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Comedian Joel Gant collects food for Parkersburg pantries

By Jeff Baughan 5 min read

PARKERSBURG -- By day, Joel Gant adjusts eyeglasses so the corrective lenses won't fall off the person's head. At night, Joel Gant attempts to make them laugh so hard their glasses fall off their head.

Gant goes from being a dispensing optician at Frames Etc. during the day to a comedian in the evenings. Gant, who has been doing comedy for over four years, has started a food drive during open comedy mic night at the Hideout on Route 47.

Gant said he is working with the Hideout to make it a comedy stopping place on the entertainment highway. The open mic night has been successful so far, he said.

"We've been getting 80 or so in here for it," he said. "The comedians get anywhere from 3 to 7 minutes apiece, which doesn't sound like a long time until you're on stage.

"But we thought if people were coming in for a no charge night of laughs, they might be willing to bring in some non-perishable food that we can donate to a food bank," he said. "The first time wasn't bad either. We had about 70 percent of the people bring something. We had somewhere around three big boxes of food we took to Old Man Rivers."

Gant says he jokes about everyday life.

"I don't make jokes about things political or current events," he said. "I just look in the mirror and get plenty of material. I make fun of myself or the absurdity of things.

"I tell the people on open mic night to not go down the political path or things might not be so nice," Gant said. "A couple of them didn't listen and they heard some boos."

Open mic night has rules. It is not a free-for-all, no-holds barred barrage as comedy specials can be.

"There is no hate speech allowed," he said. "They do and they won't be allowed back on stage."

Wannabe comics are making the trek to Parkersburg from the tri-state area.

"We've got them coming from West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky. