Comedian Nazareth: Laughter for All

He was building momentum in the clubs, getting attention in Hollywood, Vegas the  hottest comedy clubs and even had a sitcom in the works, then one church invite flipped everything. Clean comic Nazareth joins us to tell the true story of hearing “come as you are,” giving his life to Christ, and making the bold Monday-morning decision to walk away from the old path so God could redefine his purpose.

We talk about what it really looks like to combine stand-up comedy with faith without losing the room. Nazareth explains how he earns laughter first, then shares his testimony in a way that feels natural, whether he’s performing for a corporate crowd or a packed church. Along the way, he tells unforgettable moments from the road, including a stage collapse and a tense interaction that turned into an unexpected hug, and why he still believes invitations and altar calls matter.

Then we dig into the impact: "Laughter for All", his nonprofit that brings clean, family-friendly comedy to people who need it most, from pay-it-forward community nights to shows at recovery groups, missions, and shelters, always with hope at the center. We also cover his years performing inside prisons, his current focus mentoring junior high boys, and "Voice of Refugees", a refugee services ministry providing furniture, job help, and practical support while sharing Jesus with resettled families. If you care about clean comedy, Christian entertainment, prison ministry, refugee outreach, and finding real joy, this conversation is for you.

Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs a laugh, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

"Amazing Greats"  is a library of interviews with highly successful people who have amazing career and life stories and who share how God has impacted their journey.  Hosted by broadcaster Ric Hansen & produced by Klem Daniels.   Available on Apple,  Spotify, iHeart, Google and our  YouTube Channel. 
Please help us grow our audience by "liking", "subscribing and "Sharing".   Thanks so much. 

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Setup

Ric 1:37

What a great thing it is. We have a special guest. It's uh international comedian, Mr. Nazareth, the comedian, and he is with us today. We're going to talk about a lot of good stuff because there's a lot of good stuff in your story. What an amazing story. Born in the Holy Land, somehow ended up in Toledo, Ohio. Is that correct? Yeah. Yeah. And there from there to Hollywood. And then you have done like 4,000 shows around the world, uh, 300 of which are in prisons, which is an amazing story in and of itself. You've performed on all the networks. I mean, you've been uh on CBS, NBC, CBS, uh, CNB, C C B N. There we go. Oh, okay.

Nazareth 2:19

Whatever vowel you want to buy, I'll I'll pay for it.

Ric 2:23

And you've been on stage with B.B. King and The Righteous Brothers and Chris Tomlin and for King and Country and Mercy Me, all the big names and Christians, as well as with uh Lee Strobel, the author. So so you're and and not only all of that, you founded two nonprofits, which are existing in great, and we're gonna talk about that a little later. You have a wife and three kids, you run marathons. Good grief. What do you do in your spare time, Nazareth? Ah, I I sleep.

Nazareth 2:56

Yeah, no, I I still, you know, it's so funny, um, Rick. You know how when when churches say when pastor said when you tithe, God is gonna bless uh bless you tenfold? Even with your time, when you when you tithe with your time and serve the kingdom, God will give you more time. And I'm always shocked. Like, I'm I'm also on board of uh other uh nonprofits and and other ministries internationally, and it's like I go, how can I get the time? But God just, you know, I've already been on a radio interview this morning where they did a writing session with other comedians for two hours and stuff, and I still have to go to my junior high today as a leader. In a we have a 200 uh students in junior high that I'm every week I'm one of the life group leaders. So, but God just gives us the time. And my wife is at a point where she goes, Don't you have a show to go to? Uh, you're just home too long.

Conversion And Quitting Hollywood

Ric 3:58

So God is good, you know. I appreciate that. Yeah, well, let's jump right in. The whole deal is you have made um a career, a name for yourself, uh, combining laughter with thousands and thousands, hundreds of thousands of people, and at the same time have shared the gospel. So, how do you weave those two together on stage and offstage? How does that all come together for you?

