140 - Pig Jokes and Punchlines: Cop Comedian JIm Perry

Some of the funniest people I know are cops.  Comedy is a coping mechanism and humor, even dark humor, helps us regain control over uncontrollable circumstances.  So today I want to introduce you to a cop turned comedian, Jim Perry.  Jim was an officer near Chicago for several years before a medical retirement and now he's a comedian and comedy club owner in Arizona.  We're going to talk about his journey into stand up comedy and why cops are a natural fit to tell jokes, deal with hecklers, and survive when your jokes bomb on stage. 

Hey Chaplain Podcast Episode 140

Music is by Kevin McLeod

Tags:

Police, Alarms, Career, Comedy, Contentment, Family, Grief, Home Security, Injuries, Trauma, Chicago, Arizona, Illinois

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey, you're listening to the Hey Chaplin Podcast, and this is Joe Grisella the third. And hey, you're listening to the Hey Chaplin Podcast, and this is Joe Grisella Jr. That's right. There's two of us, and we're both thanking you for listening to this wonderful show. Welcome to Hey Chaplin. My name is Jared Altic, and I'm a chaplain with the police department. The Hey Chaplin Podcast is about talking to police officers who say, Hey Chaplin, I've got a story to tell and some hard-earned wisdom to share. The guests on Hey Chaplin come from across the world, from the LAPD to Scotland Yard. And they're sharing their wisdom with you because they want you to learn from their mistakes. And as a patrol chaplain, I'm eager for you to hear something positive and encouraging. Some of the funniest people I know are police officers. Comedy is a great coping mechanism, and humor, even dark humor, helps us regain some control over otherwise uncontrollable circumstances. So today I want to introduce you to a cop-turned comedian, Jim Perry. Jim was an officer near Chicago for several years before a medical retirement, but now he's a comedian and comedy club owner in Arizona. We're going to talk about his journey into stand-up comedy and why cops are a natural fit to tell jokes, deal with hecklers, and even survive when your jokes bomb on stage. Here's Jim Perry. Hello, Jim. How are you today?

SPEAKER_02 1:41

I'm good, sir. Thanks for having me. I appreciate you, Jared. Thanks so much.

SPEAKER_00 1:45

Well, I'm glad to be able to get you on. I just saw you perform a set in Kansas City. At the time we record this, it was just a few weeks ago.

SPEAKER_02 1:53

Yeah, Kansas City, uh the Heroes Off Duty comedy tour. Yeah. All first responders were performers and a lot of first responders in the audience. That was that was an awesome time. It was so cool.

SPEAKER_00 2:05

Is that normal? It did seem like there were a lot of first responders in the audience. Is that a typical audience for that show?

SPEAKER_02 2:11

For that comedy show, that is very typical. It's usually first responders or families and friends of first responders. And as a performer who was a first responder, it's awesome because normally my shows are in front of uh civilians, if you will. So it was nice to tailor it in a more personal way. And I almost felt like I was doing it in front of family. And what was cool was I was able to get more transparent and a little bit more real on stage. Um it was just a cool moment. So I really like doing shows for first responders.

SPEAKER_00 2:42

No, it was good. And first of all, you opened. And so you were like, hey, you're setting a tone for the night.

SPEAKER_02 2:48

They call it they call it taking the bullet, which is sometimes tough. That's usually the guy that bombs, but I I had a great set.

SPEAKER_00 2:55

So no, you did. You did great. And you did get real about uh, I think you even mentioned post-traumatic stress and things like that, and just said, you know, hey, this is this is us getting healthier as a community. And I I thought that was really profound. Uh, do you always include that in your sets, or is that really just when you know you have that first responder audience?

