The sun's frozen, the coffee's broken, the morning we mourned it without done frozen,
WRJN.
But I also grew up in the North, you know.
My great-grandfather came from Italy, New York, New York to Chicago, and into Wisconsin
and to witness protection.
It's a complicated story.
I don't want to get deep into it, folks, I think.
My guest is that guy, Joey I.L.O.
Hi, Joey.
How are you?
Good morning.
Now, I know you for several years, but my wife knows you since you're a little toddler.
Yeah.
You go way back.
Way back.
And I have videos of you as a little kid with your brother and my stepson.
You had a rap man.
There's something together.
I don't, you know, we don't play any of your hits.
But there.
You know, when I was 11 years old, and it actually started to help me when I got into
comedy, the rapping and how I used to write raps, I just transferred it over into writing
jokes.
Well, let me, are you from Racine originally?
I am.
Born and raised.
Okay.
Born and raised in Racine, you're a local, yoke old, that's good.
But you were also a comedian that travels all across America through Canada, but you also
perform in Branson.
Isn't that your home base now, Branson?
That is.
Yeah.
It's just to come on the road because we're still in our season, but I'm on tour right
now.
So I'm in the shepherd of the hills.
I'm in the comedy bash.
Shippard of the hill.
Yeah.
So based on the novel written by Harold Bowwright, I'm in the playhouse theater out there.
Now, what are your comedies, clean comedy?
That's right.
No dirty words, snow in you windows, all clean comedy.
Is that more difficult to do?
It is because anytime you have like a dirty thought, you have to, you have to cancel it
out.
But if you want to do, if you want to work clean, you know what I'm saying?
So like, it's sometimes it's harder.
You know, I have a lot of dirty jokes I could do, but now we, we run a lot of comedians
here after the weather, the top modern of the hour, like Jim Gaffigan plays clean, Brian
Reagan, Dennis Reagan.
Right.
I'm trying to look at all the comedians, Kevin James, we use James Moore, all the comedians
here.
They're all clean bits because we can't, we can't run Kathleen, the Kathleen Madigan.
I'm trying to.
Yeah, because we can't run a dirty one.
So obviously, I think the clean ones are funnier.
I really do.
That's your, you know, you play a lot of religious, do you play churches, right?
I do.
Yeah.
Okay.
So now it's got to be really special when you do one of the church, right?
Yeah.
I mean, I grew up in church.
So I understand the culture, you know, now I'm doing, I have to do a presentation
of our church later on at noon today or 11 o'clock today and open up with a joke.
I have a nice joke, nice, clean, you had a good punch line to it.
Yeah.
And I think, you know, and this is an alter crowd.
It's a senior luncheon.
So you can't really go over their heads with a joke.
And it's just one joke, right?
One and done.
And then move on to the presentation.
How long have you been in comedy?
Now you're with, yeah, and let me just take a look here.
I see a little whisp of gray.
Nothing really up there.
So I'm going to assume 47, 48, yeah, 48, yeah, 28.
20 years.
I've been doing standup.
I knew that because you're two years older than my stepson.
I was just kind of playing around with it.
Exactly.
Hold you.
Okay.
Now, when did you decide comedy?
Well, I was in, I was in college and there was this guy going to open mics and, you know,
he was, he wasn't that funny and I, you know, I was like, hey, I want to try that.
So I got up and open mic at a comedy night and then just, I just got hooked on it.
Did you ever routine or anything at that time?
Well, I had ideas.
I had premises, you know?
And that's, that's really, you know, comedy is all about editing, you know, just editing
down the, you know, when you first get in, when you first get into comedy, you think,
oh, this is, this is the joke and it's like it's not, it's just the premise or the idea
of the joke.
And then you have to, you have to punch it up and you have to use the technique of the
timing and the delivery and you have to, you have to get the punch lines just where,
where, where.
Okay.
Now, how?
Okay.
Now, when you're on stage 45 minutes an hour, how long?
An hour.
Okay.
An hour.
What if the crowd isn't good?
You're stuck with an hour with a bad crowd.
How do you do that?
You just, you just, uh, yeah, but these jokes aren't hitting these people, you know?
Yeah.
You just push through it, you know, every time you bomb or you don't do well, you have
to take a look back at, at, you know, you have to, you have to look at your act and
you have to realize, man, I need to punch this up.
I need, I need, I need more structure in the jokes and, you know, misdirections and,
you know, punch lines.
It's just important to, you know, if the crowd knows where they're, the crowd knows where
you're going with the joke, then they go, ah, but, but if they don't know where you're
going and you can hit them, then they keep their attention, you know, and, and that's
why it's important to look at your act and, and, and punch it up and, I can't imagine
being there for an hour and no one's laughing.
Oh, that was just, oh, yeah, it's, it's horrible.