Nazareth 4:23

When I first started doing comedy, I was not a believer in Christ. I was a Christian by name, but I was not a follower of Jesus. So when that happened, when when I, you know, so when I started doing comedy, I was doing the clubs, I was doing the Hollywood scene, I was uh doing Vegas, and then all the com the improv comedy clubs, I was doing big stuff, and then MBC was writing a sitcom for me called Fish Out of Water, a Middle Eastern Man in America, and everything was great. And then a friend of mine, a comedian friend of mine, invited me to church. And when I went to church and I heard the gospel, and the pastor said, Come as you are, and to me it was I thought fame and money uh and girls and parties and drinking and cocaine will make bring me joy and happiness and fulfillment. It wasn't, it was there was that emptiness in my heart. And when that pastor said, Come as you are, Jesus will work, will do the work. I went forward crying. I mean, I'm I normally never cry, but I went forward, give my life to Christ. And Monday morning I called my manager, I said, I quit. And he was oh, he was so furious, but 250 F words. How could you? We have a we have a contract coming up with MBC. Are you aware your career is gonna go? You're going against Seinfeld, you're going, you're doing good, you're gonna be the best name out there. And I was like, but I don't want that anymore. And he goes, What do you want to do? I go, I don't know. I don't I quit. I I I literally quit, Rick. I quit comedy a week later. My pastor comes to me and he goes, Nazareth, uh, would you like to do a comedy show at our church? I'm like, Are you kidding me? This is 1992, 93, where it's like, Are you serious? You can do comedy. He goes, God created humor, Satan perverted it. He goes, You can do that. I'm like, again, so so I said, Okay. And I started and I looked at my act, and I I mean I cleaned it up and all that, and I'm still a new believer. And then the day of the show, Rick, and a deacon, an old deacon who's with the Lord been for a while, he's like, Lord, use this man's comedy to bring people to know you and to bring joy to the to the believers. And from that moment on, I could not help but not share the gospel when I'm uh when I can. If I'm doing a corporation, of course, um I'm just gonna they're gonna come to me. I won't say it, but they come to me, are you a Christian? Are you a Christian? And they would know it. No, but if I'm giving the opportunity or I do my own concerts, which we can talk about laughter for or later, I I cannot help but share the good news of Jesus Christ. So this is how it started with me deciding to quit, but God said, nope, I gotta use you.

Ric 7:21

Wow. So it's the old-fashioned um altar call was the start of it all, huh? Yes, yes.

Nazareth 7:28

Some people are against altar calls. I still do them, I still ask people to come forward because that's how I it was my accountability moment. Yes, that's when I felt the Holy Spirit saying, Go forward. Some people say, Oh, well, but some people come forward and it's not real or it's not doesn't matter for me. I it happened to me.

Ric 7:48

I go forward, and God loves humor, and you have proof of it right behind you there, don't you? Yes, I do.

Nazareth 7:55

I have a picture, I normally never carry it, but here we go. I it's always been on my desk, and it's a reminder that Jesus laughed. People that you know, you don't see people preaching about Jesus laughed. That you know, of course, you know, we talk about Isaiah, we talk about how he was a man of sorrow, he was, and how he suffered. Yes, he did, but he was human, he's fully human, fully God. So he had to laugh.

Ric 8:20

If he cried, he laughed. Wow, yes, that's so cool. I love that. And when I when you show me that picture, that was just oh, I've never seen it before. Just like you say, nobody pictures him that way, right? So that was great. Did you um when uh when all of this was going on, so you converted and all of that. What uh what point in your career was that? So there was that uh how old were you? Where did you make the switch?

Humor As Survival And Calling

Nazareth 8:43

Converting uh it wasn't it was like okay, I grew up in a Greek Orthodox Christian family, so but my parents never went to church, they never, they never, so we know I was born in the Holy Land, I moved to Kuwait when I was three years old. So we were actually in a Muslim country, but we there was a church, a Greek Orthodox church, but my parents were never religious or never took us to church. So I did not know. So when that moment happened, when I was when that pastor gave the invitation, somehow it's like I felt, okay, this is what I need, this is exactly what I need, the Lord. So I was three, uh, you know, I was 28 at the time. I was already, you know, doing Vegas and doing other, you know, sitcom coming, everything is happening. So that's when I trans, you know, transitioned to to to do the Christian. And at the time, there weren't many Christian. It was Mark Lowry and uh I think Shonda didn't start yet. It was Mark Lowry, Robert G. Lee, myself, and a couple other comedians around the country. And then, you know, a lot of people like Jeff Allen left the club after and came back, you know. My Michael Jr. left the clubs and came to the church. So in that scene earlier, there wasn't anybody, you know, especially in California, there wasn't many. So I had I remember I started a comedy club at the church called the Christian Comedy Club and lasted for two years. We had teachers, we had invited and people uh it was hard to find comedians because they were not, you know, there were not many Christians, but uh that's how it started.

Ric 10:21

Wow, Rick Hansen here with Clean Comic Nazareth on amazing grates. When did you first realize that you were uh drawn or gifted with comedy in the first place? So were you like a kid and you made people laugh and then you said, This is cool, I like this, I'll do it. Uh, where along the way did you kind of get the bug for comedy?