SPEAKER_02 3:16

No, what's funny is I've been doing comedy almost 10 years, and in the last six months, I just started interjecting and admitting to the audience that um I was diagnosed with PTSD about 10 years ago. I'm fine, I'm doing really good right now. But my point is, is like where I was struggling as a comedian is I'm up there telling dirty jokes or silly jokes and exaggerating stuff for laughter. And it was like, you know, I need a moment in this set where they know I'm a real person. And what was so awesome about that is when I started admitting that I suffered from PTSD back in the day, I started having people come up to me after my show and talking to me about that. And I'm real involved in my church, I'm real involved in um a program called Celebrate Recovery. I'm good at counseling and talking, and I'm very open about things. But it was cool. I mean, I've had men crying with me, and we're in a we're in a field, me being a retired cop at least, and I was in the service too. And you're in a field where it's not always, at least when I was in, it was not always encouraged to share your feelings. And I think that's probably where my dark sense of humor came from. My point is I just started talking about that on stage, and it's been opening up doors to me that have more meaning to it. Like I met you because I mentioned that, whereas I could have just been the the naughty joke guy on stage, you know. And I didn't I didn't I I want you to know I'm a real person too.

SPEAKER_00 4:43

Yeah. Now I noticed after that show you stayed and you there was kind of a receiving line where people at the show could come by and meet you and get your get a picture with you, and you you stuck it out all the way through the end. And uh that's gotta be exhausting though, because performing is I'm sure exhausting. But then to have people come up and everyone has 30 seconds to like vomit their story on you. Yeah, do you how do you keep going through that? That seems that seems like that'd be a marathon.

SPEAKER_02 5:14

Uh coffee and a little bit of uh drugs. No, I'm just saying that's all right. We can edit that out. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I uh I got a lot of it on the street, was able to uh impound that. No, I'm not gonna do that. Okay. Um no, it you know what it is, it is exhausting, um, mentally exhausting, but there's times where you have to make sacrifices and what's for what would God want me to do? You know, I'm I'm very religious. You wouldn't know that from listening to my jokes, but I do clean shows and I do shows like you saw, and then I do in-between shows. But my point is I look at everything like that as like, what would God want me to do? And the thing is stay there and talk to someone that wants to talk about it, and you never know what a silly meet and greet will lead to. And uh you said you were at the Kansas City one.

SPEAKER_00 6:01

Yes, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:02

I mean, I had at least two guys come up to me and talk about PTSD at that show, and now I do it at every show because obviously maybe that was the purpose, maybe that's the whole purpose of why I'm doing comedy. I don't know, but I know I get a lot from it, and I I it it's awesome when you know that you're giving something for the audience to get something out of it too. Yeah, you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_00 6:25

Yeah, you told me off air that you were a police officer for several years in the Midwest. So when you were an officer, were you funny like in the squad room making your buddies laugh, or were you trying to be funny out on scene?

SPEAKER_02 6:39

I would say people would say both. I mean, I was the police officer that would do pranks that would sometimes get me in trouble. I was gonna say both can get you in trouble. That's right. These are gonna sound like these are kind of jokes of my act, but this really happened. Like, you know, I would battle things with a sense of humor. So one time we had this sergeant that would fall asleep on the midnight shift all the time. And I thought it'd be funny to take a picture of him when he fell asleep in the break room. And he was eating like a roast beef sandwich. Oh, and it was crumbs all over him. And I posted a picture on our Facebook page. I thought it was a private page, it's uh is it was a public page, but what got me in trouble was the caption I wrote, this little piggy had roast beef. So uh yeah, so my sense of humor would get me in trouble a little bit, and then like the body camera. I used to work sex crimes for a little bit, despicable stuff, and I got caught on the body camera one time going, uh, this guy I'm putting in the cell. And I he goes, See you later, alligator. And on camera, I said, at the trial, pedophile. And I got told. I mean, there's so many incidents like that, but that's kind of how I battle it. And I and a lot of dark stuff too, that I mean the regular public wouldn't probably find funny. But sometimes, you know, some of that stuff is hard to deal with that you see, and I've seen some really terrible things in the military and on the police department, and humor is what got me through.

SPEAKER_00 7:59

Yeah, yeah. As a as a chaplain, I never squelch the dark humor. Yeah, I I don't almost I don't always approve of it, but but I but I approve of it at least in a general sense, because it is a way to to vent that stress and and to get that out there. And a lot of times it's really what what will carry a person through those dark hours. And so I'm I'm totally for it, even if I can't repeat half of it. It's still it's still still total totally worth it. Any of those times ever give you a day off?

