The Accidental Accountant

The Accidental Accountant Wanna-be comedian, accidental accountant and professional speaker

By Mallory Arnold

When Peter Margaritis was 17, he was set on becoming a stand-up comedian. His father’s response? “Nope. Be a Certified Public Accountant.” Although he followed his father’s advice, Margaritis remained true to his sense of humor and a love for comedy. While attending Case Western Reserve University for his master’s degree, he began performing stand-up.

“I got a lot of laughs,” he says. “I was told that I was similar to Jeff Foxworthy, and that lit a fire underneath me.”

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Although completing his degree was no laughing matter, Margaritis continued his stand-up, getting attention in Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati. He finished his graduate work, became a CPA and still found time to hop onstage for comedy shows. Then, disaster struck. “I had a traumatic experience onstage that made me say, ‘That’s it – I’m keeping my day job,’” Margaritis says.

He was around 19 or 20 when he was emceeing a professional comedy show in Columbus, initially having a blast. Unfortunately, he totally flummoxed the names of the comedians performing and was brutally grilled for it afterwards.

“Every ounce of confidence left me,” he says, a hint of cringe in his voice.

True to his word, he kept at his day job, though the accounting profession wasn’t exactly tickling his funny bone.

“When I first started, it was like there was no air in the office,” Margaritis says. “No one spoke, and all these skills I had from comedy and improv were useless.” However, it takes more than a bad performance to keep a comedian quiet. Margaritis chose to apply his humor in an unconventional way. He’s now a full-time professional public speaker and travels around the country giving talks about leadership and communication to mostly accountants. Believe it or not, Margaritis applies what he’s learned in comedy and improv to business.

“Improv isn’t just about being funny or winging it, it’s taking education and experience and applying that to certain situations,” he says. “Realizing this was my big ‘aha’ moment 20 years ago.”

He views improv as a leadership tool to motivate people in the workplace. “Improv actors always end with two words: ‘Yes, and?’ because it inspires conversations,” Margaritis says. “It’s about parking your ego, having respect for others and listening to understand rather than listening just to respond.”

Most people would never imagine uttering “hilarious” and “accountant” in the same sentence, but Margaritis proves otherwise. “I’ve met a very small group of funny accountants,” he admits. “I even know a stand-up who is a CFO – but, we’re few and far between.

His wife, Mary, is the biggest test to his humor, as getting a big belly-laugh out of her makes him feel like he must have said something good.

Margaritis has lived in Westerville with his wife and son, Stephen, for 25 years. Stephen graduated from Westerville Central High School last year and is now at Columbus State University. We ask what he would say if Stephen ever wanted to be a stand-up comedian – would he react like his father? “I would never tell him no,” Margaritis says immediately. “If he wanted to try something, then I would absolutely encourage that.”

Margaritis hints that he’d love to hop back onstage himself, giving comedy another shot. To that, all we can say is, yes, and?