around the stage [to keep audiences from
pelting performers with bottles]. One time in
some podunk town, it’s Monday night, they
just turned off football, people are screaming and mad as all getout, and I hit the stage.
People start screaming. You want to mouth
off with them, but I stuck with my guns and
it paid off. I’d been doing standup about six
months and Jerry Seinfeld, his opener didn’t
show up and he needed a clean opener and
I was the only clean comedian that anybody
ever heard of in the area, so I got in my truck,
came down and did my show and Jerry really
liked me. He asks if I’m clean for a reason, says
“You’re on the right track.” Why do a joke you
can’t do on television? This was 1987, so there
weren’t a gazillion channels, it was a different
time.
Q: Telling stories and letting people know
what’s really going on with what you’re
INSIGHT
telling on stage, the family members you
bring up, have they tried to clean up their
act at all? “Henry’s here, we better clean
up”?
A: Sadly, it’s the other way around. They sit
there and try to do stuff and say things, “Hey,
what about that one?” The whole idea about
my show, all my show is, to me, is if you invited me over for dinner and there’ll be people I
don’t know and a few I do, so I’ll tell you about
what happened to me on the way over. And
someone will go, “Tell that story about such
and such,” and then I start telling stories. The
whole idea of mine is that we’re all just hanging out, and I’m just telling stories.
Q: As your kids are getting older, do you
think you’re going to work them into the
act or are you going to keep them private?
October 2015