The Marathon That Sparked Comedy

Nazareth 10:42

Uh yeah, oh that's a great question. You know, when I was young, I was the youngest of three boys. I have a very strict Middle Eastern mom, so that brings humor into your life. Uh, we lived, we we lived in Kuwait. Kuwait, we were the Christians living in Kuwait at the time. We were, you know, there's you know, at the time the natives were the number one, you know, like ethnicity, then everybody else was a second class. So going to school and dealing with all of that, humor was my my weapon, my tool to to protect myself, to fit in, to like so I used that, and then you move to Toledo, Ohio, and uh, and and then you have to try to fit in as well. And you uh humor was my way to to to make friends and to be liked. But then when I moved to California, I decided to run a marathon, Rick. Don't ask me why. I was smoking, drinking, doing cocaine, and working as an accountant, and I decided to run a marathon. I have no idea why, but I started running, and all of a sudden, I'm I'm not I didn't train for it. Uh so I I smoked my last cigarette that morning in Los Angeles, and I started copying what the other, you know, the runners, the the real runners do. And then I started running, and after two miles, my body became a dysfunctional family gathering where my my lungs were like the grandpa's, like, ah, you know, I can't breathe. You guys better stop this shenanigan. We can't do that. Uh, my heart became like my wife, where it's like, nobody told me I didn't sign up for this. Okay, I'm the only one pumping here. Nobody's helping. Let me stop and see what happens to all of you if I stop. My legs became like the kids. Are we there yet, Dad? Are we there? How much longer? Dad, we're we're tired. We need and I and I kept running. And I got I get to the after five or ten miles, you become numb. You can't feel any pain. So I'm running with everybody else. I get to the 22 miles and I'm just like dead. And then a homeless lady standing, she goes, honey, you can't quit. Look at the finish line, you can see it. And when you see the finish line, you get extra energy, right? I didn't. I just dragged myself, got to the finish line, and sat there. And I go, Wow, what do I want to do in life? That if I never get paid for it, that was still, I will still do it to the best of my ability. And it was making people laugh.

Ric 13:20

Wow.

Nazareth 13:21

That was that was my defining moment because when you think you can do something, when you don't under think you're capable of doing stuff, and then you run 26.2 miles and you finish it, go, I can do anything right now. And that was uh that was what I wanted to do. So the next day I took action right away, otherwise I would have forgot about it. I went to the LA Cabaret in Los Angeles in the valley, and I signed up at 7 p.m. Rick, 300 people in the audience, all the big names performing. It's like this is great. Uh, by the time I got on stage, it was midnight, nine drunks. I did I didn't have an act. All I had is the jokes that I used to do when people say, Oh, you're from the Middle East, you live in a tent. I go, Yeah, a two-story tent with a two-camel garage. And then I I used, you know, my my brother would come and take Ken and Barbie hostages. I sent G.I. Joe to get him back. Stupid jokes. Got a huge laugh. Another one was like, Hey, we had the earthquake in LA. I was at work, and the Slurpee machine fell and hit me on the head. I'm glad I had my turban on. And people people fell off their chairs laughing. I can't do these jokes now, but it it was like my science, like, I can do this. Next day I went to the comedy store. I and I signed up for open mic night. And then the next day I went, uh, went, and then after within within a few months, it was me and Sherry Shepard. If you heard of her, Sherry Shepard, the comedian. But yeah, we started in the same day, and that day we went up to the improv in Santa Monica, California. And the owner, it you know, people know Bud Friedman, who's the owner of all the improv, but it was Marc Lano, who's his partner, who said, Nazareth and Sherry, you guys are so funny. You are welcome anytime at any club in the country, any improv, and you can do time. That was my like just the open door for me. And from that point on, that it was just uh it just the door just opened and it was great. So that's that's what happened.

Wild Moments From The Stage

Ric 15:28

What's the funniest thing that has ever happened to you on stage that you can recall? Is there a time or a space where something uh crazy funny took place?

Nazareth 15:38

Crazy funny. I remember uh one time I was in Midland, Michigan, and uh we were doing an outdoor concert comedy, and the stage just fell. I just fell uh under and just came up and finished my comedy. And after I finished, uh the guy, the guys came, uh please don't sue us, please don't sue us. I'm like, suyo, I had a great show. I'm happy. And and that's that's one of the things. Another one we used to perform in places where they have to put cages so people don't throw stuff at you. Yeah, yeah, that's uh yeah, that there's just I've been so blessed. I haven't had like hicklers who really bothered me. I haven't had any action. Well, right now you see sometimes you know, someone on the in the audience come up on stage. Oh, one time, oh, this is funny. I'm glad you're imagining. I was in near Tacoma, Seattle, and I was doing a show, and it was outdoors and for a radio station, and I was doing my comedy, and I had two security guys right by the stair, the steps to the stage, and I was doing my comedy about you know, hey, being Middle Eastern, nobody wants to talk to me at the airport, uh, the early, you know, on flight, and people are afraid to talk to me on the plane. And this guy walks up and walks on the steps on the stage, and there's two security guys who are just standing there. I'm like, what are you doing? And I'm looking to see if he had a knife or something in his hand, and he just came in and just hugged me, and he goes, Oh, I'll fly with you. And he goes, I'm a marine and I'll I'll fly with you. I was like, Oh, God bless you, brother. Thank you. But not right now, we're not flying right now. And then the security guys come and grab him. I'm like, wait, you should have grabbed him before right now. He's a nice guy. We uh he's my friend now. Don't just let him go, don't worry about him. And that was one of the only times where I was fearful on stage that something could go wrong, but other than that, it was fine.

