In anticipation for his Laff Hole show with Neil Hamburger on Wednesday at Chop Suey, Seattle Comedy Blog got a chance to chit-chat with Jeff Breakfast (above), our favorite God-fearing comedian since Hezekiah the Hilarious. Enjoy!
Seattle Comedy Blog: For those who aren’t familiar with your comedy styling, how would you describe your humor in three words?
Jeff Breakfast: Side-splitting, classy, crucifixion
SCB: What got you started in the seedy world of stand-up comedy? You don’t see alot of preachers doing comedy away from the pulpit.
JB: People say that laughter is the best medicine. Those people are wrong. Holiness is the best medicine, but the point here is that people love medicine. They are breaking into pharmacies to get it. Well, God is the pharmacist with open arms who invites you to break in to his pharmacy. And his oxycontin won’t make you have phantom itching. I have a saying… Come to the comedy club for laughter, but go home laughing at God.
SCB: I remember, the last time I saw you at Chop Suey, you got the whole audience singing. What was that song again and what role does music have in your comedy?
JB: What a special night of tiny miracles that evening was! The response of the audience was a blessing. I have to believe that they sang along because it was written on their heart of hearts.
“I had no glory in my life, I had no glory in my soul/
I needed someone, someone beside me, someone to fill my glory hole/
Oh glory hole, hallelujah! Oh glory hole, hallelujah! He came and now he’s going to stay/
Oh glory hole, hallelujah! Oh glory hole, hallelujah! He whitewashed my sins away.”
Music is great for filling awkward silences. I perform a lot of music in my show. People ask me which celebrated hymns I am so beautifully singing. But I write all the songs. I sing in the shower. I have ruined a lot of accordions that way. I usually write the songs in tongues, which makes for difficulty in translating them. On a side note I am in the looking-for-investors stage of bringing a tongues-to-English translation engine for the Internet.
SCB: You’re opening for Neil Hamburger on Wednesday in Seattle. Seems like an unlikely match. What’s the connection there?
JB: I was preaching on a street corner outside of what I thought was a bar. There was a lineup of the worst kind of people I had ever been ignored by. Dirty, stinky, angry, Come to find out these weren’t merely alcoholics. Much worse—they were comedy fans.
One of them knocked the megaphone right out of my hands and the batteries rolled into the gutter. Well, while I was praying that the lord would deliver unto me from on high four C batteries, the line disappeared into the club and I heard this voice crowing. Someone from inside was rebuking them on the mic. This was a sort of moral outrage I had never been witness to. He was berating these heathens and hallelujah if they weren’t taking it. And they had paid for the privilege. We forged an unlikely friendship.
Mr. Hamburger has the vegetables of the holy spirit. You’ve heard of the fruit of the holy spirit. Love joy peace, blah blah blah. But few people know about the vegetables of the Holy Spirit. Rage, spite, dismay, disdain. throat-clearing, drink throwing. I know he’s on a path to hell, but maybe God can turn him around 360 degrees on that path.
SCB: Why should people come to the show on Wednesday?
JB: This might be their last chance to laugh. What with the rapture happening on Saturday.
See Jeff Breakfast this Wednesday, along with Brody Stevens and Neil Hamburger at Laff Hole.
