This is an I Heart podcast. Guaranteed human. Comedy saved me. And so when you watch a great comic on stage, you might be seeing them in this video and in Netflix or whatever. That bit that they're doing has taken, you know, usually a year plus to develop. Welcome to another episode of the comedy saved me podcast. I'm your host, Lynn Hoffman and lucky me today, we are thrilled to welcome renowned comedian, political satirist, satirist or satirist? Not sure. And social commentator, Jimmy tingle. Now with a career spanning stand up, television, radio and film, Jimmy is known for his sharp wit, insightful humor and heartfelt storytelling from his appearances on everything from, Oh, 60 minutes to the tonight show to his collect, to his acclaimed one man shows and activism. Jimmy's unique comedic voice has inspired and uplifted audiences nationwide. And in this episode, we'll explore how comedy has shaped his life, provided resilience through challenges and become a tool for social change. Jimmy tingle, the man, the myth, the legend is here with us today on comedy saved me. Welcome to the show. It's so great to have you here. So great to be here, Lynn. Thanks so much for having me. Well, thank you for being had. I know I don't have a lot of time with you. So I want to start off with what first drew you to comedy? Was it a television show? Was it an album you listened to? What was it? Oh, boy, probably the funniest stuff that we heard as kids, we watched the honeymooners with the whole family, you know, back with Jackie Gleason and Art Connie and the June Taylor dances. That was a great show on Sunday nights. You know, that, you know, as I get older, more things like, Oh, the movie Lenny about Lenny Bruce, but Dustin Hoffman was really influential, sat it in that live when I first came on the air, you know, in the early 70s. And, you know, watching the tonight show with Johnny and the people that he would have on, especially in college, we had would sit around the dorms and would watch like, well, sat in there live. And then, of course, the tonight show with Johnny and all those guests that they would have on, we just had a blast watching it. It was, you know, it was inspiring. And, yeah, so what really got me into it, though, is when the comedy club opened up in my hometown in my neighborhood in Cambridge, it was called the Ding Hole. It was a Chinese restaurant slash comedy club. And it opened up in Cambridge and that was like two blocks from my house. And they were having an open mic night. And one of my friends from high school, Lenny Clark, also a comedian. He was hosting an open mic night on Wednesday nights. And I was interested in performing, but I didn't have I didn't play an instrument really. I didn't, you know, sing. But comedy was something that you could do just by basically talking and telling stories and jokes and stuff. So that's that was really my first intro into it. The open mic nights back in like 79, 80, 81. Yeah, that's when I first started. Wow. And it didn't take you long, too. I mean, what 88 was you end up on the on the Carson show, which is the pinnacle at that time. What I but I need to know before that happened. When did you realize it was more than just making people laugh? Did did you know that there was healing things involved there going on? Well, I knew that, you know, there were people like George Carlin and people like Richard Pryor, of course, there were big influences on everybody. And like I said, Lenny Bruce and, you know, Mutsal, those folks were using comedy laughing in the 60s and 70s. There was more social commentary along with just the stand up component, you know. So and my friend Barry Cremens worked at the Ding-Ho as well. He was the booker and the founder of the Ding-Ho and he was doing political humor. And I was just talking about what was going on in the news. So I knew that it could be it could be effective. Yeah, there was there was a track record of people who admitted had used it effectively from Will Rogers to Mark Twain to, like I said, Pryor and Carlin and Lenny Bruce and Mutsal and all those folks. And of course, the skits on Saturday Night Live, you know, all of those were talking about really what was going on in the in the society at the time. And it was just it was funny and it was fun to when I went to college, I studied sociology, political science, history, you know. So it was fun to approach the comedy with that kind of a background and that kind of an insight because that because that's what I was studying in school. And that's the one I was supposed to be learning about, which I was very interested in and it kind of just translated into not always, but eventually it just evolved into more social commentary and along with the laughs. Yeah, you know, it's funny you say that about college because I studied, you know, journalism and broadcasting. But for some reason, I felt like I need to know how to talk to people. So I took my secondary was abnormal psychology. And I like had no idea how well that would help me in my life. Moving forward, you're in