It's brutal.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And the act early just to get out of there.
No.
Wow.
No.
I need my time.
Just do your time like prison.
Right.
Well, I was, I was in the middle of a show, you know, the hardest things, you know, kids are
my biggest fans, especially the three-year-olds.
I was in the middle of my, you can pull anything over their eyes or the, I was in the middle
of my act and the three-year-old yells out, I want to go home.
And I was like, I was like, after that kid said that I'm like, I want to go home, I want
to go home.
But if an adult says that, you're really in trouble, you just take it and you run with it
and make funny, you know?
Okay.
We're going to talk about two.
We're going to talk about, um, how do you write it?
How do you write a joke?
I've never written a joke.
I just take other people's jokes and kind of say, I came up with this idea.
Do you ever steal?
Is that like a, is that like a, is that like persona non-grotty?
Can I do that kind of thing?
And comedy takes someone else's joke?
Right.
You want to keep your own, you want to, but what if you, I mean, we'll be embarrassing
if you got caught stealing a joke, wouldn't it?
Well, I mean, yeah, sometimes it depends on what the situation is.
You know, like, I'm on a novelty.
I'm on a comedy bus in Branson, Missouri.
And, you know, we do like street joke sometimes in a concept, you know?
Like, because we're playing characters, you know?
So, you know, it just depends on how you do it, you know?
But I mean, you, I write my own stuff.
You know, you should write your own stuff and try to write your own stuff, you know?
Maybe trample a lot.
You said through the US and Canada.
Yes.
What makes you go to Canada?
Well, my agency's based out of Canada.
I'm on my way to the date night tour.
And I'm also on a thing called a night to remember for couples.
And so I'm getting ready to go on tour.
I'm on tour right now, but that's a big tour.
Like, the date night tour, we sold 56,000 tickets on that tour.
And so, like, a lot of the nights, there's 1,500 people there at the shows.
So, it's really cool.
I'm going to Atlanta, Canada.
So, I'm going to Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island.
And is your family good with you?
No, no, I mean, it's brutal, you know?
It's like, you know, we, you know, we have a show, the 20th, the 21st, the 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 25th.
And we're in a different city and a different province.
A lot of the time.
So, it's brutal, you know?
I know your wife, lovely lady.
What a, this is a wonderful one you're married to.
You have two great kids.
You're missing when you're on the road?
I do.
You know, I do.
We go on big vacations.
And then where we live, we live in a tourist town.
So, where I live, you know, that's what's so beautiful about performing in Branson.
Because you do the shows.
And then after you're done, you go home, just like a regular job, you know?
And but your kids grow up in an amusement park.
And when you have your own show or you're in a show,
you get into the shows in Branson for free.
You get into the attractions.
We have what's called a reciprocal.
So, it's really cool, you know, for the kids to be able to go and enjoy life.
Now, for people that can't write jokes.
And there are people, you know, not everyone's that talented.
Can you buy them?
You can buy them.
Yeah, you can get writers that can write for you.
I'm a member of a clean comedy association.
So, you know, for me, I write with other comedians.
I, you know, we get ideas, you know, with each other.
And that's, that's, that's really helpful, you know,
because you can only come up with so many ideas on your own.
When you get with other like-minded people,
they, they'll give you a tag or they'll give you a punchline.
You know, you, it's your premise.
And that's kind of the rule is if it's your idea,
then, then that's your joke.
And people can help you with the tags and the punchlines and things like that.
Talking to Joey I.L.O.
Joey is from Racine, originally.
Now he tours America, Canada, doing comedy.
You doing this all your life, though.
Yeah, I've been writing since I was 11.
I'm a rapper.
And I took the concept of rapping.
You know, there's a misconception.
Everybody thinks that rapping is like you have to rhyme every word.
And that's not true.
You know, so I took that.
We do what's called bars.
And the reason why it's done in a bar is because the beat comes.
And if you don't end when you're supposed to end,
then you're off beat.
And that's the same with standup.
The punchline.
Or if you don't have a punchline, it's called a tag.
And that's, that's what leads the next sentence.
But you have to stop.
And you have to pause.
You have to let the audience laugh.
You have to hear them.
You play by ear, really.
I'm a drummer.
So I understand the rudiments.
And just, I understand the beats and the rhythm.
And that's what I infuse into my show.
It's like a rhythm.
It's, it's, it's a lot of fun.
And my first time in Canada was so true.
You guys were going through that mad cow disease moment.
And I went to a restaurant.
I wanted a steak.
And I said, I want my steak medium.
And the lady goes, sir, everything we do here in Canada is well done.
I thought she was bragging.
I was like, wait a go.
Now go get my steak medium.
She goes, sir, everything we do here in Canada.
That's right.
That's right.
That's right.
Julia L.O.
That's funny bit.
