June, 2010

Dear Fellow Comics, 

It is an awesome privilege and honor for me to have the opportunity to serve you, my fellow Christian comedians, as president of the board of the Christian Comedians Association.

As you already know, the CCA was formed about 10 years ago with a three-fold purpose:  To facilitate fellowship and networking between our fellow Christians working in the field of comedy.  To raise the awareness of Christian comedy.  To enhance the craft of Christian comedy by encouraging and training Christian Comedians.  What I have come to appreciate most about this organization is how it truly has become a community.  Some of my closest friends in the world are folks I have come into contact with through my connection and involvement in the CCA.  I truly have a network of friends that I have a unique kinship with through a common passion not only for comedy, but also for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

If you don’t know us already, what you will learn about my wife, Lynda, and me is that we have a strong desire to see people connected in safe, authentic relationships.  In short, what we really get excited about is helping to build a strong sense of community. We believe that people thrive when they are connected to a safe, active, healthy community where everyone feels valued and involved.

So exactly how do we build this community?  Lynda and I have led a small group in our church for over a dozen years now.  That group has grown and birthed new groups several times over these past twelve years.  What we have found to be critical in these groups is to take time to let everyone in the group share their life story.  After all, your closest, most intimate, friends are those who know your story (filled with not only your successes in life but also all your shortcomings and failures) and who love you anyway.  That is the kind of authentic community that we would like to help foster in the CCA.

One of my favorite things to do when I am with my comedian friends is to hear and share stories from our experiences as comedians.  If nothing else, there is comfort in knowing that I am not alone in the kinds of experiences we uniquely encounter as comedians.

A story that I have shared often in this setting is an experience that happened to me way back when I was still a novice performer as a college student.  I had landed what was at that time my “dream job” as a young performer.  I was hired to do my comedy ventriloquist act at King’s Island theme park near Cincinnati, Ohio.  It was an incredible opportunity for me to not only get paid to perform, but also to hone my skills as a performer.  I did six 20-minute sets a day, six days a week!  That’s 36 twenty-minute shows a week.

As the “variety” entertainer, I had the privilege of having a few different venues to do my show.  I did a warm-up act at the “International Showplace” (just before the traditional singer-dancer production show).  But I was also called upon to work on a small stage in the corner of a western themed restaurant called “The Columbia Palace Legendary Saloon”.

One particularly hot and crowded summer day I was on my little platform in the corner of “The Columbia Palace Legendary Saloon” putting on my little show.  Now when I say it was crowded, I mean it was jam-packed crowded.  People had to stand out in the scorching sun and wait in line just to get in to the air-conditioned, but over-crowded and noisy restaurant.  And it was my job to see to it that these people were sufficiently entertained while they waited on their servers to bring them their over-priced plate of four fried chicken strips, French fries, and a cold beer or a coke.  On this particular day, people really weren’t all that interested in being entertained.  They were mostly just seeking relief from the hot sun and looking for a place to take a break, sit down, get something to eat, and move on.

Nonetheless, it was my job to entertain these people whether they wanted to be entertained or not.  Now I’m not the kind of entertainer that ever wants to “phone in” a performance.  But it became very obvious to me that these people just weren’t with me.  Watching some young redheaded college student with puppets on a small stage in the corner of the restaurant was clearly not what these people had come in for.  Yet I dutifully plowed through my performance as best as I could.  I finally came to the “grand finale” little musical number where I had not just one but TWO puppets singing back and forth.  Surely two puppets singing would grab the attention of at least a few of these folks and I could take my bow and walk off the stage with at least some applause!  But alas, I finished my grand finale number and all I heard was ONE lone person among the crowd offering me applause.  ONE!  Imagine that.  The sound of just a single person clapping their hands in a room crowded with people.  I turned to the sound of the one person applauding, grateful that I had provided just a little enjoyment to SOMEONE out there in that audience.  Just as I was acknowledging that person applauding by humbly nodding my head and saying “thank you very much”, I realized that the person to whom I was looking was not even applauding.  It was a guy who had a ketchup bottle in his hands and he was slapping the bottom of the bottle to get the ketchup onto his plate of chicken strips and French fries!

As I think about what I want to share with you in this space here on the CCA website, what I would most like to share are YOUR stories of YOUR unique experiences out there working as a Christian Comedian.  Please share with me what’s happening with you out there.  I would love to share some of those experiences and stories with all the folks here in the CCA.  I want the CCA to be the kind of community where we are each other’s biggest fans and cheerleaders.  I want to be someone that you can count on to truly applaud for you!

I look forward to serving you all as CCA board president in the coming months and years.  Please make sure that you mark your calendars for the CCA National Conference in Southern California, January 9-11, 2011.  We will be posting more specific details soon.  Feel free to e-mail me if you have any ideas or suggestions you want me to know about regarding the conference.  And please e-mail me your stories!  I’d love to hear from you.

David Pendleton

david@anythingcantalk.com