Christian Comics Fighting the Stigma
Written by Rich Freedman
Will McDaniel has had 38 jobs in his 40 years. Deputy Sheriff. Milkman. High school teacher. Truck driver. Medical software instructor.
“You name it, I’ve done it,” McDaniel says.
Never has he been as happy since he took the word from above and became a Christian comedian five years ago, parlaying a wicked sense of humor — “I’ve been a smart aleck all my life” — into a homespun act honed from his home in Bowling Green, Ohio, headquarters to the National Tractor Pulling Championships.
“It’s amazing that every boss I’ve had was a jerk,” McDaniel chuckled. “Now, I’m finally where I’m doing what God wanted me to and I’m happier. I know God put me on the planet for this.”
McDaniel is one of a burgeoning number of Christian comics, either entertainers who started and stayed clean with a love of the Lord, or those who are born-again jokesters.
Whether it’s the San Francisco Bay Area’s J-Red, Houston’s Mark Lowry, Southern California’s Michael Joiner, Channitta “Chocolate” Morris from Georgia, or Dave Ferrell of Cary, N.C., stand-ups who get booked by God (and, sometimes, an Earthly talent agency) are flourishing.
“I have always had a comedy show that was appropriate anywhere, but the longer I’ve been a comedian and a Christian, I’ve felt strongly that the material should be 100 percent clean and I should also have the opportunity to talk about my faith,” says Ferrell, surmising that “Christian comedy is still comedy. It is as diverse as secular comedy. All Christian comedians bring different stories and situations into their shows, but the similarities are in the difference that Jesus Christ has made in our lives.”
J-Red (see picture on the left) says “Christian comedy” is the new hot thing and not always a good thing. He’s seen mainstream comics see their gigs shrink, so they clean it up and pass themselves off as “Christian comedians.”
“It’s the latest fad,” J-Red said. “I’m seeing comics who usually do secular sets with cursing in their material starting to come into the churches because business has slowed down in the clubs. To me, that’s pimping the churches. I believe you have to have a heart for God. And I think most people can see through your material. Some of these comics struggle with a church crowd because their material is for the clubs.”
As a preacher’s kid, J-Red has kept it clean all of his 10 years doing comedy, playing half concerts, half churches today. He’s also gone into prisons and juvenile halls.
“Laughter is good,” J-Red said. “Even when you don’t have any freedom. I can use that as a ministry tool for them.”
Yes, J-Red said, there is “a fine line between being funny and mocking God. God is not a joke. That’s where people in the church are concerned. They want to make sure you’re not mocking God. It’s best to talk about God’s people and not Him. I try not to insult people or make them feel bad.”
“Sometimes, people mistake ‘clean comedy’ for ‘Christian comedy,’” Morris said. “They are vastly different. Just because they tell a Jesus joke doesn’t make them a Christian comedian. To be a Christian comedian, you first have to be a Christian. God knows who’s real.”
Lowry, known for his vocal assets with the Gaither Vocal Band, became a Christian comic when he had to kill time between tunes. He said whatever came to him and people laughed.
“Those few seconds of ‘dead air’ can feel like hours when you’re on stage facing a crowd,” he says. “So, to fill time, I’d start talking about my life and my testimony. People would laugh... and I finally realized I was on to something. I explore faith in a funny way.”
Not that he wants the tattoo.
“I was just being myself and I was labeled a ‘Christian comedian’ when I didn’t want to be,” Lowry says.
Lowry, (see picture on the left) who scored a lightning-in-a-bottle hit with “Mary Did You Know?” that’s been recorded by more than 30 artists, believes he’ll never get up their with an actual comedy set.
“I fly by the seat of my pants,” Lowry says. “Once I get out there, something pops in my brain and it works.”
Ferrell believes “there have always been more Christian comedians than people thought. The Internet has given a person who was unknown to 98 percent of the U.S. a personal TV for people to watch their show. Not everyone you see who has labeled themselves ‘Christian comedian’ is able to perform for one hour. Some may only have 10 or 20 minutes of real material. The same thing occurs in secular comedy.”
Morris did a mainstream act for the first eight of her 18-year comedy career before gravitating to presumably Lord-endorsed one-liners.
“I had never heard of a ‘Christian comic,’” she says. “I still was pretty clean in the beginning. As time passed, I got progressively worse. Never really cussed, though. Nonetheless, I would have not have been able to do churches.”
Morris (see picture on the left) says she was actually going to quit the business, if not for a friend who encouraged her to keep at it and simply change paths. Morris had been on Def Comedy Jams, Bad Girls of Def James, BET, MTV, The Bernie Mac ‘Who Ya Wit?’ Tour and opened for Patti LaBelle, Steve Harvey and Cedric the Entertainer. And now, she’s done “so many wonderful churches and gospel venues,” joining the ever-growing roster of Christian comics.
McDaniel says he owes his own comedic evolution, so to speak, to his Christian comedic peers who helped him hone his act. In 2007, he put in 23,000 miles by road and air to gigs, inevitably reciting his own Christian version of Dr. Seuss’ “Green Eggs and Ham” at most shows. “It was kinda of the first bit I wrote, which is pretty cool,” says McDaniel, who has learned that getting work remains a numbers game.
“You knock on doors and knock on doors and keep trying,” he says. “You call 1,000 and maybe 100 listen. Of that, maybe 10 give you a shot and maybe one will work you to death.”
There isn’t a church within 100 miles of Bowling Green who hasn’t seen McDaniel’s number on their caller ID.
Sure, he said, he often hears “We’re not interested,” chuckling that some tend to be a bit uptight.
“If they sat on coal, they’d crap diamonds,” McDaniel says. “These are usually the ones at the shows I’ll target and see if I can break the ice. But, some people are never going to change.”
