A Well I hope so, because it’s how I make a living. The premise for the church world is caring about one another and lifting one another up, so I can’t think of a better way to do that than through humor and laughter and moments of common ground where we chuckle at ourselves. There is a time and a place for everything — everything under the sun. There is subject matter that will never be appropriate in the church, but nor would they be appropriate for my life as a Christian. And so, what’s appropriate depends on what church you go to.
Q Do you think God has a sense of humor?
A I think Jesus was probably one of the first stand-up comedians. He was hilarious. In his culture, some of the things he said were tongue and cheek and sarcastic, and I can imagine it made the people chuckle.
Q Do you get much negative feedback for blending church with funny?
A I used to, but as a ticketed artist, pretty much at this stage in my career people know what they are going to get. I told another well-known comedian, Sinbad, “You think you got it bad, at least you just get heckled, I get an e-mail telling me I’m going to burn in hell. I’d just as soon get heckled if you’d leave my eternal state out of it!”
Q You’ve battled with depression. What was the role of humor in helping you cope?
A Twenty years into this, the more healing that I have had in my personal life, I was afraid I wouldn’t be funny. I told my shrink, “Don’t make me too well, it’s really served me well.” My pastor and my doctor — everybody — said, you need to get back to work. I didn’t feel funny, I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as the audience did, but I saw the reality. My life with Christ, my job, my existence doesn’t depend on how I feel, but who He is. And that changed everything for me.
Depression has strengthened my faith more than anything in the world. In humor, I like to shine a light that says, “Quit ostracizing your depressed friends, they’ve not lost their faith, they’re not demon possessed.”
Q Will you retire or keep up your gig as long as possible?
A I think I will be about 80 and I’ll be doing the announcements at church or I’ll carry a group of senior citizens to Branson, making them laugh on the bus.
Brian Orme is an associate pastor at Community Grace Brethren Church in West Milton and a freelance religion writer. Send e-mail to mjorme@gmail.com or read more at www.brianorme.com.
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