• Comedian
• Entertainment
• Religion/Spirituality
• Youth

I’ve had a robust imagination all my life. I grew up loving superheros, which would sometimes get me into trouble. I would pin an “S” to my chest and wrap a cape around my neck and jump out into moving traffic to use my super powers to stop cars. I would also create make-shift Spider Man masks out of paper and Scotch tape and then crawl around on my neighbor’s rooftop. My mother was not at her emotional best during those years.

I grew up watching “Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood” and I confess that I continued to watch into my teenage years. His gentle, friendly manner was very captivating to me. His message that imagination was a good thing was very affirming to me. I wish I had met him before he passed away. If you ever see me take off my jacket during a show and hang it up, it’s a little tribute to my kind hero.

I had many ideas about what I wanted to be when I grew up, but entertainer was never on the list. It just never occurred to me, even though entertainment drew my attention more than anything else. Back when VCR’s were a new thing, our family was invited to a friends house with several other families to watch Bill Cosby’s “Himself” stand-up comedy video. There were about 20 people there, sitting around the television, laughing hysterically. That was a moment when time stood magically still. Seeing Cosby’s storytelling prowess and the way he was reducing the people around me into howling laughter was very impressive to me. Laughter was, to me, the most beautiful sound in the world.

My classmates didn’t think of me as funny or entertaining. They saw me as rather off-beat and maybe too weird. But their response never kept me from trying. Even in Kindergarten I would try to impress them by loudly rhyming sentences with the teacher as she was teaching at the blackboard. My parents would get confusing notes from the teacher saying, “The rhyming has to stop!”

In high-school, I guess I was your classic dork. Classmates thought of me as friendly, but weird. My regular attempts to make them laugh was largely dismissed by them as being annoying and confusing, but adults were another story. When I would throw out funny comments in class, my english teacher, Mrs. Older, would abruptly exit the room and shut the door behind her. She would return after a few minutes looking sort of weary. This happened many times. I assumed she was angry, but years later she confessed to me that she left the room to laugh. She knew if she let me make her laugh in class, I would not be able to stop trying to interrupt her all hour. Smart lady.

I did radio for 10 years. I had a reputation for being unpredictable on the air. It was a very conservative radio station, and any “modern music” with a beat that might be accidentally played on the air was called about and complained about with vigor. One year, for April Fools Day, I got on the air and pretended that management had decided to fire me and replace our format with heavy-metal. I brought in a local hit-radio deejay to make it sound legit, and for a long time, we spun music that shook the walls. Got quite a reaction from the audience that didn’t figure out the prank. If I recall, we received fewer angry calls in the future when we played mildly upbeat music.

In college, I had my personality tested with the Myers Briggs Personality Indicator. When the results were tabulated, the administrator of the test got pale. I said, “What is it?” She said, “We usually get these results from introverted… women.” But I was comforted when I found out that my personality type also matched that of, surprise, Mister Rogers. One of my challenges is bringing this personality of mine which tends to be more intimate and emotional into the rough art form of stand-up comedy. That has been and interested and fun journey.

I consider AMCE Comedy Company to be my comedy “university.” Every monday night, I would travel 2 1/2 hours in my car and do a 3-minute set, and drive home. I did this for 4 years. It was a wonderful time of learning for me, and I soaked in the different styles and characters of my fellow performers. I also learned how to do clean comedy in front of an audience that doesn’t care if the material is clean. ACME was very generous with giving me stage time at open-mic, but I did once get kicked-off stage there for 3 months because I did a joke about a fast food drive-in. Unknown to me, fast food material was too overdone and unoriginal – “hack” as they say in the biz.

My worse show I ever performed was done as a favor to a friend who said she wanted me to do stand-up for her wedding reception. I had been doing comedy for approximately a week at that point, and I decided in my ignorance that the best way to honor her was to do 20 minutes of brand-new untested material – a huge mistake. The reception was held in a very echo-y museum (no joke) and the sound system was malfunctioning, so even if anything I had to say was funny, it would have been incomprehensible anyway. And I was introduced this way, “I know you’re hungry and thirsty, and we are going to open up the food and the bar, but first… we’ve got this comedian.” And when he said, “this comedian” he said it with the same disappointed tone that a doctor would say, “I regret to inform you that you have a bladder infection.”

