While most kids I knew were busy watching reruns of the Brady Bunch, I grew up on old black and white comedies like His Gal Friday with Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell, and The Ghost and Mr. Chicken with Don Knotts. What can I say? My parents had me - by accident - later in life, and I was raised on old-style comedy. Back then, the comic dialog wasn't "in your face obvious" but quick and subdued. If you weren't paying attention, you'd miss the punchline. By the same token, the slapstick stylings of Charlie Chaplin and Lou Costello were impossible to ignore.
New Year's Day, a few friends and I made our way to McCurdy's Comedy Theatre, featuring headliner Dale Jones, where it became immediately apparent that he had that old-style way of blending exaggerated physical movements with a few subtle lines, so during those rare moments when a joke went over someone's head, he still got a laugh.
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"How did you develop that unique style of juxtaposing the physical aspects of comedy with your dialog and vocal delivery?" I lasked him after having seen the show. "Because, that kind of thing just doesn't happen overnight."
"Insecurity," Dale Jones admitted. "I started off doing straight monologuing, while the other guys on stage were using physical comedy. My first open mic, I got one laugh, and only because I messed up the punchline and got flustered. I soon realized that if I did something to look stupid, even if the audience missed the joke, they would still laugh."
Perhaps insecurity and a bit of anxiety turn out to be the mother of invention, as Jones' act combines slap-stick with "machine gun" style delivery, mixed with modern themes and a lot of self-deprecating humor. Comedy, which by nature "takes no prisoners" always seems to victimize a person, place or thing. Yet, the audience that night would be hard pressed to find a single occasion when Jones poked fun at anyone but himself.
"Is your self-deprecating humor an artistic choice because it's funnier, or because you would rather not joke at someone else's expense?
"Well, I got picked on as a kid, and there was a bit of that sense of if I picked on me, than no one else would," Jones replied. "But I also remember this one time at an open mic, where there was this guy in the front row wearing large glasses. He wore them, because he needed them, but every comic before me went on stage and made fun at this poor man and his glasses. I went up there, and I just made fun of me. Sometimes, I think people get the impression that those of us onstage are somehow better than other people. By only picking on myself, I'm kindof leveling the playing field. After all, I remember what it's like to drive a fork lift and work 15-hour days. When you go to a comedy club to relax after a long day, you want to laugh, and not leave feeling uncomfortable because somebody made fun of you."
Jones, whose comic career began back in 1993 after a few co-workers dared him to do a stand-up routine at a local open mic night, has come a long way from those days when he'd travel twelve hours - one way - to deliver a twenty minute stand-up routine, only to drive another twelve hours back, for meager pay. While the traveling can still be intense, he's cut back a bit from his former 50-week travel adventures.
"Ok, where did Mom's Machine come from?" I asked the comedian who - save for a line or two traded with fellow stand-ups - does all his own writing. On Jones' website is a link to Mom's Machine which consists of a series of long winded answering machine messages to his mother. However, unlike the typical "mom" comedy where the mother is usually complaining about the son that never calls, In Dale's case, his mama never calls back!
"Mom's Machine was my version of a blog. Most comedians have an online blog where they tell jokes, but I've always felt more comfortable speaking vs. writing. I could use my tone of voice and dialog in a routine that may not work really well on stage, but is perfect for the internet."
Jones was en route to Birmingham, Alabama following the interview, so I left him with one final question, "If you hadn't taken that dare, do you think you'd be a comic today?"
"I don't know," he answered honestly, after a pause. "My whole life I never had a specific ambition to pursue any one occupation. The only thing that I ever wanted to do was make people laugh."
Dale Jones has been doing just that, making people laugh, nationwide. To find out when he's coming to your town, visit www.dalejonescomic.com.
