For more than three decades, Paul Mazurkiewicz has been known for his unrelenting drumming with death metal legends Cannibal Corpse. Blast beats, double kicks, chaos on stage, that’s been his world. But lately, Mazurkiewicz has found a different outlet altogether. No drums, no band. Just a mic, a few lights, and a room full of people willing to listen.

He’s not calling it stand-up comedy exactly, and he’s quick to set the record straight. “I’m just telling stories, that’s all I’m doing here,” he says. True to his word, what Mazurkiewicz delivers isn’t polished punchlines or scripted jokes. It’s real life, weird, raw, sometimes hilarious stories from years of touring, recording, and living in the strange bubble that is extreme metal.

The idea started small, almost as a joke itself. Friends would listen to him tell road stories and kept nudging him to share them on stage. Eventually, he decided to give it a shot. No character, no persona, just Paul: the same guy who’s been hammering out some of the most punishing drum lines in metal history, now standing in front of a crowd without anything to hide behind.

Something is fitting about it. Drumming, especially the way Paul Mazurkiewicz does it, is all about rhythm and feel, knowing when to hit, when to pause, when to let the energy breathe. Storytelling isn’t much different. Timing matters. Holding a room’s attention matters. It turns out that decades of live shows were the perfect training ground for stepping into a completely different performance world.

Importantly, Mazurkiewicz hasn’t walked away from Cannibal Corpse. The band is still active, still brutal as ever, and he has no plans to slow down. If anything, comedy, or storytelling, as he prefers to call it, is just another side of him. A way to peel back the brutal exterior and show that even behind the fiercest music, there’s a human being with a lot to say and more than a few unbelievable memories.

There’s no master plan here. No Netflix special or sold-out theater tours lined up. Just a musician who’s spent most of his life hammering away at the edges of music, now stepping into a different kind of spotlight. A little rough around the edges. A little unexpected. Exactly what you’d hope for from a guy who’s always played by his own rules.