SPEAKER_02 8:31

Oh, I've had quite a few days off. Uh the one that got me in trouble the most, I think, you know, and I don't, it was fine. A day or warning or a scolding, but purple. Yeah, at the end of the day, they were laughing as hard as I was. Yeah, I had this guy one time, he was super drunk, and he was like, F you pig, pig this, pig that, and he was high or something, you know, God bless him. And as I'm putting the handcuffs on him, he peed his pants. And I got caught on the body camera going, Yeah, I might be the pig, but you're the one that's gonna wee wee wee all the way home. And very silly joke. And my sergeant overheard it, and he's like, Yeah, I gotta give you a day for that. You gotta stop your comments. So I was like, all right. And he was laughing as hard as I was, so it was yeah, little silly things. Um, but nothing, no, what I would say is I've never been in real trouble. Okay, just silly stuff.

SPEAKER_00 9:27

Yeah, I've had officers who could do a spot-on impersonation of the major and when he's not in the room, and I'm always worried, oh, if that major comes walking back in here, you are toast. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:39

And I used to roast like at roll call, you know, guys, cops are are funny people, man. And you know, they think the you know, people see you and they think we're all robots. And the reality is, you know, a lot of us are very funny, and yeah, some of the humor is dark, and they're the worst roasters. I always think it's funny when I get heckled at a comedy club. I'm like, oh, I've heard so much worse on the police department. You're not gonna phase me. So right, right.

SPEAKER_00 10:06

Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. It part of your initiation as an officer in most police culture is is getting kind of teased and hazed and made fun of, and and the ones who can't suffer it get pushed out. Yeah. And and usually the older cops are like, good riddance, because you're gonna get worse on the street. So if you can't take us making fun of you.

SPEAKER_02 10:30

Yeah. Good luck with the the drunk that's got a lot more serious issues, and his joking may not may be pretty real.

SPEAKER_00 10:38

So you retired at one point. In fact, I think you told me you you had to retire uh earlier than you planned. Um, you had uh maybe a medical or something like that.

SPEAKER_02 10:47

Yeah, so I was a policeman almost 10 years in the Chicago area in Illinois, and I volunteered in a training to be tased. And uh you've heard of the five-second ride, I'm sure, in training when you get tased. The cops that were assisting me to the ground when I got tased, the one guy didn't mean it, but he held my arm in a position where it wasn't able to move when I was being tased, and it tore up my shoulder. And I had already had an injured shoulder from another incident. And uh, if you can't jump a fence, you can't be a cop. So we came to an agreement and I ended up leaving law enforcement. What's funny though is you know, I was so depressed after that because I thought I was gonna be a cop for 30 years, ended up being a cop for about 10, and that happened, and I had to redefine myself and and and really rethink things out of what I was gonna do. And I went from that depression, and there was a moment, if I'm being real, it there was a moment where I felt suicidal, and that's when I decided to get some help. And I was already having issues from stuff I saw on the service and stuff I had when I was growing up. I always tell people that if you're having a bad day, you know, it sounds cliche, but tomorrow's a new day, and and that is a real thing because if you don't think like that, it's hard to get through stuff. Yeah, so I injured my shoulder in the tasing incident. The funny there is a funny part of it, but a month before I was doing a call, a burglary call, it was an alarm call at a restaurant, and I go in the thing, the restaurant wasn't broken into, it was a false alarm, but I slipped in the kitchen on grease, and that grease was bacon grease. So the jokes about cops and pigs and bacon, oh my god, it never ended. They talked about it at my retirement party when I retired, but um, I already had kind of a bad shoulder, and then when that taser incident happened, that's what put me over the edge where I had to retire.

SPEAKER_00 12:47

What did you lose when you retired?

