By Yvonne Dennis (246)
Comedian Chuck Nice might just as aptly be called Chuck Profound, Chuck Easy-Going and most definitely Chuck Hilarious.
The platforms for this Central graduate-turned entertainer include comedy clubs, podcasts, television and radio. And the topics on which he delivers his insights aren’t just the easy, pop-culture, low-hanging mental fruit designed to generate a quick laugh. He’s a student of science, relationships, politics, and on and on.
“Every subject is funny,” he says while sipping coffee at a Midtown Manhattan shop on a recent Friday afternoon. “Some people say there’s no such thing as a funny rape joke. Rape is not funny but there are funny rape jokes. And I know that sounds contradictory but it isn’t.
“We live in a very politically correct society and just the mention of something that is ostensibly taboo becomes the taboo itself and that’s not the way it works. There are some jokes as a means of irony, and some jokes through the means of sarcasm are anti- whatever you’re talking about. But then you got some dummy who basically is two points shy of being clinically brain dead who goes ‘Wow you can’t joke about that. That’s wrong.’ And I go, ‘Well, did you listen to the joke? The joke just actually says what you said. That’s wrong. That’s the point of the joke, through humor to point out that what we’re talking about is unacceptable and the people will get that when they finish laughing.”
Chuck will be doling his adult humor back in the Philly area on Friday April 22 when he headlines the Evening of Comedy to Benefit Abington Police Athletic League, 7:30 p.m. at the Keswick Theatre in Glenside, Pa.
“One of our detectives knew Chuck and has seen him at his shows,” said Detective Sgt. Greg Urban of the Abington Police Department. “I looked him up on the computer and saw several clips of his work. I enjoyed what I saw and reached out to him and asked if he would do our show as the headliner. After speaking with Chuck I knew it was the best choice. When you speak to Chuck you can feel his energy and humor.”
That energy can start early morning with an appearance on the “Today” show’s Guys Tell All segment, during which women ask questions of men “and we tell then what men really think about what they want to know,” says Chuck.
Or Chuck may be co-hosting a “StarTalk” podcast with Astrophysicist/Hayden Planetarium Director Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson. He also has his own podcast called “Nice Advice.” How it works is “I read advice columns and blogs, then I read the answers given and then my guest and I will tell you why that’s wrong and what the people should really do. It’s really just a premise to make fun of people’s pain. Which I’m totally fine with because I’m a comedian. If it weren’t for pain I wouldn’t have an act.”
Chuck has hosted televisions shows including “Buy Like A Mega Millionaire,” on HGTV, “The Juice” on Veria Living and “The Hot Ten” on Centric. On the day after this Friday interview he was set to shoot a television pilot.
“Most likely it’ll fail,” he says. “That’s the way most pilots go. I don’t ever get my hopes up about anything until I’ve signed the contract and I’m sure that I won’t have to sue the people to get my money. Then I get excited.”
The veteran entertainer says most things in the business don’t work out and you have to be ok with that. “You have to be a person who takes rejection very well. And in high school I wasn’t a very good-looking guy. But I still didn’t mind talking to women. So all of that rejection prepared me perfectly for what I do right now.”
As a family man married for 18 years, Chuck makes it a practice to work as much as possible in his adopted home of New York. “I have a 16-year-old daughter, I have a 10-year-old son and I have a 2- year-old daughter, because I’m an idiot and even though I’m a comedian I have terrible timing.”
Putting the jokes aside for a moment, Chucks says his favorite thing to do with his kids is spend time with them individually. “It lets you see how different your children are as people. They really are diverse and varied personalities. ”
Though he may live in New York, Chuck is still Philly in many ways, including with regards to his sports loyalties.
“Philadelphia sports sucks ass right now and I’m cool with that. May Chip Kelly rest in peace and by that I mean go to hell.”
Chuck can’t remember the last time he was at his high school alma mater but he certainly remembers “being up on the blacktop playing football; walking up the hill; changing in the hallway at my locker,” because it was pre-girls then.
He also remembers, of course, important life lessons he took from the school. “Central High was not about being smart. Smart people went there and still go there. That got you in. What kept you there, aside from performance, was being intellectually curious. Most comedians are intellectually curious people. You have to be. You never know where the joke is going to come. People say to me all the time, ‘God, how do you know about this, how do you know about that? You must read everything.’ I do I read everything because I never know where I’m going to find a joke.”
Chuck and a few close classmates still get together whenever he entertains in the Philly area and they’re planning on it again for the PAL night.
The comedy show is one of the two major fundraisers Abington PAL hosts, says Detective Sgt. Urban, so it is an important event for the organization.
“This is a great night for the community and the surrounding communities to come together and meet some of our officers, have some laughs and help a great cause,” he says. “For Chuck to make time in his busy schedule to do a show for the children in our area is a tribute to the kind of person he has become. We can’t thank him and the other comedians enough.”
