When I was 23, I had a similar experience. I had started doing stand-up around the DC area and was comfortable enough to begin promoting myself. My office had our HR/sexual harassment training around six months into this endeavor, and one item stuck out to me: what you say outside of work can get you trouble at work.
At the presentation's end, I walked up to the attorney and let him know I had a question. He responds by saying he's heard them all before, so lay it on him. So I tell him I've been doing stand-up, my routine is not work friendly (I put a ton of mustard on this comment) and based on what I just heard, if someone from work happens to stumble into the show and hears me, gets offended and reports me, I can get fired.
This elderly attorney looks at me, goes quiet, and finally says, "Huh, well, that's a new one. Let me research and get back to you; give me your card."
I am now shitting myself. I have student loans, rent, and other expenses, and I live nowhere near where I grew up. Less than 24 hrs earlier I had been telling a joke about prostitutes as gym trainers, and now I'm trying to figure out how my $150-200 a set can pay a piece of my bills and how to convince my parents that this is an intelligent career choice.
Two days later, I got a call from HR to come down to their office for a chat. I know what that means. I packed all my stuff, and all the office supplies I could to resell later, and I started sweating. I was an overweight 23-year-old about to lose a decently paying job because I did stand-up on a dare and enjoyed it.
I walked down to the office, dress shirt drenched in sweat (it was a one-floor walk). The hear of HR is sitting there smiling (imagine Delores Umbridge from the Harry Potter movies). She tells me to take a seat, it's a pleasure to meet me (we had met at least a half dozen times during my two years there). She said the attorney called and had an answer to my question. She heard I like to tell jokes; could I tell her one?
I shake my head saying, "No, they're not that kind of jokes...they're kind of like stories? And not work appropriate."
She nodded. And paused. And nodded. And I kept sweating. After what must have been 3 hrs (probably about 5 seconds in non-insane time) she smiled and said, no problem. To answer your question, as long as I didn't directly invite someone AND I didn't talk about anything work related, I could keep doing my set.
I breathed a huge sigh of relief, thanked her for her time and walked back to my desk. After throwing up in the closest bathroom.
My boss said I looked terrible and sent me home for the day.
Long story short, HR is scary.