SPEAKER_02 12:49

Yeah, let me back you up a little bit. So, as a kid, um, and I won't go too deep into it, but as a kid, I had a biological dad that was super abusive. I saw horrible domestic violence growing up, and I saw things that a little kid shouldn't see. And when I became 18 years old, I joined the military and I was over in Iraq, and I'll just say I saw a lot of terrible things. Okay. And then you get on the police department, and you know, you're dealing with suicidal calls, and then I'm almost having PTSD from the domestic violence calls that I'm seeing from when I was a kid, and then PTSD went over the edge because I was relating stuff to the military. You know, I was seeing dead babies, I was seeing dead adults, and it just starts to get to you. And you're not really allowed back then to ask for help. I'm my understanding is things are better now. We didn't have a chaplain uh to go to. Um, you know, the best I did was go out to the bar with another cop and and drink until we were silly. But in a lot of ways, I'm not an alcoholic, so in a lot of ways that was good for me is somehow to talk to somebody about it because I didn't want to bring it home to my my my wife or my mother or my dad. I didn't want to, I didn't want to worry them. So my point is I just thought I was gonna be one of those guys that would be a cop for 30 years because that's where I belonged. And then when I got hurt, I was like, oh, I need to reinvent myself. So we ended up moving from Illinois to Arizona, and I ended up selling um home security alarms for ADT. And what's funny is that market and that job is filled with a lot of young men that never seen a burglary in their life and they're selling security. So I was really good at it because I had a background in police work. Yeah and what was funny, when I was a police officer, I was a PR guy a lot. I was like the DARE cop, I was the hostage negotiator, I was always the guy that they would put in front of the camera to talk. Um, I think that's why they put me in dare because I talked too much on the street. I was a B cop and they're like, You're too nice, go teach the kids. So my point is when I did ADT, I was really good at it. And then my wife and I decided to open up our own business. And uh, I've been doing security, home security uh business and sales for over 10 years now.

SPEAKER_00 15:07

I mean, to me, a a second chapter for a cop getting into something security related is very common. Uh there's a lot of guys where they go back to that area because they have expertise and because they will run into other people who they have connections with. Yeah. You know, they can be somewhere that's gonna attract other veterans, other first responders, and then also sales. A lot of cops make fantastic salesmen. I mean, kind of one of the cliches is that they all go sell used cars. Yeah, and that that that is kind of true because most cops are excellent talkers and they talk well under pressure. Yeah, so so what you were doing do selling home security actually makes a lot of sense. So, how do you get into comedy? That seems like a totally different route, you know.

SPEAKER_02 15:58

Yeah. So I wish I had a fun answer to that. It's it's it's pretty sad, actually. Um, but yeah, I do agree with like sales was a natural transition for me because on the police department, I felt at times like a social worker, I felt like a parent, I felt like a friend to people. And talking's always came easy. And I've always volunteered at the church. I was a youth pastor when the kids were little, um, and always in a uh teaching position. I teach celebrate recovery now because of the stuff I went in the back. And then I started doing security, got really good at it. So, this is what happened with comedy, which it's not I don't know if this would be a normal way for someone to get into comedy. My mom got cancer. My mom got cancer. I'm an only child, my mom's my best friend, especially all that stuff that happened with my biological dad, and I was really, really distraught. And my security business was at a point then where it was almost running itself because I had built it, so I was only involved if there was a problem. And I had way too much time to think about mom, and it was driving me crazy and sad and making me more depressed. Was she with you in Arizona or what she was, she was there when she got sick, and cancer, as you know, can be a very long disease. She got lung cancer. So I decided as a distraction, I'm on Facebook one day scrolling, and I see a comedy class. And I'm like, you know what? I'll take a comedy class. I need a laugh. And I go to the comedy class, and I'm the first time I just watch everybody, and I'm like, I could I could do this. And which by the way, if you think that there's more to it. So I start doing comedy at this class, and then when you're doing comedy in a class format, it's very structured to teach you what a joke is. Me being funny with you at the bar is very different than being funny on stage in front of people, it's very different. A lot of people think, oh, I'm funny at the bar. Well, it's a different skill set. Um, but my point is I got addicted to comedy because it was a distraction from mom. And the only reason I'm saying that now is because my friend that happens to be a pastor is telling me that I've refused to grieve my mother, so this is how I went about it. And then what happened was I was doing comedy a very long time. 2020 happens, COVID happens, mom dies in May of 2020. Wow. And I've been doing comedy for a bit as a distraction. I'm still, you know, don't get me wrong, I'm still with my mom a lot and I'm visiting her and stuff, but it's it's still a nice distraction from it. And uh mom dies, and instead of me going to like a grieving counselor or a pastor, I decide to open a comedy club. And I open a comedy club in Arizona, which I currently own now, that's doing very well. And then I'm meeting people and headliners at the club, and then my comedy is starting to grow. And now I tour all over the place doing comedy. But my point is, my friend is like, yeah, dude, you need to grieve your mother. Like you're just distracting yourself over and over again. So luckily, I went through a grieving class at my church, and um it it it made me realize a lot about myself and that I do use distraction. I use work as a distraction when I don't want to think about serious things. And then comedy was a distraction when my mom died. And then a year to the date after my mom died, my stepdad died. Um, he hit his head on a curb walking the dog. He got attacked by a dog that was attacking his dog. He falls, hits his head on a curb, and dies. Oh my god. My stepdad was kind of like my father because of my biological dad being so bad when I was little. Um, so it was a lot, man. And and comedy. Did I approach comedy in a healthy way? I would answer that no. But I would say that now that I understand it, comedy is helping me keep moving. And now it's more healthy.