the right field. Can you share or remember a moment when comedy helped you through a difficult time in your life? Does anyone time stand out to you? Yeah, I mean, well, we worked in bars and, you know, I was a heavy drinker. And a friend of mine said, if you have a quit drinking, you know, you could do really well, you could do well in comedy. And, you know, that was very attractive to me. The idea of actually being successful in this field. But as you know, and as you know, it's very difficult to fulfill your potential as a comic or an actor or any field. If you're a really heavy drinker at a young age, it just is. It just is in the way. And so it was in the way for me. It was screwing up a lot of things in my life. So that was the biggest thing. But when when he put he connected, this guy connected my comedy career to quit and drinking. That was like that was like the magic bullet that really got my attention and and helped me to it'll motivate me to really try very hard to quit drinking, which I was able to do. So that was really, really good with the help of a lot of other people and, you know, the higher power and everything else, not just me. But so that was the comedy was a real game changer like that. Because respect. What? That's like an epiphany moment. When someone says that to you, how did you react initially? Were you were you offended? I was so encouraged. No, I was encouraged. I was encouraged because it's a very depressing substance. I think if you drink every day for an extended period of time, you can't help but being hung over all the time, put it and hung over, I guess, is a form of depression. So it was just it was kind of a darker time, even though I loved performing and being in the clubs and the camaraderie and all the people that were around and the audiences, that was a blast. But the hangovers were a killer, you know? And and yeah. And so it was like this reason. It was a really strong reason, a strong motivation to try to make a real solid effort to get sober. And so that's the path I went down and it's worked for the last 35 years. So so it was but without the comedy, I don't know if I would have got that incentive. You know what I mean? I don't know if something else would have caught my attention, maybe, but maybe not. You know, so it was definitely a game changer. Sounds like a great combination between a mentor, someone who's going to just say a straight shooter like it is. And yeah, what you love to do was like that perfect storm that that. Well, he was a comic also. He was a comic and he said, you know, I'm in the business and you know, you're you're you're good. You could be really good, you know, if you. So that was that was a big thing. In what ways do you think humor can help people cope with with adversity or trauma? I mean, we're in the middle of a horrible mental health crisis of epic proportions today. Yeah. How do you think that? Well, I don't know if comedy alone can, you know, I don't know if comedy alone can. You know, help people, I'm sure put you in a better mood. That's for sure. I think if people were doing. You know, comedy around mental health issues in maybe facilities or hospitals or to. Two people who were, you know, had those issues. Then they maybe somebody who had their own mental health issues, you know, is doing comedy around those issues. That can definitely help. I mean, there's a comic friend of mine, Gary Gullman, who, you know, had severe depression and talks about it on stage and did a one person show about it called the Great Depression. It's a great special, but he addresses depression on stage. And I know that thousands of people have reached out to him about that issue and their personal challenges with that. So in that sense, it can help. It can because you're communicating with people, the comedy, you're communicating with people. But the laughter itself is, it's not, it's got to be more than laughter. It's got to be the follow up and the work that is involved, whether it's getting sober or whatever it is, you know, mental health issues or getting help, you know, but it can be a motivator because it's fun. It's fun to listen to. It's fun to laugh at. And it's fun to know that you're not alone. Right there, right at right there. It's fun to know you're not alone. I mean, that that's huge. Yeah. And because it's obviously a communication medium, you're telling people and he was doing his that part of his story. I do some of that in my in my shows. And people, people respond because, like you said, it is a it's a national epidemic, the mental health issue. And so is the the addiction and the, you know, whether it's alcohol or drugs or whatever it is, you know, we'll be right back with more of the comedy, save me podcast. Welcome back to the comedy, save me podcast. I want to talk to you a bit about your craft and your process. I want to say a few years back, maybe in the 2000s, what do they call them? The odds now or something? Yeah, the early 2000s. I was fortunate enough to know someone who took me to Joan Rivers at the cutting room, where