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Entertainment Local duo keeps corporate America laughing

Kelley and King have a thing for making people laugh.

The local team has been performing stand-up comedy at conventions and trade association meetings throughout the nation for more than a decade.

“It’s a great way to make a living , you make people laugh, sometimes you make fun of them and they give you money,” said Frank King, one half of the comedy duo.

While having a comedic performance may seem an odd form of entertainment at a business function, both agree it’s quite the opposite.

“We inject a little fun and humor into what would otherwise be a dull meeting or dull couple of days of meetings,” said Steve Kelley, the other half.

Businesspeople who have been in stuffy meetings and workshops all day get the opportunity to unwind.

“We say stuff that everybody in the audience wants to say, but can’t, so we release their pent-up tension and frustration,” Kelley said.

The two have traveled the country, performing in such places as Chicago, Dallas, and St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands, and said that because they work the convention circuit, most of their audience are from all over the world.

But being a local act has certain advantages.

“I think because we’re both locals here, we give people a flavor for the humor of the city and the people who live here,” Kelley said.

It’s also cost-effective for groups not to have to fly in entertainment and pay for travel and expenses.

“What sets us apart from Jay Leno is about $125,000 an hour , Jay is doing what we do, but charging way more than we do,” Kelley said.

Between the two of them, their lists of credits include television appearances on the “Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” A & E;’s “An Evening at the Improv” and Showtime’s “Comedy Club Network.”


– Longtime Team

The two met in 1985, after it was rumored King was performing at the Improv, a comedy club in La Jolla, using some of Kelley’s cartoon captions in his jokes.

Kelley, then the editorial cartoonist for the San Diego Union, had been tipped off by a reporter about the situation and ventured to see if there was any truth to it.

“I had approached him after the show and he said, ‘Oh, I read your cartoons’ and I replied, ‘Obviously!'” Kelley said.

King justifies the cartoon usage by saying he always added a disclaimer at the end of his act.

“Whoever told Steve the story, left out that fact,” he said.

The two began to collaborate with each other, with King encouraging Kelley to take to the stage and the rest, as they say, is comedic history.

Last year, the comedians even brought their show to the airwaves of KFMB-AM during a brief stint described by Kelley as “a short-lived, but much loved radio phenomenon.”

“(The show) gave us a chance to work together day in and day out for three hours a day, which led to knowing sense of timing and knowing each other’s act inside out so we could play off of it,” King said.

After doing the club circuit for a few years, the two decided that going corporate was the next best move.

“We try to customize to the group or the association, make the first five or 15 minutes about them , makes them feel good,” King said.


– Versatility Is A Key

A 30-minute to one-hour show can include anything from a good-natured roast to slide show presentations and caricatures of audience members.

“We analyze the group to whom we’re speaking,” King said.

Kelley and King will walk through trade floors and exhibits and exploit the elements that are amusing for comic effect.

The transition from barroom to boardroom has worked to their advantage.

“The fact that we work clean can transfer to a corporate setting easier than if you’re dirty,” Kelley said. Not many comedians can do that, and it sets them apart from others in the speaking profession, they said.

Typically it’s a trade-off for some comedians.

Working clean is much harder than working dirty because you’re relying on concepts and intellect rather than shocking language and imagery, King said.

“If you want funny, you have to give up clean , but Frank and I have found a way to get the job done without hitting below the belt,” Kelley said.

Clean humor has its rules of the trade. Rule No. 1:

“One of the incontrovertible rules of comedy is that you will lose to a puppet,” Kelley said, referring to King’s television appearance on “Star Search” some years ago, where he lost the winning slot to a puppet , a duck to be exact.

“It’s a true story a guy, a ventriloquist , not even a good ventriloquist , but the puppet was very cute,” King said.

King who’s gone on to work with other puppets, says he’s gotten over it.

Rule No. 2:

“You try never to make fun of something that someone can’t change,” King said, referring to physical and mental disabilities. You don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, he said, because it’s just not funny.

Though really good friends, the two aren’t exactly Siamese twins when it comes to performing. When not doing stand-up together, each hits the road, appearing in his own show.

Each can average 30 or more shows a year, and at one time King said he made appearances for 2,629 consecutive nights.

The have performed together three times this year at such local events as a California Against Lawsuit Abuse conference and for the California Bankers Association.

When asked if they ever ran out of funny things to say, the two said the thought of it was impossible.

Using situations and events from their everyday lives and surroundings as their material for laughter is never-ending.

“Creativity is the one engine for which there is no off-switch,” Kelley said.

“(If) you’re constantly viewing your world and your life through that prism, you can’t help but spit out something funny at the other end.”

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