SPEAKER_00 20:01

Yeah. And I feel like I'm giving back. And that that might actually have answered my next question because I was wondering if there's a period in your development as a comedian or maybe even a particular set or particular joke that like clicked and was like, This uh, this is actually helping me. I feel better, you know, saying this out loud in front of an audience.

SPEAKER_02 20:19

But it was a lot of it, a lot of it happened in the last six months, mentioning PTSD, which is not a joke at all. But what happened was if that's the way you can get someone to like you, and then you throw something serious out that and that gives them the comfortability to approach you. Yeah, I really believe in the 12-step program. I've been through a few of them, not for alcohol, for other stuff. One part of the 12-step program is step 12, and I feel like I'm in step 12 now. So once you go through a program, then it's about giving back and helping others. And I feel like that's where I'm at now. But at the same time, I still have moments that hit me hard and I grieve my mom. And I'll be honest, I don't know if that's ever gonna go away, no matter how many classes and how many prayers I make. You know, that's where I'm at right now, is I feel like I'm in a better place than when I started comedy. And comedy's become therapeutic for me. And I really like doing the comedy in front of first responders because it's a different connection. Because I do miss that brotherhood and that group of people, because now I'm kind of in the entertainment world, and without like throwing that under the bus too bad, it's very different. Yeah. And I have to navigate that differently. And I do miss my church guys, and I miss my my brothers and first responders, and then my military people. But at the same time, those those those circles all gave me the skill set to deal with the entertainment industry.

SPEAKER_00 21:40

So I don't Well, I was gonna ask, you know, who you know, what's I mean, what's the difference between like the people you've arrested on the street versus you know the people who pay to come watch you do a show? Uh sometimes not any difference at all.

SPEAKER_02 21:57

It really depends on the show, my friend. Um Um a late show on a Friday night at a club, a comedy club, yeah, they're it could be pretty similar. But the funny thing is, um, I think I mentioned earlier, you know, a guy'll heckle you at a show and it's like, I just feel like really you're not gonna get my attention, or um, they're not gonna throw me off because I almost feel like police workers prepped me for that.

SPEAKER_00 22:20

Well, I was gonna ask about that too. I mean, do you are hecklers were they even early on, were they much of a challenge, or is it a case by case basis?

SPEAKER_02 22:29

It's really a case by case. It depends on how you define a heckler, a comedian to define a heckler by anyone that's interrupting their set. Some hecklers are on your side, you know, they're like, yeah, that's awesome. Oh, great. And they're throwing off your rhythm. They're throwing off your timing and they don't even know it. And then you have people that want the show all to be about them. And then you have the people that I remember very great from the police department that are just drunk, ignorant, terrible people in that moment. You know what I mean? But I what I like about comedy so much more than police work, if any police officer was ever interested in it in any way, is that in police work, you tend to get called to the worst day of someone's life. That starts to weigh on you. And now in comedy, I'm getting, hey, I was going through the worst day of my life. I came to this show, and thank you for making me laugh. I almost feel some kind of weird, like, I don't know if the right word, penance or something. I feel like it's it's a good opposite of where I came from, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 23:33

It's a nice reversal.