Christian comics can be “a valuable resource” for churches to bring in people, McDaniel says.
It’s unfortunate, adds McDaniel, than some may perceive “comedy” to be whatever Eddie Murphy or Dane Cook says.
“Pastors and preachers will have nothing to do with that, which is understandable,” McDaniel says, adding that “it’s easy to get a shock value laugh.”
Often, McDaniel is praised after church — and club — shows for keeping it clean. People have said, ‘You didn’t cuss. That was cool,” McDaniel says.
The Ohio resident agrees with fellow pastor’s son J-Red — that some comics are just wolves in Christian clothing.
“If you’re clean that’s one thing, but there’s a line and you’ve got to know where that line is. If you’re not part of that Christian or church culture, people will know. The church clan and club clan are not the same thing.
Unlike most of his peers, Joiner’s first venture into comedy was at church. Growing up in Gary, Ind. — he moved to Los Angeles six years ago — Joiner was approached by his pastor.
“He knew me as a cut up and begged me to perform at the church comedy show,” says Joiner. “I wrote five minutes of material and was hooked.”
Joiner says he “never really geared my act specifically and exclusively toward Christians. Although, I do have some material in my routine that makes fun of the foibles and quirks of church folks, as well as denominations — Jesus as a kid and so on. The majority of my comedy bits are relevant to folks who have never stepped inside of a church, which is why I get booked a lot for ‘outreach’ type events that cater to unchurched friends and neighbors.”
Joiner says his comedy “becomes Christian,” when his humor segues from the comedy into an inspiring message of hope and encouragement.
“The most effective and fruitful events that I offer are simply ‘Clean Comedy Nights,’ whereas a church or group sells tickets to the general public as well as church members,” Joiner says.
The shows, says Joiner, “help knock the idea out of people’s heads that Christianity and Christians are boring and don’t have fun. One hour of my comedy will show you that we are just as crazy and fun as the rest of the world.”
Ferrell has done comedy for 20 years and was a nominee for “Inspirational Comedian of the Year” in 2006 and 2007 and nominated for Event Planner’s Magazine’s Top 5 Corporate Acts in ’08.
“I have always been a Christian who was a comedian,” he says. “My shows have always been clean. The last 10 years — really, the last five — have been 75 percent church or religion-based and 25 percent corporate or fundraising events.
The late ’80s and ’90s were a time when clean comedy was more acceptable than today, Ferrell says.
“I don’t think I could pull of a one hour, clean comedy show in a true nightclub environment right now. People want PG, R and more. I think a Christian comedian who has never experienced the rowdy nightclub environment should do it once just to be appreciative of what they experience in a church setting.”
Initially an impressionist, Ferrell says Christian comics can learn from secular performers. “Even the dirtiest comedian has a skill that you can learn from,” he says.
But, a Christian comic isn’t criticism proof, adds Ferrell, who received a complaint after doing an impression of an asthmatic rapper. “It came from a lady who suffers from asthma who apparently doesn’t like rap.”
Ferrell says there are people who have known him for years ‘who know I’m a comedian, but not a Christian. That’s OK. Your faith is personal. But if you have an opportunity to talk about it to someone who asks, then that’s cool.”
While the Christian comedy community may be close, it’s can be hard to convince mainstream comics that Christians are like anyone else.
“It’s like going to work,” Ferrell says. “All of us work with someone who thinks or believes something different. I’d say 90 percent of the comedians I’ve worked with have been very critical of Christians and churches. That’s their opinion. I always try to be understanding of where people are coming from and why they believe what they believe.”
Morris says she “really didn’t have any concerns as to what my secular friends would think, although they did think I was crazy for leaving the secular business. My conviction was so strong. I don’t know if I ever thought about what they would think. When people see ‘Christian’ in front of your name, they pretty much know what you’re going to do.”
Her act, she says, has “changed completely from just ‘an act’ to ‘a ministry.’ Now what I do has a real purpose. I make people laugh at themselves and at the same time get conviction to stop doing it if it’s something God isn’t please with. And to look at things from the lighter side and stop taking stuff too seriously.”
Joiner says he’s gaining a reputation as the “anti-Bill Maher,” which is fine with him.
“That’s on purpose,” Joiner says. “There’s way too much comedy out there that is not only anti-Christian, anti-conservative, and even sometimes anti-American it its point-of-view. So I began to write and boldly perform material that goes against the grain, so to speak. It’s still clean, but unapologetically “in your face’ when it comes to my Christian, conservative beliefs and values.”
Joiner admits that church audiences aren’t as likely to heckle or sit there with folded arms.
“Church audiences are the easiest crowds in the world,” Joiner says. “Have you ever seen a preacher on TV tell the oldest joke in the world and get a big laugh? That’s what I’m talking about.”
When he’s playing mainstream clubs, Joiner says he refrains from its temptations.
“I have a ‘plan’ on what to do before and after a show,” he says.
“And to soak every gig in prayer.”
Ferrell’s working on a one-man show, What’s Wrong with the Church?
“It was my observations of attending the same church for 12 years,” he says. “I’ve been told that some of my observations might not get a laugh. I’ll have to find a way to make a valid point and let people think it’s funny. George Carlin was a master at that and I don’t think he ever did a show at a church.”
It’s not easy being a Christian in the heart of show business, Joiner says, believing he experiences some sort of religious prejudice “every day in Hollywood. Every day. But I shall not be moved.”
Rich Freedman is a writer from California.
To see where the featured comedians are performing, visit their websites:
Chinnitta Morris at christiancomedianchocolate.com
Michael Joiner at michaeljoiner.com
J-Red at jred.org
Mark Lowry at marklowry.com
Will McDaniel at willmcdaniel.com