Ric 17:46

So, so on in your routine, uh in in a normal kind of Christian-oriented rich uh venue, uh, how do you actually weave the gospel message in with the comedy, or is it separate? I mean, do you do the comedy and then do some some uh scriptural how does that work?

Nazareth 18:07

Okay, if I'm doing a corporation, I I won't bring that up. If I'm doing uh a certain event, uh what I do is people come to laugh. I will give them their hour of laughter or hour 15. And in the middle of the act, I somehow share how God changed my life very lightly, very you know how the power of prayer uh gave me my wife, how this happened, and just slowly, and even when I don't do uh a Christian audience, I still weave what God has done in my life, and I've never had a complaint from from Bank of America to Coca-Cola to anybody that's saying, Oh, you talked about your life. Somehow my accent allowed me to get away with stuff. Okay, I'm from the Holy Land. What are you gonna do about it? This is my this is how we talk. We talk prayer and we talk Jesus. How about that? And and then I get to a point where uh towards the end of the show, and I go uh like right now when I do with my stadium event or Christians, I just say, Okay, you got your money's worth. Thank you so much. If you want to leave, you can. But I wanna I want to tell you something what happened because I can make you laugh and you can go home right now, get a text or an email or some bad news, and you lose all that. But if I lead you to the source of joy, which is Christ Jesus, that's what he did, he gave me joy, so that will last with you regardless of what's gonna happen to you next. And then I get to share the gospel, and then many times, if I if the Holy Spirit leads me to, I would say, Hey, if you want to receive Jesus, uh and you feel uh, you know, like would you come? I want to pray for you. Would you come come here to the stage? I want to pray for you, and that's how we do it, and that's uh uh praise God. I've I've had shows where hundreds of people came forward. I've one time I did a show, Rick, and you know, I I did it, and it was a lot of IRS Asians were there, really okay, yes, and and I did, and I was and the the the the promoter said, Can you please share the gospel as do an invitation? I'm like, You sure? He goes, Yeah, I want him to do that. I was like, okay, so I did my comedy and I did the invitation and I started asking people to come forward, and one guy, just one older guy with a with a cane, just slowly walked forward. And I'm looking around, like, anybody else keep going, keep going, anybody else? You know, because you get you get points in heaven, and you get paid based on how many people come forward. And I was like, I'm like trying to drag it, and nobody came forward. So I prayed with the guy, and he was tearing up, and I prayed with him, and I was like, okay, and then when I finished like, okay, I guess I didn't, you know, they don't want to hear it. All right. And this lady comes to me, she goes, I've been praying for my husband for 26 years to come to know Jesus. And she goes, Today he came forward.

Ric 21:00

Oh man.

Nazareth 21:01

Oh, yes. So when people say you can't ask people to come forward and stuff, uh that doesn't work. Yeah, you know, God bless you. I have no if if that's how God put it on your heart, that's God bless you. Yeah, but this, yeah.

The Prayer That Led To Marriage

Ric 21:16

So yeah, it works. A mixture of laughter and sharing the gospel with comedian Nazareth on amazing greats. You briefly said that how prayer brought you your wife. Now I want to know that story. You want to hear that?

Nazareth 21:28

Oh, that's a that's a God story. Uh okay. Uh, for the single people watching or listening, and I you say my clock is ticking, it's not. Uh what happened is when I came to Christ, uh, Rick, I decided I said, okay, I'm not gonna. I I don't want to watch porn. I don't want to date, I don't want to lie to a woman, I don't want to live with a woman outside of marriage, I don't wanna do this, I don't want to do that. That's it. I'm I'm I want this is what I want, Lord. I I promise you, I will do this. That. But if I'm not gonna be dating and stuff, I want a beautiful wife with a rich father that knows the whole Bible. So let your will be done. You bring her to me. I'm gonna go about your business. You go about my business. And I really believed that because when you're a new believer, you don't put restrictions and excuses why God wouldn't do that. It was just like, I know God is able, I know He loves me, I know He, you know, marriage is His idea. Okay, I want to be married, but this is what I want. And I waited, and then came the evil day called Valentine's Day, when you don't have anybody, you know, everybody else is in love except you. Yeah. I thought, okay, Lord, you know what? She doesn't have to have a rich father, you'll take care of us. You know, beautiful in the New Testament is fine with me. I'll go with that. And you wait because you want God to do things on your time, and you don't want to come, you know, but you start compromising the prayer. Second year, I'm losing a little hair. I was like, I don't want to be bald before I got Lord. You know what? She doesn't she doesn't have to be beautiful, she's okay, it's fine with me. And the book of John is fine with me. That would be great. A year later, I started gaining weight on my sides. I'm like, and when you start erasing your phone messages without touching it, or you can't hear a drink, I'm like, oh pizza hot, I didn't call you. My fat called you, okay? Okay, make a large pepperoni and hurry up. I said, No, I can't, I can't. I said, Lord, John 3 16, bring her over, I'll witness to her. And that was my real prayer. And that year, when I prayed that prayer, my father was dying at Hogue Hospital, Newport Beach. And he goes, Son, can you do me a favor? I go, anything for you, Dad. You know, of course. He goes, Uh, I have a home in the Gaza Strip in the Holy Land.

