By Buddy Roberts
Returning home from dinner, Joy the comedian, the Queen of Clean, was greeted by an automatic garage door that refused to open.
“I’m not believing this,” she said, interrupting the interview she was doing by cell phone to break into a monologue about the uncooperative appliance. “Is this thing on crack, or what? It’s making me do the manual thing here. I hope I remember that when I go out at 5 o’clock in the morning, so I don’t back rig
ht through it. See? I told you. My whole life is an episode.”
It’s an episode she happily shares, turning her observations on everyday life into a stand-up comedy act that’s had Birmingham-area audiences laughing for more than three years. The
How she got started: "Along the way, people told me I was funny, so I did an amateur night. I really began working it when I learned it is possible to make a living doing it. Besides, it's fun. It's a good thing to make people laugh."
Where does comedy material come from? "My whole life is material. Crazy stuff will happen. Those of us who have wonderful things called children are blessed with lots of material. I'm always telling my daughter, 'You made the show again.' She's not a teenager yet, so the best material from her is still on the way. Relationships -- bad relationships, good relationships, no relationship at all -- are good material. You get good material from your job, too, and church is another place. We are hilarious in church. It's all about everyday observations, and if something is funny to me, I can usually make it funny to other people as well."
Does she take suggestions for material? "Sometimes people suggest things, but it works better if it's something I've observed myself, something that makes me say, 'Hmm...this is weird.' Like helping my daughter with her homework. I have a college degree, but I can't do fourth grade homework. It makes me want to ask her teacher, 'What are you doing to me? I didn't do anything to you.'"
Another example: "A talk show I was watching did a segment about how to host a party. I thought, 'That's a dumb segment. All you need is some chicken and the Electric Slide. That's a party.' What they should have done a segment about is how to tell your relatives not to take home to-go plates if they didn't bring anything. We need to find a way to stop those people."
Why she works clean: "Two reasons. I'm a mother, and I believe parents should lead by example. I can't tell my daughter, 'Watch what I do, but don't say some of the things I say.'"
On the use of profanity: "I've heard many comedians say they feel that they have to use it in their acts. It's easy and simple, which is why it gets used as a crutch. I don't curse in my everyday life -- I used to, but I don't do it any more -- so I'm not going to do i
t when I perform.
Her favorite leisure activity: "Eat. Eat. Eat. Something with chicken. I could eat chicken 24/7."
The last joke someone told her: "It was actually something that happened to me. This guy came up and told me he had a crush on me, which was funny because he was every bit of 76 years old. I said, 'Couldn't you be a little younger?' Then I wished I'd asked about his insurance policy before I said no. He could've had a million dollars."
