Monday’s 17th Annual Stand Up for Heroes featured a video that the Duke of Sussex recorded at his Montecito residence, showcasing his sense of humour.
During the stand-up style monologue in the video, Prince Harry proudly displayed his military medals.
“Hello, New York,” he said at first. The event was held at Lincoln Centre in New York City in partnership with the New York Comedy Festival. He made reference to journalist Bob Woodruff and the Bob Woodruff Foundation. “Obviously I was deeply honoured when Bob asked me to debut my stand-up act with you all tonight,” he said.
Photo: Stand Up For Heroes
“Due to the shockingly low representation of gingers last year, and out of respect for my fellow endangered species, here I am, reporting for duty,” Harry continued, making fun of himself.
The 39-year-old made jokes about never being watched closely and about consulting a reiki healer for guidance. “As someone who never gets scrutinised, I haven’t even had to prepare much,” he stated. “However, I have been working on this specific act for a while now out of caution, and everyone I know says it’s excellent. And no, these aren’t just my lawyer, my finance manager, and my reiki healer; these are real people who tell me what I want to hear.”
Photo: Getty Images
Harry received a script as soon as someone off-camera coughed. He read the first sentence and then said, “So, we’re not doing the thing?” “Thank you for having me to this splendid evening celebrating our incredible veterans.”
“It’s ok, I got this,” he said, placing the paper on the ground, before giving a more sombre speech in honour of the military community.
“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, service is what happens in the quiet and the chaos,” he stated. “And we have to keep up the values we learned together on the base, in the drill square, and on the battlefield, whether or not we are wearing the uniform. principles of cooperation and solidarity, honour and integrity, and service.
Photo: Getty Images
“I know our journeys to this point differ but we are always connected through what we learned as humans, what we faced as families and how we’ve come out stronger because of our ability to listen, to understand, to support one another.”
In order to support service members and increase public awareness of the difficult obstacles veterans face, Caroline Hirsch and Andrew Fox, the founders of the New York Comedy Festival, along with Bob and Lee Woodruff, formed Stand Up for Heroes in 2007.
Photo: Getty Images
Since Prince Harry himself served in the military for ten years, including two tours in Afghanistan, the cause is dear to his heart.
Along with his work raising funds for service members, he founded the Invictus Games in 2014, providing a path to recovery for wounded, ill, and injured service members worldwide.
