Headliner Joey Callahan has been seen on numerous TV shows and has been an opening act for some of the biggest comedy names in the business. (Photo by Janet Gala)

by Hugh Hunter

As part of their Annual Fund Drive, the Chestnut Hill Community Association sponsored "Funny-Drive to Laughter" last Thursday evening, a comedy special where three stand-ups entertained more than 100 attendees in the lower school auditorium at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy, 8000 Cherokee St.

In their riotous routines all drew from long marriages and Philadelphia area backgrounds. Terry Reilly batted first and hung around to host. His jokes were the most formal: "A fortune teller told my wife I would die a horrible and painful death. My wife said, 'I know, but will I be acquitted?'"

Now living in Somerton, he left his previous neighborhood, Olney, when he saw that "… all of the restaurant tables had pepper spray ... and all of the gun shops offered back-to-school specials."

Helene Angley, a statuesque blonde originally from Detroit but now living in New Jersey, has been producing, hosting and performing in her monthly comedy show for over six years at a funky coffee shop in Princeton Junction. Physically, she reminds many people of Jane Lynch, one of the stars of “Glee,” a TV show about a high school glee club on the Fox Network from 2009 to 2015. She has a son, 21, and a daughter, 19.

Angley insisted unconvincingly she was not Christine Todd Whitman and kept referring to Chestnut Hill as "Princeton Hills.” She engaged the audience, especially one gentleman wearing a bow-tie. At one point Helene worried her daughter would not get into a university. "One day we passed a Target store, and she asked, 'What does that symbol mean?' … Let that sink in, Princeton Hills. I think it means community college ... Am I sharing too much?"

As a comedy writer, Thursday night's headliner Callahan has worked for Jay Leno, Jimmie "J.J." Walker, Harry Anderson and the national bestseller, "If Women Ran Things." Joey has also won the Cable Ace Award for The Rik Turner Show.

As a stand-up comic, Joey has been seen on Comedy Central, ESPN's "Lighter Side of Sports" and Fox TV. Joey has also been the opening act for such A-list names as Richard Belzer, Steven Wright, Bobby Collins, Michael Winslow, Joe Piscopo, Jeff Marder, Bob Nelson and Weird Al Yankovic. The Philadelphia Inquirer called Joey "one of the most clever young comics on the comedy club scene today."

Joey told the Local in a recent interview, “I come from a big Irish Catholic family, where storytelling and making jokes are kind of ingrained in your marrow. You sweat humor … My father used to say, ‘You aren’t my real son. My real son is on the football team at Notre Dame,’ and I said, ‘Well, that’s funny. My real father has the money to send me there.’” Callahan, who met his wife at Lock Haven University, said her only flaw is her taste in men.

He told the audience Thursday that he was born in Fishtown, "… but I had to leave when they found out I could read. Get to the Northeast, you reader!" He talked about having to attend the Saint Patrick's Day Parade and "smile at the Teamster Union float to show off their dental plan." We also learned from Joey that only the Irish have funerals where scalpers sell tickets.

But Joey's life changed when he married an Italian woman. "They celebrate everything … birthdays, weddings … the death of a witness.” He went on to have fun with his Mexican brother-in-law, Indian doctors and Scottish soccer enthusiasts. He said, "You people laugh like East German judges" but proceeded to mingle with the audience.

It was a delicious evening. A part of me thinks it must be great to be able to make an art of your life and engage people in this way. But the troubled lives of performers like Richard Pryor and Robin Williams suggest it is not all peaches and cream. But it is definitely a lot of fun for the rest of us.

For more information, visit www.chestnuthill.org