Jeff Allen bringing clean humor to Phoenix
Early in Jeff Allen’s comedy career, he struggled with anger, drug use and alcoholism. His sets back then incorporated politics and expletives.
Now a 40-year veteran in the industry, Allen, 63, has retired all of those things and found success in being clean, on stage and off. His comedy sets, seen in “Happy Wife, Happy Life, Revisited” and “Bananas,” have found broad audiences with jokes about married life and parenting children who are going through puberty.
His latest tour, “The America I Grew Up In,” comes to Stand Up Live Phoenix on Thursday, Jan. 23.
Becoming a “clean corporate comedian,” which is how Allen is advertised on his website, was a winding journey that involved a near-divorce, Alcoholics Anonymous, IRS audits and a potty mouth incident with his son, he told The Arizona Republic.
From crude to clean humor
Allen compares his early comedy to “puking bile,” which put a strain on his marriage. To this day, he said, “the kids were never privy to the way I talked about their mother on stage.” But various factors encouraged a change in attitude in his late 30s.
When he joined a 12-step program, he began an “inward journey” and eventually found his Christian faith. Allen has been sober for more than 30 years.
While living in Peoria for six years, Allen and his wife Tami were financially unstable and on the brink of divorce. It was when he was audited by the IRS that he came to the realization that it wasn’t his house or his belongings that mattered, but his wife and kids.
“That’s kind of the beginning of my
change,” Allen said. “I started fighting for my marriage at that point, when I realized I was trying to cling to all that (material) stuff.
Then when his son got in trouble as a fourth grader for calling his teacher a “nasty, foul name,” he decided it was time to clean up his language, too.
“I heard a phrase years ago that profanity gives people permission to not hear what you have to say,” Allen said. “People may not think I’m funny, but they’re not walking out because it’s offensive.”
“I was just an angry human being,” Allen said. Now, “the malice is gone. There’s a lot more joy in what I do.”
Accepting the Christian comedian label
At some point during his 40-year career, after he found his faith in his 40s, Allen became known as a Christian comedian.
“I’m not certainly ashamed of my faith, so I don’t mind that,” Allen said.
The label invites some skepticism, he said, whether it’s his fans disagreeing with his decision to continue performing in clubs — “I don’t have a problem with it. I don’t see why that’s a violation of my faith” — or others doubting his humor.
“Even Christians look at (the Christian label) and go, ‘He must not be very funny.’ ”
Why Jeff Allen stays non-political
Not only was finding his faith beneficial for Allen’s comedy, but so was cutting out the politics.
“I learned back in the ‘90s that I was never more miserable in my life than when I focused my heart on politics. Politics gave me an outlet for all the anger that was inside of me; I was able to direct it at something,” he said.
“It wasn’t very funny. All it was was a bunch of opinions that I spewed.”
Perhaps cutting the politics out of his sets is what has earned Allen invitations to perform across the world for military troops, corporate events and a gala celebrating President George W. Bush’s inauguration in 2005.
At the gala, Allen’s routine was preceded by political figures, he said. When he got on stage, “I said, ‘I don’t do politics,’ and the place applauded.’
The choice to perform at the gala garnered some criticism, even before the era of social media.
A listener who enjoyed hearing Allen on a radio show emailed him to let him know, “I went to your website and did not realize you were a right-wing freak,” he said.
“I said, ‘One, I didn’t realize I’m a right-wing freak either. And two, it was the president of the United States. And I would do it for any president, regardless of the political affiliation. The office overrides, to me, anyway.”
It’s difficult to completely stay away from politics in an election year, though, and Allen dips his toes in the 2020 election with one joke on his tour.
“I talk about higher learning, and I say I went to school with a 2.0 grade average, so higher learning is not for everybody. But if Bernie gets elected president and makes college free, I’m going,” Allen said. “So glad you did away with that meritocracy thing; it was getting in my way of an education!”
On his website, Allen displays a badge for a nonprofit called Save the Storks, which provides pregnancy tests, ultrasounds and counseling to discourage women from seeking abortions. As an advocate for the organization, he doesn’t see the partnership as a political decision.
“Today, it’s such a divisive issue. To me, it’s kind of a no-brainer. Why wouldn’t you want every choice made available to you and make an educated decision?” he said. “I’d like people to go and make their own decision if this is something they’d like to get behind and donate to.”