PJ Walsh

Hey PJ! Your bio says you were a dental technician for the White House. REALLY?
I like to think I am creative… but I don't think there is a person on the planet that could conjure up a BS story like "I was the Dental technician for the White House."

Who had the nicest mouth in the White House? Or is that still classified?
OK… if I tell you this and you leak it to anyone else, I will have to take you out. I was around during the "Clinton" years. With that said… the name rhymes with Veronica. That reminds me… I think I'm out of cigars.

You are the host of "Wall2Wall Good Stuff" on Blue Collar Radio (channel 103 on Sirius Satellite Radio). You've done tons of things with the Blue Collar Comedy guys. Please tell me that you never saw Larry the Cable Guy naked. Please.
One time Larry and I were staying at a very fancy Motel 3. I used the gym/swing set and then went inside to the locker room. I noticed a steam room. I sat down for a few minutes inside. Then I noticed Larry sitting across from me - naked! Which was fine. The real problem… I was not in a steam room. It was a closet Larry had snuck into… so he could let out some wet farts!

Laurel and Hardy or Abbott and Costello and why?
Simple! Abbott and Costello. I grew up in NY. After Church every Sunday WPIX Channel 11 would have the Sunday afternoon movie. It was always an Abbott and Costello film. One of the highlights of my childhood! To this day, whenever I see a Susquehanna hat… I punch my fist through it!

At what age did you realize you were funny?
8th grade. Mr. Martino was a teacher I had who made fun of my freckles in front of the entire class. So I shot back with, "At least I don't go threw life with a nose like that!" He freaked out…screamed at me. (This is classic) He said, "Let see what your nose looks like, Mr. Walsh, after it gets hit by a softball going 90 miles an hour." I shot back, "That will never happen, I play a mans sport…we call it baseball, sissy." The class went nuts, I was sent to the office, and a comedian was born.

Who or what influenced you to become a comedian?
This is Asbury Park, NJ, so I find this fitting. Springsteen influenced me to become a performer. There is no second to his live show. I saw the last night of the "Born In The U.S.A" tour at Giants Stadium. Six or so hours long of amazement. I was a kid that discovered and witnessed passion that day. Thank you, Bruce!

Do you remember the first joke you ever told on stage?
Barney the Dinosaur is actually "Dino" from the Flintstones. They pulled the plug on The Flintstones. He fell hard into the Hollywood underworld of alcohol and drugs, found the Lord… and now is back as Barney! This joke was followed by… silence, and and me saying "Am I the only one getting this?"

What is the absolute worst gig you ever had?
My brother-in-law Matt asked me to speak to his 8th grade class. It turns out to be an assembly of 8th graders. It was horrible. I wont have kids now! A white kid in a "John Deer" shirt asked me if I was friends with Tupac. Then a big black kid in a "hoodie" asked me if I was friends with Martha Stewart. I was dumbfounded. Then I went with my gut instinct as a performer. I ran over to my brother in law, kicked him in the privates & screamed "Why would you do this to me?!" I got a standing ovation… it was a great closer. Matt won't be at The Stress Factory!

What is the absolute best gig you ever had?
The shows for the troops are my favorite. Top one is Djibouti (Horn of Africa) for a bunch of Special Forces guys. They had gotten like no entertainment so these guys were pumped for comedy. The show was outside at night. Temp was 117 with 93% humidity. I am a high-energy comedian. I gave it everything and then some. I was drenched in sweat when I finished. I still get emails, or guys coming up to me from that night. It was four years ago. It's great to look back at. It feels good to have a night like that in my life. It's even better knowing I shared it with people I respect and admire.


At what point in your life did you think to yourself, "Hey! I can make a living doing this?"
To be honest, I never had a plan "B." I never questioned it. I did question settling into something just to be comfortable. That, I was fully aware, would have killed me inside. Man that was deep - nice.

Do people always expect you to be funny, even at moments when you are not supposed to be funny, like when you're at Radio Shack buying batteries?
Al…really? Was that just product placement smack dab in the middle of our interview? Buying batteries from Radio Shack? How much is it going to cost us to get back your soul?

When you are an off-duty comedian, do you have a normal life?
Neither of those things exist.

What advice do you have for an aspiring young comedian?
This is the school of hard knocks, no tricks involved, just experience. Oh, and say goodbye to your life, girlfriend/boyfriend, family and free weekends for a long time! Cheer up! Its - Asbury Park Press

Supporting the troops is a priority for comic PJ Walsh, who spent 5 1/2 years in the Navy.

"The thing I am most passionate about is the support of our troops, to a ridiculous extent probably," said Walsh, who is performing at several Fairbanks-area venues this weekend. "They're pretty much my favorite people on the planet, aside from my three sisters and my nieces and nephews."

But that doesn't mean he can't poke fun at the armed forces — for instance, when Walsh was in boot camp, 29 out of 60 of his fellow recruits didn't know how to swim. "I said, 'You guys know you're in the Navy, right?'" Walsh said.

Walsh's comedy material is inspired by the strangeness of day-to-day life, his experiences in the Navy and growing up with three sisters.

"My life to me is weird, and I see weird things," he said. "I truly believe that we're all hysterical."

Some comics focus on the hilarity of the government, and while Walsh can appreciate that sort of humor, he steers clear of it in his own act. He said he looks at comedy "like a movie" — a chance to be entertained and escape from unpleasant realities.

This will be Walsh's second trip to Fairbanks. Last year, he performed the opening act for Larry the Cable Guy's show. He toured several years with Larry, an experience he describes as one of the best of his life.

"While I was out on tour, I was fully aware that I was having one of the greatest times of my life. The experience can't be summed up in a few words," he said. "Very, very down to earth, very funny, very warm — that's Larry the Cable Guy."