SPEAKER_02 23:34

Yeah, I it almost feels like I need to balance it out. But it wasn't planned. I mean, I wasn't a kid that was like, I'm gonna be a comedian one day. Like, this is a weird thing God presented me, and I I that's how I went about it. So I usually do comedy clubs, and comedy clubs are all over the country, they're small rooms, and they can be great and they can be a little bit tough, but now I've been doing these theaters shows for first responders, and I feel like I'm giving back to my brothers and sisters. Um, I also do cruise ships and travel um in that way, doing cruise ship comedy, and I've had some good moments there too, because there's always a veteran on the ship. There's a guy that's a first responder that didn't want to tell anybody. But can't you but can't you spot those guys? Yeah, I'm just for you to say that. If if if cops or firemen or whoever want to admit it or not, you stick out like sore thumbs. Oh, yeah. And I'm like, Were you a cop? What do you do? And sure enough, they're they're usually a cop or a um a fireman. I still get told that, and I don't think I look like one at all anymore, but I'm told it all the time. They're like, Are you still a cop?

SPEAKER_00 24:42

And I'm like, no, I'm not. But you're sitting with your back to the wall watching the door. So we all know you're a cop, right? Yeah, and cleaning my gun on the table, so I don't know. That's awesome. That's awesome. If you're if a cop wanted to get into comedy and maybe doesn't appreciate how difficult that actually is, do you have any word of advice or maybe a warning about what it's like to actually get on stage?

SPEAKER_02 25:09

Well, if a cop wants to do anything outside of law enforcement, I would encourage it. Because I think, in my opinion, what can be bad about police work or any any business really is if your whole circle of influence is just police officers. I think the most important thing is to expand your circle of influence. And, you know, I had my church, I had my military guys, I had my friends from growing up. Um, and now I have comedy friends. But specifically, if they want to do comedy, comedy isn't hard to do as far as getting in. You know, there's something called an open mic at a lot of bars and restaurants. You can Google your city that you're in and just type in open mic comedy. And there's somebody that if you're willing to put your name on a list and go up on stage for you know a minute to five minutes and share whatever you think is funny, they'll allow you to do that. The audience will determine if you're actually funny or not. And then that's up to you if you want to develop the skill set to perfect that. You have to be a humble person, I think, to do comedy. You have to have a thick skin, and people can't offend you easily. And I think that's why I think cops would make good comedians because we do have thick skins and we can usually deal with the public differently than the average person. How do you recover from bombing? I've had a couple, a couple really bad bombs, and I don't know if this is denial or or my weirdness, but I don't ever think I feel like that's like not me on stage. I feel like it's almost a persona of me. And this is a graphic way to say it, but I feel like I'm a bag of meat talking up there. And if I say something that's not funny, I never take it personally. They're looking at this person, and is this person making them laugh or not? And if I don't make them laugh, I don't feel like they hate me. I feel like they hated the joke. So I just don't take it personal. That's how I get past it. And bombing's important. If you're not bombing in comedy, you're not learning and you're not gonna get better. Every bomb I've had, I've always turned around and got even better. It's part of it. So if you're not bombing, you're not doing it right. So that's excellent. That's you got to be willing to take a risk and go up there and say vulnerable things and and stuff that you think's funny, and then you're gonna find out real quick if if the public thinks it is. And then you take notes, you record every set, and you're like, oh, people related to that, they didn't relate to that, and then you cut that, and then you build off the thing they're related to, and then it just keeps keeps going. And you're disciplined to go back and listen to yourself. Yeah, there's a lot of discipline in comedy. A lot of a lot of comedians suffer from that. Um, you know, I got in comedy at a later age, so um, you know, you're your own business, you know. It's it depends on how you market yourself. And, you know, it's not always about being funny, it's about showing up on time and and marketing yourself. And a lot of opportunities, if you have a good work ethic, will people call it luck. And it's not always luck, it's work ethic. What's on your comedy bucket list? Actually, um, you're meeting me at a point in time where I'm very content in comedy. I uh was at a point where I felt like there was no ending to this. Like I kept chasing it and chasing, and I'm like, what am I chasing? And I'm at a point where I'm touring with these theater shows with the heroes off duty comedy tour. I'm doing cruise ships and traveling. You know, you do four or five shows a week, and you're sitting on a beach most of the time with my wife, and I'm getting paid to go on vacation. And then I work the comedy club, which now when I even though I'm working, I love comedy so much that I never feel like I'm at work. So doing the club and a tour here and there and the cruise ships with the wife, I guess my goal is to not mess up what I have. That's awesome. Um, because I'm pretty happy. Am I trying to get famous or a Netflix special? Um, I if that happened, I'm not gonna um be mad about it, but I'm not pursuing it because um, as a club owner, I meet people that are famous. It's hard to find one that's actually happy behind behind the stage. And when I hear about what needs to be done to get to that next level, I'm not really interested that in my seasonal life. I'm just not interested in that. Sacrificing too much.