unknown 23:46

Wow.

Nazareth 23:47

And I want you to, I'm like, what? He goes, Yeah, we're from there, and I want you. I didn't know they were Christian back then. There's like, I go, really? He goes, Yeah, and I want you to go change it into your mom's name. Would you do that for me? I said, Of course, I'll do it for you. And I was touring with the righteous brother at the time. I was like, I didn't want to go, but it's your dad. So I flew into Tel Aviv. I drove to the Gaza Strip the first night I'm there. My atheist cousin from Baltimore who lived there, uh, who was who was there to get married. He goes, Oh, you want to be my best man? I go, sure, I'm here. So he said, Let's go to dinner, me, you, my fiance, and her sister. So we go to dinner that night, and he looks at me, he goes, You look happy. What's wrong with you? You're in the goddess trip. Why are you happy? I go, Jesus changed my life. He gave me a reason to live. I used to be like an old car that keeps breaking down. Now that I'm a Christian, I'm that same old car, but I'm married to a mechanic and I have triple A. It's not an image claimant, it's God is with you. He goes with you through it. And he, my cousin, got mad. He goes, Girls, don't listen to him. He's a born-again Christian. And her sister, Rick, looks at me and she's gorgeous. She goes, Me too. I go, What? You're a Christian? She goes, Yeah. I go, Would you like to marry me? And she goes, I've been praying for three years for a believer to come to this side of the world. So I'm gonna take you serious. She goes, Are you serious? I go, Yes. She goes, Let me pray and fast for three days. I'll get back to you. Three days later, she came back, she goes, I'm starving, let's do it. August 10th will be 30 years of marriage. Beautiful, godly woman. Her dad was the kind of the mayor, so she wasn't doing you know, he she everything I prayed for, rich dad knows the Bible very well, and love and beautiful, all came in because I was I was being faithful. And some people go, Well, I've been praying for a wife uh or a husband. Well, have you been waiting for him? No, I'm dating different people, and like it's not gonna work that way. You gotta trust, and I trusted and I waited, and I uh God rewarded me with that.

Laughter For All And Free Events

Ric 26:01

So good, so good. That's a great story. Thank you for sharing that. That's oh, you're welcome. Thank you. That is very cool. So let's talk about your nonprofits. Um, so you have a couple, uh, as I understand it. Um, and one is uh all about laughter, laughter for all. Uh tell us about how that started and what it is.

