Over the years, people who have never seen me perform on stage have asked a recurring question about my comedy routine: “Is your show family friendly?” I always have the same response: “Are you talking about your family or mine?”
Of course my show is clean, but I come from a family of jokesters, pranksters, and cutups. We don’t have one family portrait where there isn’t at least one person with crossed eyes or making a funny gesture. When we get together for family events, like Thanksgiving for example, it’s one joke after another.
Our dad set the tone way back then I suppose. He was one of those people who remembered every joke, riddle, and funny story he ever heard. He loved the little trick questions like, “Which is correct: Six and Seven ARE eleven, or six and seven IS eleven?” When the person pointed out that “Six and seven IS eleven” would be correct, Dad would howl and say, “Six and seven is thirteen.”
But Dad’s favorite thing was hiding and scaring people. He had an arsenal of scary sounds he could choose from, and each one would make the hairs on your neck stand up. When I was growing up, he honed my flight-or-fight reflex to perfection. To this day I’m extremely jumpy. You can’t even wake me without it making me scream.
I still remember one day as I was working at Kmart in Fort Payne, I was walking through the apparel warehouse through a narrow passage between rows of hanging clothing. Another employee, a short lady named Barbara, had seen me coming and backed into the clothes to allow me to pass. I did not notice her, and when I got beside her, she blinked. Imagine a set of eyes appearing right beside you in midair. I screamed like a five-year-old girl.
My little brother is the practical joker, and a true Rembrandt. He got me 20 years ago with the fake lottery ticket and still gets a kick out of remembering me dancing like an idiot while singing “Ten thousand, ten thousand, ten thousand dollars.” This was even on April 1st and I still didn’t catch on. The following April Fool’s Day I came home from work to find an eviction notice taped to my door. Yes, I fell for that one too.
All three of my sisters likewise were blessed with a great sense of humor and my mom has even evolved one over the decades. So keep that in mind the next time you ask me if something is family friendly. To my family, if it involves making someone laugh, everything is family friendly.