SPEAKER_00 29:44

Yeah, I'm married with two kids, and yeah, I want to I think it was Socrates who said that he is richest who is content with the most.

SPEAKER_02 29:52

And it's taken, you're meeting me at a point where honestly, man, I thought I I was like, what is contentment? Will I ever find it? And I I I think I found it. So that's awesome. Um, but at the end of the day, if you never feel content, I think the only can the only time you really truly feel content is if it is if you give your life to God, because that's what's gonna give you contentment is your relationship with God.

SPEAKER_00 30:14

So that's awesome. Hey, these are all things I want to hear from a retired cop.

SPEAKER_02 30:18

That makes me happy.

SPEAKER_00 30:19

That is good stuff.

SPEAKER_02 30:20

I still have a Twitch though.

SPEAKER_00 30:23

Hey, tell me, tell me where we can find you. What's the name of your club and uh where can we find you?

SPEAKER_02 30:29

So uh my name's Jim Perry. Again, Jim Perry, not Jim Carrey, Jim Perry. And then uh, if you want to follow my comedy, everything is on my website and it'll lead you to all my other stuff at the copcomic.com. Again, thecopcomic.com. And then I live in Gilbert, Arizona, and I own JP's Comedy Club. It's also known as the Gilbert Comedy Club, and you can look up information there at JP'scomedyclub.com.

SPEAKER_00 30:56

That's awesome. Jim, thank you so much for being on the show.

SPEAKER_02 30:59

Of course, yeah. Thanks for having me. This is awesome.

SPEAKER_00 31:03

I want to thank Jim for being on the show, and both of those websites, his personal website and the website for his comedy club, are going to be listed in the show notes. I hope that you take Jim's advice. And if you feel like you want to give comedy a try, go to one of those open mic events and give it a shot. Get some feedback, try again, record yourself, listen, keep honing your craft because a lot of you are capable of doing this. In my opinion, far more than the average non-LEO. The views expressed here are the personal views of the host and our guest, and do not necessarily represent the views of any law enforcement agency or its components. If you like this episode, please share it with a cop or someone who loves a cop. Thank you for listening to Hey Chaplin. And as always, let's pray for peace in our city.

SPEAKER_02 32:03

So, yeah, before I was a police officer, I was a security officer at a hospital, which is funny because I got in more fights doing that job than I ever did on the police department. Some of my church friends come to my comedy shows and hear my dirty jokes, and I think they think I'm uh a little bit twisted.

SPEAKER_00 32:23

All right, I'm going to say hello to you. Like we just picked up the phone. Oh, you can call me Jared or you can call me Chaplin. Either one or both.

SPEAKER_02 32:31

Not the one from Subway, I hope.

SPEAKER_00 32:33

No, mercy. That was great. There's actually a Facebook group um that are just for people named Jared, spelled J-A-R-E-D. Oh, geez. And and that that guy, that pedophile from Subway, is like the bane of our existence.