Nazareth 26:24

Laughter for all started in 2013. I was doing events and I started doing church events where some churches were like, I just want you to be funny. I don't want you to talk about anything Christian. I just want you to be funny. I go, okay, if you just want me to be funny, my comedy friends who started with me and after me are charging $20,000, $30,000. Would you like to pay that? Because I started with Chris Sack, Adam Sanner, Kevin James, all these guys. I'm like, if you just want me to be funny, you better pay me what mainstream media, you know, uh companies pay for the comedian. But if you but I want to be able to share at the end, that's a church. You don't know what if the fire of Chicago happens, you know, and people, what if I don't share? And so I started praying and I said, Lord, uh how can I I want to be able to control my shows, I want to be able to to do my own shows where no one can tell me what to do and what not to do. I want the Holy Spirit at the end of my comedy to to be able to do that, and also I wanted to be able to bring the poor people who can't afford to go to a movie theater or or to a comedy club to come and enjoy my show or to a Christian concert. I want him to come for free. So I prayed and I just felt the Lord saying, okay, go find a poor area and we'll talk. And at the time, I mean, next to me was San Bernardino County, California, which was the poorest county in the country. So I drove there and I started praying. I'm not one of those like, you know, fanatic prayer people, but I was just praying and I saw the stadium there, the 66th stadium. And I go, I was okay, oh wow, would that be? And I just felt, okay, I'm gonna go inside. And I went inside, I'm like, may I speak to the manager? And he goes, Yeah, I go, I'd like to rent this place. He goes, What are you doing? I said, uh, a clean family night where he goes, how much are you charging for tickets? I go, I'm not charging for tickets. I want to be able to bring people for free because it's a poor county. I want to be able to give them toys and food if I can find vendors who would donate it. And he goes, Wow, that's a great idea. Well, I'll give it to you for half price. I go, how much? He goes, 10 grand. I didn't have 10 grand. I go, oh, okay, okay, let me see. So I started driving and I get a phone call from a friend and I said, Hey, he goes, How you doing? I go, fine, this is what happened. Just having a Christian. Because I'll just give you the 10 grand. Don't worry about it. Go book it. So I booked the thing, but 5,000 people showed up that day. We gave a thousand toys, a thousand bags of food, and it was a free event, and it was great. And I brought, I think at the time I brought Crystal Lewis and uh and uh what's his name? Uh the the fastest guitarist, Dennis Agajanian. I brought comedians and people just loved it. Then we did it four times in that stadium. Then I started, I did one in Vegas, a couple in Vegas, where we had 3,500 people come for free. And we but we did it for free. And then the last few years, it became difficult to do free events because people don't show up because they don't have they don't agree to the value of it. So I started doing it in theaters, like last November we did one at the California Theater for Performing Arts, 1800 theaters. We filled it up, but you know what? People say, Oh, I want 10 tickets, but they don't show up. So, so what we started doing is said, okay, and this is just the first time, this is where I'm starting to change the focus a little bit. Last year we started, said, okay, instead of renting a stadium and paying that much, I'm gonna start going to like recovery groups, to uh what do you call it, the LA mission, to go to the homeless shelter in Dallas, to this, and go and do comedy, of course, for free. On send comedians, like let's say sometimes if I go to the LA mission, you know, I have some African-American Christian comics that can do a great job there, better than me, because they can fit uh with the audience. Or if I go to an area in East LA, Los Angeles, where there's a lot of Latinos, I have Christian Latino uh comedians who fit. So I said, listen, I will pay you from Laughter for All Ministry to go and do these events for free. Just go, but the one condition, you gotta share the gospel at the end and give them a chance to accept Christ. And just don't ask for anything, just do it and we'll pay you. So we started doing that, and now I'm doing a big event at um the church in you know in Corona, which we've done five times for free, where we have to, we said, okay, we gotta put value into this event. So we said, okay, we're gonna call it a pay it forward event. Like if you have money, you can buy a ticket and buy an extra ticket for someone for free. And they go, and people go, what if we don't get it? I said, don't tell anybody, but we'll let everybody for free if they want to come for free. Because that's what's on our hub. We don't want, I don't want a family of four who can't even worry about going to the movies. They're worrying about the next paycheck and the inflation and the groceries. I don't want them to worry about, but these people don't go to events. Rick, you'll be surprised how many fathers come to me and said, Hey, thank you, because I never could take my kids to a live concert before. Yeah, and we can. And it's just amazing. We are so blessed. So that's that's what Laughter for All is all about. It's about doing comedy, bringing taking comedy where people are hurting and they need it, but also doing events where people don't have to feel burdened to pay for a ticket. If they have it, they can. We get a lot of wealthy people come to the event and and they can afford it and they can buy it, and some of them pay for more, but but we want to be able to let people who don't have the money to come and laugh. But the goal at the end, we share the good news of Jesus Christ.

Prison Comedy And Ministry Shift

Ric 32:37

Using comedy to make the world a better place. You're listening to Nazareth, the comedian on Amazing Greats. And you know, there's so much truth to the fact that um if it's free, people don't put value on it. And so uh just putting a price tag on it makes the difference between, oh, now I'm gonna go to a real deal, but at the same time to make it available when when they need it and they can't afford it. So that's that's super what about the prisons?