I found out when I got there was this little room in the back where she would test out all her material. And she would just put these big like she'd write her jokes and throw them on the floor so she could see them on the stage floor while she was. I had no idea that's what I was going to see. What is your process about writing new material and and testing it out on your audience is especially if you're dealing with things, you know, of a serious or political topics where you really have to be extra creative. Well, I wish I was as organized as Joan Rivers and I have little place to go with big. It's it's really trial and error. You know, you get an idea, you write it down. Sometimes it's just in your head and you present it to people and my process is basically how much more of an oral. I don't, you know, some folks write it down in every word and it's perfectly and they memorize it. And again, I'm just I've never been that disciplined and that organized to write it down to that extent. Although I'm a big fan of people who do and it's good to hear that that Joan was doing that. But I write a set list and I have ideas and I present them to a live audience. And the thing is you don't know really if something's going to work until you do it. Yeah, that's the only way to tell. It sounds great on paper. Right. It sounds good on paper, but it depends on, you know, how the audience reacts. And also having a safe place to do it, having places that you can do it because you have to fail. You have to fail. And that's part of the process in terms of just presenting new material. And that's that no one likes to fail. Nobody likes to be in front of a bunch of people with a great idea. Go and they do it and nothing. It's like it's embarrassing. But it's part of the process. As that happened to you and if it has, how do you handle that with an audience? You just keep going. Really? You just keep going. Yeah. Yeah. You keep going. These days I record most of my sets and I can listen to them and see what worked and what didn't. And, you know, I've gotten much better and much more disciplined as I've evolved as a comic. But in the early days, you know, the nobody was video, video and everything. And nobody had, not everybody had a, you know, a phone with a, you know, you couldn't just record yourself in your phone. So it was much more memory. That's how it basically was for me. Notebook, trying to memorize it and remembering how the audience reacted. That's really how it was in the early days for me anyway. But I would record some of my sets, not all of them, but, you know, enough to remember how they worked and if they didn't work. Yeah. And did you ever have an issue with an audience member or anyone that you had to kind of handle live in the room? I'm just curious how you would deal with that. Oh yeah. I mean, some people are better than others. Some people talk to the audience and, you know, want to solicit back and forth. And I was never my style. I just go up there and go, this is what I've been thinking about. Boom. And just do it. And occasionally people get upset or talk back or whatever. I tend to ignore them more than engage with them honestly. You know, it's not, it's not my style. I don't want to, I'm not, nobody's there to hear that person. They hear this, hey, what I gotta say and my comedy. And so that's what I stick to pretty much. That's incredible. First of all, the fact that you don't write them down and that it's from memory is amazing to me. Well, you know, I write a set list. Like this is what I'm going to do here. This one I'm going to do here. This one I'm going to do here. Like bullet points? And I, yeah, bullet points. Exactly. Exactly. And, and then, and do the bits. And a lot of them are tried and true and you know, they're going to work because you've done them 100 times. Other ones are new. And the only way to work it is to just keep saying it and doing it. And then you listen to the tape and we change word here, change the setup there. So much of it is how you say it, when you say it in the show, you know, what you open with, what you close with, which lines are the funniest, how it builds. I mean, there's a lot that goes into it. And so when you watch a great comic on stage, you might be seeing them in this video and Netflix or whatever that bit that they're doing has taken, you know, usually a year plus to develop. And the only way to do it is over and over and over again. Yeah. Is there anything you're working on right now that you want to test out on me? I don't know why I just wanted to ask you that. I want to be the first to hear something. Not really. I don't have anything right now. I just threw you on the spot. Thank you for asking. That's okay. I've been told that I'm a good audience. So when, when the urge strikes, call me anytime. I'm a good audience. Okay. In what ways do you see comedy as a force for social good and activism? Because I, I do know that I saw, and I'm pretty sure I saw this, that you literally ran for lieutenant governor from Massachusetts, which I think is amazing