Walsh started doing comedy when he was in the Navy. "Whenever we had downtime, I would just kind of goof off," he said. His career didn't really begin until he was drinking beer one night at Hooters with his buddies.

"They found an open mic night, and threw me on stage," he said. The bar asked him to come back and perform every weekend, and he launched into life as a comedian. But Walsh hasn't forgotten his Navy days — he travels overseas to perform for troops whenever he has the opportunity.

Growing up, Walsh said, he was just one of many class clowns. "I had so many funny guys I went to school with," he said. "I was the only one to lasso up my clownness and turn it into an art form and a career."

Walsh said that when he goes back home to upstate New York now, he just sits back and listens to his friends' banter. "I go back to them and they are still the funniest people I know," he said.

A former gymnast and wrestler, Walsh often uses his body to emphasize what's coming out of his mouth, he said. He's been known to breakdance on stage, a skill he learned as a teenager. While Walsh wouldn't commit to breakdancing in Fairbanks, he said it's a possibility. "It depends on the environment," he said.

Breakdancing or not, Walsh takes his responsibility to make the audience laugh seriously. "I ain't coming up to Fairbanks to not give 150 percent and make people laugh," he said. "Get your butts out there, we're going to have a blast."

- Abbie Stille Staff Writer Fairbanks, AK

As comic P.J. Walsh tells it, woman react to pregnancies and babies with goo-goo, ga-ga emotions that men can understand only if they compare the baby to a keg of beer. The audience roars while Walsh suddenly goo-goos to his stool as if it’s a half-keg of cold Labatt Blue. He wraps his whole body around it and holds on for dear life as the crowd gasps for air from laughing so hard.
Funny thing is, this outrageous on-stage extrovert is nothing like the man behind the scenes. Calling him sensitive might ruin his career, but he’s a quiet, charming guy who’s not afraid to say his sisters are his life. And he’s not married; he deadpans, because he doesn’t want to wrinkle his face just yet.
Hoofing it across the nation to earn a living as a comic is no laughing matter for this 36-year-old New Yorker. It is, however a matter of wildly varied experience, careful crafting and just plain smarts. Then there’s the hard work.
Much the same can be said about Doug and Debbie Richardson, who co-own and run Jr’s Last laugh Comedy Club in downtown Erie.
Combining the comic, the business and life outside the spotlight on a recent weekend offers insight to why the 11-year-old comedy club is such a consistent winner for comics and audiences alike. Debbie Richardson keeps a personal log of headliners. If a comic has a great act, is clean and is easy to get along with, he or she is invited back. Walsh is all three, and his latest appearance was his third at Jr’s.
The feeling is mutual for Walsh, a first generation Irish-American. Pennsylvania in general, and Erie in particular, are “great places to do comedy,” he said. “I’m fortunate to be standing on stage in Erie, It’s beyond lucky. It’s a gift. Jr’s is a blast. Doug and Deb are awesome.” If Walsh is really connecting with an audience, he involves them in his act. He describes his style as ‘riffing.” He makes an observation, then tries to perfect it on stage.
He rates audiences and his interaction on a 10-point scale. “This was a 12!” he exclaimed bounding out of the early Friday show, soaking wet, reaching for his camera to take photos of exiting audience members who became friends during the show. “Some nights are just sweet sailing,“ he said. “An audience like this is the purest form of the magic that only happens live.”
Between shows, Walsh fuels up on plain grilled chicken, mashed potatoes with no butter, and salad with no dressing. He’s lean and, belying stereotypes, he neither drinks nor smokes. Despite his self-deprecations, Walsh comes from a naturally funny family just north of New York City. His parents and three sisters still supply him with “endless material,” he said. “One of my sisters delivered a 12-pound, 8-ounce baby,” he told the audience. “I didn’t realize how big that was until Thanksgiving!”
Talk about a back-story with a bite. Walsh’s big break came when he landed a gig not as a comedian but as a U.S. Navy dental technician. With the encouragement of his commanding officer, he was hired to clean teeth at the White House and Camp David during the Clinton administration. At some point while in the Navy, he decided to pursue a comedy career. When he passed clearance after clearance for the White House job, he quipped, he knew the country was in trouble.
Walsh said he found Bill Clinton “very nice,“ and Hillary Clinton “one of the most amazing people I have ever met.” Al Gore? Not so much. “No matter how hard we worked, we couldn’t get the spoon out of Al’s mouth,” Walsh said, not really kidding.
Walsh found his sea legs in comedy in D.C. clubs, and ended up opening on tour for Larry The Cable Guy for several years. Plus, Walsh has appeared in Larry’s “blue collar” movies, and hosted a show on Sirius Satellite radio.
If you picture comics playing video games until dinner at the Fairfield Inn after a late-night performance, it’s not so. Every Friday finds a Jr’s headliner on air with MoJo and Nat at Rocket 101 Radio starting at 7a.m. sharp, and that’s where Walsh exchanged rapid-fire banter with the radio duo.
After a breakfast of three scrambled eggs and an untoasted, buttered bagel, Walsh headed for the gym, a routine he keeps five or six mornings a week. A lifelong film fan who’d like to branch more into the business, he often sees movies on show days. On this Friday, it was “The Hulk.” Come September, Walsh will begin his second year of acting school. He’d like to take all his experiences and meld it into a one-man show, maybe a little lighter on the comedy.
“All the good and great comics grow and change,” Walsh said. “Stand-up has been good to me, but I don’t know yet what the ultimate goal is. I just know I want to, have to, keep learning, keep creative.”
“I’m so fortunate that I won’t have to be one of those coulda, shoulda guys. We get one dance at this, and I may not have had all the best steps, but I’m dancing, I’m dancing.”

- By Robin Cuneo - Lake Erie LifeStyle Magazine