Nazareth 33:04

So did you um Laughter for All goes to prisons and and tell us we did the prisons before, and the the way the the prison thing, how it started, Rick, is uh before I became a uh a believer in Christ, I mean I was a Christian, but we to in order to work as a comedian, we go to what we call hell gigs or one-nighters, and it could be a bar in uh in the middle of nowhere with five people in the audience, or it could be a you know, a strip bar where you go in between the dancers and do your comedy, but you always need a place to try your new material on people that's normally not not very impressed by you, so you can know it works. Uh-huh. If this guy who doesn't care about me is laughing, or he doesn't know there was a comedy night, is laughing, that's a good joke. And then when it came to Christ, I'm like, Lord, I don't want to go to strip clubs and perform, I don't want to go to bars. What do I do? And right away I get a call from Chuck Colson's office. Hey, would you like to join us? We're starting, we're starting something called Operation Starting Line, where we want to bring uh an you know an ex-inmate uh or uh or a pr a pastor or an actor or a comedian to come and and do a show inside the prison yard and then share the gospel. Like, hey, perfect. So I started working my new material with death row inmates and with uh with people doing life. And if someone on death row laughs, it's a good joke. There's no good, they don't have to, they don't have to be nice to you. But that's kind of for for almost 300 shows I've done, it really made me stronger as a comedian. And I remember at the time, it was like me and Tim Hawkins and Gilbert Escaval and some other we'd go into the prisons and each one would go to a different yard, and we're just making laugh, and we go, This is great. So when you because some people, and I'm this is not against some Christian comics, but uh some comedians started in the church, and in the church they were kind of soft, like you can do a joke if they don't laugh, say, Hey, Jesus loves you, and some of them would laugh. Uh, I'm not I'm not against that, but when you start in the clubs and you start doing prisons and you do, you know, like street comedy where you're going to you know in in a very bad area and stand on the streets and do comedy for for homeless people or do homeless shelters, your comedy is gonna be a lot stronger. And and that's why it just I felt the Lord was just preparing me uh to do that marathon of working hard as a comedian. But yeah, we we've seen people to go. I I prayed with uh with a uh a person, uh an inmate in uh I think it was Missouri or somewhere, where he was he got executed the week after. Oh my. And I got he accepted Christ after the comedy, and uh we hugged and I prayed with him. I and the guard said, You can't hug them, you can't touch him. I said, I don't care right now, this man is is going next week. And so uh so yeah, it was a great experience. Nowadays, I don't know. I just feel the Lord shifted my my ministry from prisons because I used to do when when COVID happened, I I was having a men's Bible study at my house with five guys we just meet every every Wednesday, and then the Lord said, I want you to go to where really you have an impact. And it was junior high boys, because that's the age where they're getting attacked more than anything. So for the last three years, I've been just going every Wednesday to do junior high, which tonight.

Ric 36:51

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Corona Show Details And Support

Nazareth 36:52

I'll go and there's like young sixth graders to eighth graders that really you get if you if you take uh uh at call adder all spray to shh because they're like, hi, how are you? At the end of the day, they'll end up saying, you know, some of them come, you know, it's like okay, I love Jesus and I want to know more about him. So that's that's where they're cool.

Ric 37:18

Before we get too far away from laughter for all the the event you're gonna be at uh in Corona is at the Crossroads Church. Want to make sure that everyone knows that, and it's on June 27th. Yeah. So there, and is it just you solo or is there a group? Is it no?

Nazareth 37:35

I always bring I always bring a few comedians to open for me. We have 3,000 seaters, and I know every single time we've done it there, it's sold out. So what happened is I'm gonna bring uh comedian Cecil C. He is a high-energy African-American comedian, just a great guy. I'm bringing uh a comedian from Texas. Her name is Dory Lattimore. She's really great, she's funny, she fits with the with the ladies. Also, I'm bringing a guy named Michael Raynor, who's been on The Letterman, he's been on every tonight show. He can take he's more of a variety act. He can take a an umbrella and put a cheeseburger on it and separate the meat, the the meat from the and the cheese from just amazing, amazing variety act, juggling. The guy's been all over the world. He has millions of followers. He's gonna be doing the comedy. So if people have kids standing up, they can bring them. And then also, and then I will do comedy, and then at the end, I will get to share the gospel. So if people have relatives or friends that wouldn't come to church, that would be a great night. So we're doing it differently because we're putting like a ticket price. Like a ticket is $15. If you buy uh two tickets, one for you for $30, one for you, one for someone to come. We can we can also give that ticket to someone. And then uh we we if you want to sponsor a family for $100, you can. We'll have a whole family come for free. But then also we call it community tickets. And what they can do is they can send us uh an email, say, hey, I want free tickets. This much, we send them a code and they can get the free ticket. So it it just gives them some kind of, you know, it's not embarrassing or a role, hey, send us an email, we'll give you a a code, and that code will get you a free uh free ticket to come in. So that's that's the goal from the event. And we're gonna have food trucks up uh in the beginning, five o'clock, doors open, six o'clock showtime.

Ric 39:35

Is it uh an opportunity for our audience to actually uh donate toward your laughter for all event?

Nazareth 39:43

They can go to laughterforall.org. Okay. If they want to donate, they can donate to that. And because we we we do send comedians to places. So if someone in the audience goes, I want to donate money so you can bring to a comedian to our church's recovery group or to to our uh you know, the mission in our city, we would love to do that. We'll pay. But also if they can click on events, which is on the first page, they can go to this event, they can buy tickets for other people, they can buy tickets for themselves, and it would be a great opportunity for them to share in the blessing.

Serving Refugees With Practical Help

Ric 40:19

Okay, the the other people I don't want to get away, and maybe we don't have as much time to talk about this, but your other uh is for refugees.