in and of itself. Yeah. Well, thank you. And I did. And the reason is, is because going back to entertainment, entertainment, like what John Stewart did with the, with the firefighters and getting them the treatment and the healthcare that they deserve, the people who were injured because of the chemicals, right? And getting that and bringing that before Congress and all the hard work that went into that was the result of the hard work behind the scenes. It wasn't the result of the, the jokes necessarily, but that his career as a, as a comic and the, and the, the platform that he has allows him to draw attention to these issues. But the real change is the people in Congress writing, you know, writing the bills and, and enacting them and motivating people and getting people on board to actually change the law. So it's a combination of both the reason area for lieutenant governor, one of the biggest reason was around the substance abuse issue in Massachusetts. And, and I know that their comedy can do a certain amount. Again, give you the platform, tell the jokes, reach the 200 people in front of you or how many people are watching on television. But the real work is in the legislature and in the public, you know, the public awareness and the pressure on the legislature and the pressure on the politicians. And that's where the real change comes wherever, whatever the issue is, you can have cultural awareness through comedy and cultural awareness through entertainment, but entertainment by itself is just a means to a larger end if you're trying to use it for those ends. For example, I started an organization of social enterprise called humor for humanity. And our mission statement is humor for humanity more than entertainment, raising spirits, funds and awareness for non-profits, charities and social causes. Our mission is your mission, humor for humanity, humor in helping, humor in healing, humor and hope. Because of this organization, what I do is I, I love comedy. I try to use not every night, but a lot of the time I'm using, I'm doing fund raises basically for non-profits. And I emcee and I perform and I can do the auctions and help raise money. And we've raised a lot of money over the last 10, 15 years for organizations. So it's not the comedy, the comedy is one component of the fundraiser, but the fundraiser and the non-profit that's doing the work, whether it's around, you know, child development or substance abuse or rehabs or treatment centers or any of that type of thing. It's the people on the ground doing the work in the trenches that are really changing things. But the comedy is a great gift and a great entree into that in terms of an entertaining component to draw attention to that particular issue and that particular non-profit. So that's been a lot of fun doing that. What better way? Did you enjoy the process at all? Or was it more grueling than you thought it would be, even though you bring such great light? Yeah, yeah. Oh, the process is pretty grueling. Did I enjoy it? I love meeting the people. I loved, you know, being on the stump. I don't know if I enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed doing the humor for humanity. Because the humor for humanity, I just have more freedom. There's the direct effect with the non-profits. And if they raise, you know, $100,000, it's a big deal, you know? It's especially a smaller one. Some of the events we've done have raised a lot of money for large hospitals. They've raised, you know, a million where I was the emcee and auctioneer. But most of them are on the smaller end of, you know, moderate non-profits. And they have their budgets aren't huge. So $50,000 here and $100,000 there or $20,000 here, that's a big deal and it helps them. So, and that's what I like to do. Well, I think it's amazing. And I also think it's so selfless of you to have had the cahonis to do it, to begin with. Like, you know, I really, I really applaud your efforts on that. And I think it's amazing because basically at the core, you just want to help others. And I think that's such an amazing thing. Yeah, but running for office is like that's a job. And my, and the human for humanity is a job too. I mean, you know, it's part of my business is what I do. But it serves the most purposes like a public servants, you know, people get paid for running for, well, if you get elected, you get a salary. And same thing with humor for humanity. But it's the, it's where your passion is. That's how people come up with material usually. What are they passionate about? And that's what you see them talking about on stage or on TV. You know, what are they passionate? What, what, what motivates you to write material or come up with this or even want to be in public talking about it? Well, speaking of passion, looking back now that you have a little bit of a hindsight, how would you say comedy has changed you as a person or shaped you as a person? Well, it gives you a great sense of it's empowering. It's empowering to think of something, have an idea and present it to people and you get