For a guy who tells jokes for a living, Jeff Allen can be pretty serious.

He gets funny and semi-serious in his new book, co-written with Martha Bolton, My Life as a Bystander (Broadman & Holman Publishers, $12.99), which presents a humorous look at marriage and family life.

The Chicago native, 49, who now resides in Fairview with his wife of 19 years and their two sons, ages 21 and 18, has been a stand-up comic in secular and Christian worlds for 25 years. He performs at 6 p.m. July 10 at Zanies, where he also will peddle copies of his book.

"As the kids got older, my wife and I realized how we were telling stories about things from the past. . . . So I started jotting down and making some notes. I told a publisher about it, told him I had a few chapters and showed them to him," said Allen. "When he asked me if I could write some more, I said, 'Sure, I can make up a bunch more lies.'

"There's enough truth in it but enough embellishment to make it a work of fiction. It comes after years of raising kids, but it's not a how-to book. It's supposed to be a fun book.

"My dad and his generation used to sit on a couch and point and tell people what to do. I tried to be a bystander, and God had other plans. You had to participate. This was kind of my way of letting my kids know I was there and I paid attention."

In the book, Allen — who works 125 to 150 gigs a year, performing everywhere from comedy clubs and corporate shows to churches — comments on such topics as his bouts with hypochondria, leaving his dirty underwear on the floor and buying the Popeil Pocket Fisherman. But he also gets into how to better communicate with your mate and how to be more respectful, and he shares life lessons he has learned along the way.

"Now when I walk out of my underwear on the way to the shower . . . I kick them under the bed. That way she can't see them," he writes.

Allen, who has twice headlined the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., and who just joined the big cast of the Bill Gaither Homecoming shows, really has come a long way since his 15 years of abusing drugs and alcohol. In that former life, he had fans in Boston that nicknamed him "Mr. Psycho."

"I was a raving lunatic, a pretty angry and jaded guy. Between the alcoholism, drug addiction and self-pity, somehow I felt the world owed me something," said Allen.

"I knew I needed help. The catalyst came when I beat my 6-month-old son in a crib. I shared that story at Family Fest with Bill Gaither, and my then-12-year-old son heard it and came over and said, 'Was I that son?' and I said, 'Yeah,' and he told me, 'I forgive you.' "

Allen cleaned up with the help of Alcoholics Anonymous.

"I was so angry when I got in those rooms. They told me to pray, and I said, 'To what?' I found the world doesn't revolve around you. Alcoholics are so self-centered. They said, 'You're not the end all.' That was the beginning. I didn't know what else to do but get on my knees and just pray and that was where it all began."

For a funny guy, Allen is serious in the right places. •