Nazareth 40:27

Your other voice of refugees, yes. Okay, I'll tell you how that happened. You know, there was a time, there was a time where people went to uh different countries, especially in the Middle East, like Iraq and others and Afghanistan and stuff, and they were able to share Jesus and live there and stuff. And then the whole ISIS thing happened, and the whole war in Iraq happened, and missionaries stopped going, and people started coming here you know, during the war from Iraq and all that that were escaping and Afghanistan. So, what happened is we were at church one morning, and this guy, blue eyes, blonde hair, blue eyes and blonde hair comes to me. He goes, Can you teach us Arabic? I go, Yeah, why? He goes, Because there's an Iraqi family just moved next door. I want to share Jesus with them. And me and a lady at my church is like, oh my lord, we can speak the language, we know how to share the gospel. Why don't we do it? So we said, Okay, well, what can we do? We said, Okay, let's start giving them free furniture. So I said, Hey, Rick, do you have an MD, a couch you don't want? Yeah, give it to me. And we put it in our garage and then go and deliver it to that family. And then they said, What do they need? They need English. Oh, anybody can teach ESL. And people started doing that. And before you know it, God just exploded it. And right now, even though I I'm I'm the founder, like uh you know, board chair, but I have an executive director, I have eight employees, they're all believers, they all do devotions, and we have we serve over 2,000 families in Southern California. Food, uh, furniture, ESL classes, job placement, drive, we have a driving simulator just to help them simulate, and in the whole process, we share Jesus. And people say, What if they're illegal? No, everyone we serve is been vetted and brought to this country from an American embassy somewhere. They're all you know legal immigrants, and I'll tell you what, if an illegal immigrant comes to me, uh a mom with her kids and she needs help, I'm gonna help her. Good for you. They don't, they don't because our focus is people from Afghanistan, Iran, uh Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, uh, or Morocco, you know, all that, all that Middle Eastern part.

Ric 42:55

Um, if we want to help on that, is there a place to go donate, or is there a website for it?

Life Verse Lightning Round And Close

Nazareth 43:00

Yes, they can go to VORservices.org, or you can just uh do voice of the refugees uh and uh uh on uh what do you call it on Google and you can find it. It's called V O R, which is voice of VORservices.org.

Ric 43:17

So a life verse. Is there a scripture verse that you kind of have adopted as as your favorite?

Nazareth 43:25

My favorite, the one that I sign where under my when I do, you know, when I autograph my books or my stuff, I always first Corinthians 10 13 is for there is no temptation that's new to man, but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you're able, but in the temptation would provide a way of escape. And earlier in your in my life, the temptations were different than now. Now the temptation is uh you know uh being you know not compassionate, not. Empathetic, being you know, selfish, being uh fearful. That's uh that's a stuff I that's that's not like okay, Lord, there's a way of escape, there's a way to be compassionate to people.

Ric 44:12

Very cool. Rick Hansen here with Clean Comic Nazareth on amazing grates. So as we wind down, I like to do a lightning round, and I'm just gonna give you a line, and your response is all we're looking for, your immediate response. Weirdest place you've ever performed. Worst place necessarily. Not worse necessarily, just weirdest.

Nazareth 44:35

Weirdest. Weirdest place I ever performed on top of a table at Denny's, right across uh from the comedy store. One time I was supposed to perform, and they said, No, you can't. We don't, you know, we don't have room. So I went to Denny's, stood up on the table, and did my show, and they applauded, and the manager couldn't get me off because people were laughing. Jokes that always work. A joke that always works. Uh I'm from the Middle East, but ever since September 11th, I feel so Mexican.

Ric 45:10

See, there we gotta laugh right there. Yeah.

Nazareth 45:12

Yeah. The hardest audience you've ever faced. Uh six millionaires, uh that probably their billionaires that was sat in a room and watched me for about 20 minutes. And when I was done, I thought I bombed, and they came up. Oh, each one said, You're the funniest guy we've ever heard. I go, Why didn't you laugh? He goes, takes my power away.

Ric 45:38

Thank you so much. You know, we got to wind this down. You've just been absolutely incredible to get to know and to to hear your stories and and make me laugh.

Nazareth 45:48

You're a great interviewer, Rick, and it just makes it so smooth, and you allow me to share my life and my ministry. I appreciate you so much. Thank you. Thank you. God bless you. God bless you too, brother. Thank you. And if people want to know more about me, I'm under comedian at Nazarethusa.com. Nazarethusa.com.

Ric 46:08

Well, thanks for joining us on AmazingGreats to the AmazingGreats another incredible story. This time from Nazareth the Comedian. If you love what he's doing with Laughter for All and for Voice to Refugees, the two nonprofits we talked about in the show, you can go to the links in the description below and help them out. And I'd appreciate anything you can do to help grow our show. You can like it, subscribe it, share it with a friend, text it, email it, put it up on Facebook, whatever you can do, we appreciate it. Thank you and God bless.