It was death. A professional comedian would have seen after a minute or so that it wasn’t working and graciously stepped off the stage. Instead, I marched through my entire unfunny painful set. The room was filled with many many friends and acquaintances, and they just stared at me as they watched me slowly disintegrate. After the show, my wife found me hiding between my box spring and mattress. To this day, people who were at that reception will get dragged to one of my shows and approach me afterwards to express their delight and surprise that I’m actually funny. The bride and her husband ended up getting a divorce. I blame myself.

I did a college show were 4 football players got on stage, took the microphone away from me, and while one of them tried doing his own stand-up to the nervous crowd, the other 3 took turns saying “good game” and smacking me hard on the behind. Ouch.

Another time, I was performing at a festival. I was indoors, and outside our building was a bungee-swing ride. During my show, a teenage girl was on the ride, and her harness came undone and she fell to her death! A stunned man who had witnessed this horror came inside and asked for my microphone. He then told the audience what had happened – choking back the tears. He then gave me back the microphone as if to say, “Please continue.” I dismissed everyone, and asked everyone to keep her and her family in their prayers. I felt terrible for her and her family. It also scared me that if I had been less experienced, like I was early in my career, I might have actually tried to jump back into the show.

I’ve performed in the dark on an ice rink while it was snowing. They did provide a microphone. I just had to make sure I didn’t stick my tongue on it.

I’ve performed at a lady’s bridal shower. That actually went much better than the wedding reception.

Early in my career, I was asked to perform at a new comedy club in a small town for their opening night. Nobody showed up. All the seats were empty. The owner told me to do my act anyway, so I performed my whole show in front of a huge room full of empty seats. Half-way through I got the giggles and started laughing so hard I had a hard time getting through it. Considering that I was the only audience member, I was killing.

I’ve had the pleasure of meeting several of my comic influences and heroes over the years including Sinbad and Weird Al Yancovic. I got to meet Bill Cosby at a meet and greet before one of his shows. My plan was to be very casual, smooth, and complimentary by saying something like, “Mr. Cosby… your work has been very inspirational to me.” When I walked in the room, and he reached out and shook my hand, my nerves went wonky and my upper lip took on a life of it’s own – writhing in a serpent-like fashion. And the sounds coming out of my mouth were like a starving mule seeing a carrot after several days in the desert. It was humiliating to me, but he had an understanding smile on his face as if to say that he has seen this reaction before many times from adoring comedians.

Daren Streblow joined Chonda Pierce, Taylor Mason, Gilbert Esquivel and Bone Hampton for an evening of hilariously clean comedy recently taping  Thou Shalt Laugh 5, the biggest Christian comedy series ever.

What clients are saying about Daren Steblow:

• “We had so many laughs that night and continued to share the laughs for days later. Daren Streblow was easy to talk with and he didn’t mind all of the things we were wondering about and needed guidance with. Daren was great and everyone has said they loved it.”– Delores Tanaka, Cassville Alliance for Teens

• “Wow! I loved Daren Streblow’s show! Daren didn’t need a band or anything else–we just introduced him, handed him a mic, and he filled an hour with hilarious clean comedy with a great message! Unlike some performers who seem to need special treatment, Daren was so easy to work with! His Gospel presentation was not only clear, but made it easy for us to follow up with our students. I highly recommend him”-Scott Haddix, Director of Student Ministries,  Avalon Missionary Church

• “Daren’s performance and overall rating would be beyond our expectations.  We were truly blessed!  I wouldn’t have changed a thing!  Thank you and I too look forward to working with you for future events.”- Liz Arnita, South Hills Bible Chapel

• “The show went very well – our largest audience ever!  Daren was fabulous to work with – very go-with-the-flow. His show had everyone laughing until they couldn’t breathe.”- Jill Adams, Communications Director, Christ For the City International

• “Everything with Daren was wonderful.  This was my 3rd even with Daren and he has been extremely professional every time.  I enjoyed our discussion on the way to the airport as well.  He is always very flexible and very easy to work with.  The youth here loved the show and are still quoting things he said.  Thanks again.”– John Stephens, Director of Youth & College, St. Lukes United Methodist Church

• “We also had a variety of ages present. Daren’s comedy entertained them all, and then he planted the Gospel seed. He did this without being offensive or putting anyone down! I highly recommend him”-Pastor Warren Sullivan, Chippewa Evangelical Free Church