Christian comedy: And he saw that it was funny ...
Comic Jeff Allen works church audiences — not bars or clubs — and although he's not in comedy's mainstream, he says he's making a good living in front of a mostly untapped audience.
 

Comedian Jeff Allen before performing a recent show at Ginger Creek Community Church in
Aurora. (Nuccio DiNuzzo/ Chicago Tribune)

By Kevin Pang, Chicago Tribune reporter

4:26 p.m. CST, November 7, 2011

PEKIN, Ill. — There were no two-drink minimums at the First Baptist Church of Pekin. It was the first-ever Comedy Night at the church, a few hours southwest of Chicago, and on this October Saturday there were no drunk hecklers stumbling in the aisles, no cigarette smoke. The church foyer was a Christmas-like array of green Sprite cans and red Kit Kat wrappers.

High above the pulpit, Jeff Allen's image projected onto two screens — bulging eyes, raised brows, comically pursed lips. "The world's funniest, most-inspiring comedian," it read next to his face, a dead ringer for fellow comic Tim Allen's. He insists they're not related.

"My son comes out modeling the jeans he bought. Sixty yards of denim hanging off him! Huge clown jeans," said Allen, pacing with microphone in hand. "First time my wife washed it, she threw her back out dragging it out the dryer. Six months she's walking around like Quasimodo. People in church go, what happened? 'Denim injury. Now excuse me, it's my turn to ring the church bells.'"

Allen shuffled across the stage hunchbacked and the 250 people inside the church roared. Between laughter, one woman could be heard saying, "That's so true!"

The term "Christian comedy" draws interesting reactions from the non-devout. Lightweight, ironic, corny — Allen has heard them all. But it's a label the 55-year-old Sauk Village native has accepted, and in turn, Allen has carved out a living this past decade performing almost exclusively in churches.

In the comedy world, R-rated acts are the rule — Comedy Central's "Roast of Charlie Sheen," in which the troubled star was profanely skewered about his sex life and drug addiction, attracted 6.4 million viewers when it premiered in September. But Allen is a big enough name among Christian stand-ups that he'll book 80 gigs a year in front of congregations, earning in one performance the equivalent of two weeks headlining a nightclub. Allen said he grosses six figures annually. Said Dan Rupple, honorary chairman of the Christian Comedy Association, "It's the big ignored revenue stream within American entertainment."

Still, "Christian comedy" is a label even the comics it applies to wrestle with. They view the term as both a benefit and liability: necessary when marketing to their core audience, but burdensome when seeking acceptance from mainstream comedy fans. Viewers of Comedy Central might assume Christian comics proselytize, referencing Jesus every third sentence.

"What you're talking about with Christian comedy is clean comedy," said Bert Haas, executive vice president of the Zanies Comedy Club chain. "It's about non-offensive material ... not going up there to pound the pulpit."

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