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Friday
March 29th, 2024

todd justiceELLY GRIMM • Leader & Times

 

This year’s Chamber Bash event will be here very soon, and one of the things attendees should look forward to is the entertainment after the meal. 

Comedian Todd Justice will be serving as the entertainer for this year’s Chamber Bash festivities Saturday, March 14, and he said he is looking forward to being back in the area to perform. 

“Every time I’ve been there I’ve had an absolute blast and I can’t wait to be at your Chamber Bash for this year and it sounds really fun,” Justice said. “The last time I was in that area there was a farming co-op event and that went really well, so I’m excited to see Liberal again. And with this time around, it’ll be a new audience and I’m looking forward to seeing everyone and hearing them react to my material.”

“For more two decades, Comedy Justice has been served up on a big Texas plate of mock sarcasm and agony,” Justice’s Web site added. “A true master in the art of hilarious self-deprecation, Todd takes any misery of life and makes it unbearably funny with one-liners flying and true incredible stories you wouldn’t believe. As a stand-up comic and corporate speaker, the easiest way to make an audience laugh is with surprise. The best jokes establish a thought pattern in the minds of the audience, leading them down one path only to take a left turn unexpectedly at the last second. This is the ‘surprise twist’ at the end of almost every joke. Without the surprise, there is no laughter.”

As Justice tells it, however, stand-up comedy was not originally in his plans. 

“I started in stand-up because I was interested in performing but couldn’t keep a band together. This was back in 1997 and I’d stopped at a restaurant to see if my advertisement for band members was still in the weekly and after finding it, I saw an advertisement for talent needed for comedy clubs and since my band wasn’t working out, I thought it would be a good idea to give comedy a shot,” Justice recalled with a wry chuckle. “There were a few things I knew going in, I knew I liked making people laugh and I knew I liked music. It was called the Comedy Gym and I remembered a notebook I had that was full of things I thought had been funny throughout the years, so I felt like I had a great start. And the classes took place in the back of a defensive driving school, and I went through the class and for three weeks, there was a guy who sat in the middle of the class with a big letter jacket and other accessories and he never said a word. So getting up on stage in front of this guy trying out a bunch of new jokes with him just staring at me was a little unnerving, and I later found out he was a professional comic and a Golden Glove boxer and after the third week, I quit the class and after I went back, that guy and I actually became good friends. Then from there everything else got going.”

Overall, Justice said, there is a great feeling he gets from performing. 

“The best way I can put it is there’s a kind of high you get when you nail the perfect formula for the crowd you’re in front of. When everything comes together and the jokes and everything are landing perfectly, that’s just a great feeling,” Justice said. “When you figure out that combination and can make everything work perfectly, it’s the best feeling in the world and you feel like you’ve been bitten by a bug that makes you almost unstoppable. One of the big things is you have to be aware there are many different types of audiences with different demographics and you’re going all around the world. Each audience is different and when you figure out what combination makes them laugh, that’s a great feeling. You just never know what to expect and I love that challenge. The thing I love most about performing is actually something I hadn’t really expected, which is how you’re responsible for the success or failure of your show whereas with a band, there are other people counting on you and other people to work with. And since I’ve been on the road doing this for a long time now, there are times when it feels a bit lonely, but when you hear the applause from your audience and the laughter, that makes up for some of that.”

Justice added he is very excited to perform in Liberal for the community. 

“I was really happy to get the call asking me to perform there, and it’s always great getting in front of some new people. I don’t believe I’ve worked with your Chamber before, but I’m looking forward to this show and seeing everyone’s reaction, and I love working these types of events because there’s always that anticipation of what will happen,” Justice said. “I’m a clean comic and my material is all very relatable to everyone – I talk a lot about keeping the faith that everything will ultimately end up alright, which is something I inherited from my mom. I also talk about some times where things fell apart for me, I talk about getting older and things like that. I’ve been able to connect with that demographic really well and I think I’ll get a lot of great reactions at the show and hopefully everyone will be entertained. It’s always fun knowing you’re about to be in front of a great crowd. I’d just encourage any and all to come out to the show that night, I think everyone will have a lot of fun. And if anyone’s curious they can check out my Web site and look up some of my jokes and things like that. Overall I can’t wait to come back to Liberal and put on a good show for everyone!”