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Nurse John debuts his sold out Short Staffed show at the MACC

Nurse John will bring his North American stand-up comedy tour to the Maui Arts & Cultural Center on Jan. 26. Courtesy photo

“I’m so happy that I can make people happy every single night,” Nurse John announced about his national “Short Staffed Tour” in a December podcast.

Heading to the Maui Arts & Cultural Center on Jan. 26, John Dela Cruz, aka Nurse John, is in the midst of a major North America stand-up tour — his first ever — with many shows sold out from Dallas to Kansas City and Atlanta.

“I never would have thought that people would come out and see me take some time off and really dedicate their time to just come see me live,” he continued in the podcast.

A TikTok sensation, Nurse John has over 7 million followers and more than 178 million likes on his videos. His “I Beg Your Pardon” podcast even earned a spot in South Korea’s Top 40 podcasts.

A Filipino-Canadian nurse and social media influencer, he became popular sharing his experiences as a nurse on TikTok and Instagram. Beginning his nursing career at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, he turned to TikTok to share his challenges and frustrations, and to find a sense of community.

“The pressure of saving people’s lives was crushing,” he reported in a Nursing Beat interview. “I didn’t have support. I didn’t have a sense of ‘Hey, you’re not alone. You’re not the only one going through this.'”

His second TikTok video, of him crying in a locker room, went viral with over a million likes in less than 48 hours. “I wondered whether people were just watching to make fun of me, but there were enough positive and encouraging comments that I figured I might as well keep doing it,” he told Maclean’s magazine.

His skits have featured him donning everything from wigs to colorful scrubs and portraying other nurses and patients. In one video, as a reaction to how nurses are constantly asked to work extra hours, he sang Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You,” changing the words to “I refuse this OT.”

In one hilarious clip, as a burnt out female nurse, he reels off a typical night’s events to a colleague. “Last night was fine, nothing too extreme, the usual. So Mr. Smith in room one tried to run away naked and the best part is he tried to take with him room number two Elizabeth. So they were both running naked at 2 a.m. Room number three decided to smudge his s– on the wall. Room number four decided to play with an IV pump and he did, and it exploded so we had a cold red.”

“One of the common themes of my videos is mental health,” he told the BBC. “I show the mental struggles nurses or even just the general public go through. Most of my videos are light-hearted. They’re fun, entertaining. You giggle with it, you laugh with it.”

His fans obviously include nurses. One posted on YouTube: “As a retired nurse in her 70th decade I can only say, I LOVE NURSE JOHN. I understand and identify with every post and what he portrays, HILARIOUS.” He’s also heard from patients who reach out and let him know how his videos helped them get through chemotherapy.

Born in the Philippines, he emigrated to Montreal in 2012 and then moved to Los Angeles last year. His current stand-up show combines real-life nursing experiences with humor and sold out its initial 32-show run.

“This whole journey and social media becoming a content creator becoming a stand-up comedian was nothing that I dreamed of,” he said in a podcast. “I didn’t grow up wanting to be a stand-up comedian or wanting to be a content creator; it just all happened.”

Nurse John performs at the MACC on Jan. 26 with shows at 7 and 9:30 p.m. Tickets are $39.25, $49.25 and $59.25.

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