraces his speech impediment, and it’s been attracting the attention of professional comics.
Since last summer, Sengstack, 19, has performed at hundreds of open mics and comedy clubs all over the Baltimore-Washington area. He’s also competed as a comedian, finishing as a semifinalist in Magooby’s 2013 New Comedian of the Year Competition. The Washington Post and Baltimore Magazine have both written stories about him, with the latter earning him a congratulatory private message on Twitter from comedian Jim Gaffigan.
His secret to success: Whenever he steps on stage, he doesn’t worry himself with whether or not he’ll stutter. It’s unavoidable, Sengstack says. So instead of fighting it, he works it into his set.
Sengstack’s style is self-deprecating but lighthearted; he doesn’t take anything seriously except for comedy, he says. Drawing off of comedians like Gaffigan, Mitch Hedburg and Demetri Martin, Sengstack jokes about his stutter with deadpan one-liners (“I’ve only gotta write five minutes of material for a 10-minute set,” he quips).
But he doesn’t let his stutter control his act. He also riffs on school, pop culture and anything else that’s relevant to him, he said.
“I don’t really see my stutter as a disability. I just see it as something that makes me unique,” he said.
“I hate when overly sensitive people ‘aww’ at [my stutter jokes],” he said. “It’s a comedy show! You paid for this; you should laugh.”
This university featured Sengstack in one of its series of “Fearless Ideas” promotional posters. An image of him standing in front of a microphone now hangs in the Mall in Columbia.
Since middle school, Sengstack has kept a joke journal — that was where his “stud in stutter” line originated. But that wisecrack, along with the rest of the journal, remained solely on paper until last June.
After graduating high school in 2013, Sengstack decided to try his jokes onstage for the first time. So he Googled open mic events in the area, rallied a couple of his friends and headed to Tabaq Bistro in Washington, he said.
Sitting in the crowd, his friends waved cue cards that playfully advised, “DON’T STUTTER.” The room was laughing the entire time during Sengstack’s set, and the bartender even offered him a free celebratory shot, he said.
This past July, Sengstack performed in Washington at the National Stuttering Association’s annual conference. The performance was his favorite show he’s done, he said.
The 900-person crowd that gathered at the Renaissance Hotel for his act was made up of people who stutter, as well as the friends, family and speech therapists of those people. Sengstack delivered a 10-minute set targeting everyday situations for people who stutter, like ordering food at Chipotle.
“Everybody loved it,” said Steve Ernst, a member and volunteer for the association.
Ernst, who graduated from this university in the spring, showed a video of Sengstack’s stand-up to the National Stuttering Association’s executive director, Tammy Flores. Flores loved the video and booked Sengstack for the association’s conference.
“He was getting compliments the entire rest of the conference,” Ernst said.
“I could see the impact my set had on the audience, on the way it changed their perspectives on stuttering,” Sengstack said.
One fan even wrote him a message, thanking him for his stutter-relevant material, he said.
“I had a very disfluent day today and I turned on your stand-up and felt better,” the fan wrote.
“I didn’t set out to inspire stutterers,” Sengstack said modestly. “I just like not doing what’s expected — proving people wrong.”
Sengstack will perform in Baltimore at Magooby’s 2014 New Comedian of the Year competition on Nov. 26, and at an Off the Wall event at Stamp in December.
