FAITH & FAMILY: Godly humor

Consider the faith-based stand-up comedy DVDs Apostles of Comedy: The Movie and the Thou Shalt Laugh series. Even at its raunchiest, Christian comedy doesn’t go above PG-13, but every pious performer looks to an F word for inspiration: Funny.

“I don’t like the term 'Christian comedy,’” says Phil Cooke, a writer and director whose Cooke Pictures produced the Thou Shalt Laugh DVDs, which feature legendary funny guy Tim Conway and former SNL player Victoria Jackson. “A more accurate term would be 'comedians who happen to be Christians.’”

Although Christians can do comedy, comedy about Christianity is problematic, making sure you don’t cross the line into what could be considered sacrilegious. “Religious comedy is hard to do,” says Father Frank Desiderio, president of Paulist Productions, which is why his company has no plans to produce in the genre.

Anchor Bay Entertainment is venturing into that area, serving up Tortilla Heaven on Oct. 14 (prebook Sept. 16), with comedian George Lopez playing a priest in a film set in a quirky New Mexico town that goes haywire when the face of Jesus appears on a tortilla.

Tortilla Heaven writer-director Judy Hecht Dumontet says balancing the sacred with the slapstick was like walking a tightrope. “Underneath the comedy, I hope there is a message in the film,” she says. “There’s a fine line between reverence and irreverence.”

“Good star power without a message is not interesting to the Christian consumer,” says Cara Withers, Fox Faith marketing director. Producers hoping for hits should, she says, “focus on a good story with wide-appealing Judeo-Christian values and no gratuitous language, sex or violence.”

“Christian comedy reminds me of comedy 20 years ago,” says Gary Kipfer, founder of FamilyChristianMedia.com, which specializes in comedy titles such as stand-up comic Anita Renfroe’s It’s Probably Just My Thyroid. “You didn’t have to go into the gutter to get a laugh about family situations.”

Most praying pranksmen aren’t out to proselytize but to simply clean the filth out of the funny. “I have to admit being a little frustrated with how much profanity is in comedy these days,” Thou Shalt Laugh’s Cooke says. “We’re way past the shock issue. George Carlin used profanity to make an important statement about society, but with most comedians today, it’s simply a crutch.”

Apostle’s Allen echoes Cooke’s concerns. Allen peppers his routines with bits about his family, especially his son, who went from a bumbling teen to a mature Iraq War veteran. “I’m counterculture now,” says Allen. “My friends who are not Christians, they’re pretty spicy in their language. I’m tired of filth for filth’s sake. If you work clean, you have to use the language to make your points.”

Best place to see a Christian comic? Church, of course. Allen says his house of worship workload has gone up in recent years. “Two of my clients work 60 to 70 dates a year in church-related events,” Allen’s manager, Lenny Sisselman, says.

Depending on where Allen is performing, sometimes more than just the comic’s “potty mouth” is left on the cutting room floor. “If I go into a comedy club, I do the same show I would in front of a church group, but I don’t share my [religious] journey at the club,” says the veteran comic, who says he “found Christ” 12 years ago, after doing stand-up since the late ’70s.

Not every comic agrees, however, that leaving your religious beliefs at the velvet rope is a wise choice. “I think a Christian comic is someone that makes you laugh while sharing the story of Jesus,” stand-up comic Bob Smiley says. “I try to do that at every show I do. If you are going to add the 'Christian’ part to your job title, then you ought to have the message of Christ in your show.”