Is my guest.
And the standard comic, standard comic.
But from Racine, that's the most important part.
You're homegrown.
That's right.
Now, nobody in your family does this, right?
It's your brother.
That's it.
He's not a comic.
My parents were professional clowns.
That's right.
Your mom and dad were clowns.
Absolutely.
I've seen pictures.
That's right.
You dad worked for the sheriff's department here in Canada.
Right.
My father was really funny.
You know, people are scared of clowns.
Jim L.O.
They're scared of that person who takes the time to dress up as a clown,
put the makeup on them, walks around and uses his regular voice.
Do you want a hug?
You're scared of weirdos.
You're not scared of clowns.
You know, the art form of clowning, clowning, like Red Skeleton.
I see him in 1989 at the Riverside Theater.
And he was what was called a character clown, where he'd put a hat on.
And he didn't have to have the makeup, but he would become a clown.
And he was funny.
You know, his act.
I watched him for two hours.
Just kill it.
You know, I also seen Bill Cosby go for two hours.
But I was before he got in trouble.
But he was funny too.
So as a kid, I was like, man, I want to do that.
I want to make people laugh too.
So I was kind of growing up around it.
So it was kind of marinating.
You know, my dad loved comedy.
And he always exposed me to great comedy.
And we went to your dad work for the Sheriff's Department.
We're seeing County.
It was in the Marine Lee water division.
Yeah.
He was on the Sheriff's Department.
They had a boat, you know, Lake Michigan, work Lake Michigan.
Tough work in the summer.
Yeah.
He was on the scuba diving.
That was it.
Yeah.
And now they did a lot of recovery of people who drowned.
Ooh, like that.
So it's pretty brutal.
On your first outing as a comic, you remember where it was?
My first outing.
Yes, I was at a club called Club Three Degrees.
And it was, it went really well.
Like I said, I started writing wraps when I was 11.
So I had already started the writing process.
But here you are.
Instructuring and rhythm.
And I think everything has a rhythm.
And so when you understand the concept of control of that,
when you go to go to do jokes, if you don't understand how to stop
and let the audience laugh.
So I wasn't like a person who just got on stage and was green.
So I didn't do a lot of bombing at first in my standup.
But that'd be nervous for telling jokes in front of an audience
for your first time.
I had to be scared to death.
You know, well, I mean, I loved performing.
I was already performing in music and things like that.
So I was used to crowds and audiences.
You weren't a class clown, were you?
Oh, yeah.
I got kicked out of it.
And I used to go into school and they would have the attention slip
ready for me.
You know, I don't feel that.
I just had to put the time on it.
I skipped school and never even left school.
Like I skipped school inside of school.
Like I would just hang out inside of school.
You know, I told you off here, I went to school at Jerry Seinfeld.
We were, you know, kids together.
And it pretty says, was he like the class clown?
Was he, did he help jokes?
No.
This guy was a quiet guy.
I went to religious school with him for four years.
We sat together and then we went to grammar school together.
I never remember him doing anything.
He's just a very quiet guy.
And the first time we was on the tonight show is dad knocked on doors
in the neighborhood.
Hey, Jerry's going to be on the night show tonight.
Jerry's on the night show.
Jerry's on the tonight show tonight.
And of course, everybody watched it.
And we were just amazed.
There's the kid from the neighborhood.
And you're, you're the kid from the neighborhood.
That's right.
I struggled in school.
I was in special education my senior year.
That was a very special time.
Well, all that's skipping school.
What'd you expect to get out of it?
It was funny.
I was on a radio station or I was on a television station.
And she's like, well, how'd you think about getting into comedy?
And I'm like, well, I wasn't a special ed my senior year.
I didn't have a lot of options.
What did you've done TV before?
Oh, yeah.
I've done, I've been on last comic standing.
Oh, you weren't.
That's right.
You were.
Yeah.
You weren't the last one standing though, were you?
It was on a special done by Warner Brothers called
Thou Shout Laugh.
And it was featured on Netflix for a little while.
So I've been on Netflix.
I've been on, I've been on the comedy channel in Canada.
So I'm really well known up in Canada.
That's just great.
That's just great.
That's just starting Canada.
So I'm more popular there than I am in the States.
But I'm starting to come around, you know.
Great to put them.
We're seen on the map.
I like that.
Well, for sure.
Yeah, I don't know if we have that many famous people
from we're seen.
I know she's got a bunch.
Milwaukee's got a bunch.
But now we have to get we're seen on the map.
Wow.
That's pretty good too.
And you came to visit.
And but you're appearing in Chicago.
I'm in Chicago.
Where are we about?
I've actually had a church called City Church.
It's right downtown in Chicago.
So I'm performing for the junior high schoolers.
They're having a special night for them.
And they're bringing me in to do a comedy show for them.
