how to go
what: Clean Comedy Night
when: 7:30 p.m. today Doors open at 7 p.m.
where: The Gathering, 1108 Central Ave.
how much: $10 at the door. Proceeds will go to missional outreach in Middletown
Call: (513) 435-5363 or www.umgathering.org
Comedians: Jeff Jena, Jeff Woodruff, Matt Thornberg, Dave Beals, and Rich Jones
MIDDLETOWN — When the Rev. Carrie Jena, pastor of the Gathering, an inner-city church, decided to raise money for her church, she didn’t look far.
In the bed next to her.
Wait a minute, make that across the dinner table from her.
Jena’s husband, Jeff, a nationally known comedian, will headline Clean Comedy Night, a fund raiser for the church’s mission work.
Jeff Jena has appeared in more than 40 national television shows and has performed for corporations and churches nationwide. He regularly performs for Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines as a headliner.
He said because of the uncertainly of comedy club material, some people are “afraid of comedy.” But tonight’s show, Jena promises, will be appropriate for everyone from a 10-year-old to a grandmother to a preacher.
In fact, two of the comedians are youth ministers, he said.
Jena, 59, a 1970 Fenwick High School graduate, said most of his material comes some “slice of life stuff.”
Then he added: “You don’t have to be amazingly creative to be funny, you just have to be observant.”
The Rev. Carrie Jena said clean comedy is “gaining in popularity” because “really dirty comedy” makes people uncomfortable.
In fact, she said, “clean humor is funnier.”
Carrie Jena said her husband of 15 years taught high school math for seven or eight years, then taught overseas. He then took comedy classes, then taught during the day and made people laugh at night.
He then performed in comedy clubs in Chicago and Los Angeles, before returning to Middletown to raise his family in 2004. Jeff Jena, unlike some comedians, is able to turn off his funny bone, his wife said. He can be funny and a father, but doesn’t have to be a funny father.
He was asked about working — at least for one night — for his wife.
“There’s a difference,” he said, “between being a volunteer and a voluntold.”
Contact this columnist at (513) 705-2842 or rmccrabb@coxohio.com.
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