Tough Christian Comedy
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Christian comedian, Keith Deltano, performs serious comedy. Keith uses comedy to promote Christian apologetics, and sexual abstinence, fight racism and prejudice and simplify Christmas. These are tough and sometimes controversial topics that few would associate with the Christian comedy movement.
Christian comedy was once considered an oddity; it is now a mainstream movement. Keith is glad that Christian comedy has taken off, but he doesn't want Christian comedy to simply become clean comedy in a church. Keith says, "Christian comedy should be more than doing clean comedy in a Christian setting. To me, Christian comedy should have a purpose or message within it," Keith continues, "That may make me 'hard core' but I don't care. If I'm going to spend time away form my family, sleeping in a motel six, and eating at Waffle House, I want to do more than make people laugh; I want to change lives."
Keith believes Christian comedy is the perfect tool to use when confronting popular culture. For example, Keith's show, "The New Sexual Revolution" deals with teen sexual behavior. Keith says, "This show promotes resisting sexual pressure as well as analyzing popular culture. Teens need to understand that they live in a sex saturated culture because sex sells, sex moves products. What they see in, 'The Secret life of the American Teenager', MTV, VH1 and other teen targeted media glamorizes teen pregnancy and teen sex. It may seem odd, but I use comedy to help them see how ridiculous and unrealistic the media's glorification of teen sex actually is. Think about it," Keith says, "Do you ever see some hot young stud change a stinky diaper on MTV?" Keith believes using Christian Comedy to critique popular culture is effective because comedy reaches past gender, age and demographics.
Keith says, "It doesn't' matter to me weather I'm billed as a Christian comedian or Christian youth speaker, I'm going to deal with a cultural issues" Keith's show, "The Redneck Was Right" uses comedy and storytelling to attack prejudice and racist attitudes. Keith tells the true story of how he met his first Southerner while going through US Army jump school. Through the comedy Keith challenges the youth and adults in the audience to seriously contemplate how they look at one another. Keith uses laughter to promote acceptance, making new friends by reaching out, and God's desire that we not judge one another by outward appearance, speech, or economic status. Keith says, "Many churches use this as a church outreach event because it is appropriate for all ages and is about acceptance and making new friends by reaching out."
Keith even has show on "Christian apologetics", the reasoned defense of faith. Keith wades into the whole "intelligent design" argument with comedy. Keith says" Christian apologetic reasoning is scientific, thematic, and statistical, not what the average audience expects in a comedy show. What I do is take a few key apologetic concepts and use comedy to bring them alive. Take the big bang: science tells us that the whole universe expanded from a piece of matter smaller than a pinhead, they can't tell us where that piece of mater came form or what caused it to expand, actually, science can't tell us anything about the origin of the bang. Yet, the very same scientific community tells as that the Law of Conservation, which states matter and energy can not be created or destroyed, is an immutable fact. So, on the one hand we are told the big band just happened and the universe came form nothing, on the other we are told something can never come form nothing. As a comedian, I find that contradiction humorous, as a youth speaker, I use comedy to explain that contradiction.
Keith has been an award winning public middle school teacher, youth leader, youth speaker, private counselor and Christian comedian. He is a winner of the "Teaching Excellence Award" and was awarded the "National Impact Award" from the Abstinence Clearinghouse. The Christian Comedy Association called his comedy CD "The Best Topic Driven CD".
Keith says, "I named my web site "Defy Conformity" because all my comedy is about not running with the crowd, not conforming to what is considered "normal". I want people to question the popular culture we are surrounded with. Whether I'm doing a show on apologetics, sex and drug resistance, for teens or performing at a Christmas banquet for adults, I'm trying to get my audience to recognize unhealthy behaviors and change them. Keith Deltano: it's not just Christian comedy, its Christian comedy with teeth.
Article Source: Articlelogy.com
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