So yeah, that's tomorrow.
But I'm at that's tomorrow.
But tonight I'm at the Kenosha comedy club.
So you can come see me at a club.
There's no kids there.
Don't have to worry about the three-year-old.
I want to come home.
He's staring me.
Please help.
It's working now.
It's working now.
One, one, one.
Right.
We're gonna have a good time tonight.
You can get your tickets.
Happening is magazine.com.
Happening's.
Or just look up Kenosha comedy club.com.
You can purchase your table.
And the tickets are starting to go.
So yeah, I mean, this is the last time to get them.
It's tonight.
So come out and see me.
730 is tonight.
Yeah.
And it's the only time I'm performing.
It's probably the one of the first times I've ever performed comedy in this area.
So, you know, I've never really done it.
I've had shows in a receipt but not in a comedy club.
So they were really excited about being in the comedy club, you know, close to home so.
Yeah, that's pretty neat.
Very proud of you.
Oh, thank you.
And I've seen the videos of you when you were like 11 years old.
I have the, you know, I'm gonna hold on to them as Black Males someday.
I don't know what I'm gonna need them for.
But we have the VHS tapes of you and Donnis and your brother.
Oh, yeah.
All performing.
And you're the live wire.
Well, actually all three of you were.
Yeah.
And you're a live wire in there.
You put out a video.
We have, we have it.
And it was something about clowns on the video.
What was the edge of parents on there?
Well, my first special was called Raised by Clown.
Raised by Clowns.
That's it, yeah.
And I understand how.
And that's where there's so much, you know, comedies all about conflict and then release.
And you know, people nowadays are just so scared of clowns.
And so I just, you know, I was like, you're scared of clowns.
Just imagine being raised by them.
And so I just put out this special called Raised by Clowns.
And then I also have a dry bar comedy special called Just Work With What You Got.
And we shot that in dry bars, like the biggest library of clean comedy.
And so I have a special, if you're listening, there's ever listen to dry bar.
You can check me out.
It's called Just Work With What You Got.
I think I've seen their videos on YouTube.
Yes.
Go on YouTube and just look up Joey I.L.O.
And you can watch my special.
Yeah, right now.
You don't, you go by different spelling.
The I.L.O.
We all want to spell I.L.O.
But you go Joey I, the letter I, L, the letter L, the letter O.
That's right.
Because if you take out every, every other letter, you know, I had to take out a real letter
because if you Google my real last name, the only thing that comes up is mafia members.
I didn't think that would be good for my career.
It really is Danny I.L.O. is a distant cousin of mine.
Yeah, Danny I.L.O.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And, and so that was the real reason why I did it.
It was because if you, if you Google my real name, all he all comes up is mafia members
and then Danny I.L.O.
It's really come up.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
There's a guy named Joey I.L.O.
And he was the toughest gangster in Chicago.
He came closest to killing Capone.
Paid Capone's chef 35,000 back in the early 2030s.
And then Capone's chef came and told Capone and Capone whacked the chef.
And then he went after Joey I.L.O.
And Joey I.L.O joined the Irish gang.
He joined Bugs, Moran.
And then Capone set up the same Valentine's Day.
Massacre and two people didn't show up Joey I.L.O.
And Bugs Moran.
He got shot 150 times two days later.
But they think it was Capone that did it.
I think it was Moran and even if Capone did it, Moran was probably going to kill him
because he was the only Italian that they invited into their group.
And he the only person that didn't show up was him and then Moran who was the boss.
And so I went to Vegas and I was at the mom museum.
And, and I walk in and the lady goes, are you a veteran?
And I said, no, are you a, are you a teacher?
I said, no, she said, who are you?
And I said, I'm Joey I.L.O.
And she goes, you're the Joey I.L.O.?
Yeah, I'm 104.
She let me in for the family discount of $10.
Really?
And she thought I was really related to Joey I.L.O.
And then she goes, you know, Bugs Moran's family comes here every week.
You should join their Facebook page.
And I was like, no, I joined years ago and it didn't work out for me.
I think I'm going to sit this one out.
Thank you, Joey, for coming in here.
Joey I.L.O.
And Joey I.L.O. is at the Kenosha comedy club tonight, 730.
You can get your tickets at happenings.com.
Yeah, happenings.com or you have happenings mag is mag as is happenings mag.com.
Yeah, yeah, thank you, Joey, good to see you again.
Yeah, thanks for having me.
It's a lesson.
I saw you.
I think it was your wedding.
Is it my wedding?
Yeah, I think so.
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Yeah, good to see you again.
Appreciate you.
One more from Joey I.L.O.
We didn't have all of them special programs when I was in special ed.
We didn't have that no child left behind.
I went to a Christian school.
They tell you on the first day, some of you will be left behind.
And they always pointed at me.
It was strange.