an immediate reaction and you're like, that was a good idea. Oh, all these people like that. I want to do that again, you know. And so it builds, it can, it, when you, you know, the more you do it and the more successful you become, it builds confidence. It builds a sense of that you can do things. You can, you have, you're not powerless in the world. You have a voice. People listen. People enjoy it. You can make a living at it. And so in that respect, it's been pretty amazing because I never thought I would be doing this when I was growing up. You know, there was, it wasn't as common as it is now. You know, so. Well, everyone has a studio at their house now. Exactly. Exactly. So, but it's, I mean, I was able to go back to school. I was able to run for office. I was able to do a lot of different things in my life, travel all over the world. It broadens your perspective. You meet new people, you know, get to live in New York and LA at different times and travel. And so it's broadened my perspective of the world tremendously, especially trying to keep up with politics and the way that people are doing things. Politics and what's going on in the world. That means it's kind of like your job, you know. Yeah. And your second job. How does that feel to you though, when you've made a difference in someone else's life? Oh, it's great. It's a great feeling. It's a great feeling. You know, I was on the, I did a show last night and one of the things is, you know, I have my own political opinions and I'm on the democratic side of the aisle generally speaking. That's, I've been a lifelong Democrat, but I say in the audience, I say to the Trump supporters, I said, you guys won. Let's see what happens. And I tell a story about how to react after your side of the aisle loses. And, and my friends, I have friends that are Trumpers. You know, they, that's what they like and that's what they voted for. And I said, how am I going to react to these guys? I said, how about just saying congratulations. So when I saw them, I just said, hey man, you guys, you won. Congratulations. On two occasions, this guy lit up. He goes, Jimmy, thank you. I appreciate it. And our kind of relationship went to a different level because he felt heard, he felt respected, and he felt like it's like having a good game, a hard fought, you know, basketball game or sporting event. Red Sox Yankees. Yeah. You shake hands and you're, you know, good game. And you guys won. You got three hits. Good for you. I mean, that's how it was. And I did that on a couple of occasions. It was just, it put the relationship on a different level. So it's not a big thing and it's not even so much of a comedy thing, but you're affecting somebody the way you act offstage as well as onstage. And that's really effective. And of course, when you, when you do something that changes people or helps them with whatever it is, the mental illness issues or the recovery issues or raising money for their charity or their school, or we did one for the school down the street, and they raised a lot of money. They were thrilled. They were thrilled. There's a relatively small nonprofit and there was just a static over it, you know, and it wasn't even millions of dollars or a fair amount of money for that school. And it meant a lot to them. And it's like you're actually putting your ideas and your actions where you're, I mean, you're putting your actions where your ideas are and where your values are. And the companies allowed me to do that, whether it's the jokes or offstage or in the service of the performance for something other than yourself purely. Wow. Jimmy Tingle leading by example, literally and figuratively. I love, I love all that you are doing and, and I love that you stopped by to share that with us because I think it's important. Your angle on life in general is such a great and unique take that people need to hear more of it. I think. Well, thank you. That's very kind of you to say, Lynn. I appreciate it. Thank you. And before I let you go to real quick, are there any projects that you're working on besides what we discussed and what's next where people can see you, all that fun stuff? Sure. Well, I have a film out. It's called Jimmy Tingle, The Radical Middle. Why would a comedian run for office? It's on my website, JimmyTingle.com. So people can watch that for free, ladies and gentlemen, for free. And on my website, I have all my show dates coming up. I'm going to be a Martha's Vineyard and then Tucket in August and Catoot Center for the Arts another second and shows in September and all through the rest of the year. So JimmyTingle.com, you can follow me on Instagram at JimmyTingleHumor. Get some funny clips up there. I think you'll get a big kick out of and, but thanks again for having me, Lynn. And they can always find me there and sign up on my newsletter and I'll keep you in touch and informed about what we're doing. Yeah, find out why he got the last name Tingle. That is my real name. It's awesome. Thank you so much for being on Comedy Stadium. My pleasure, Lynn. Thank you.
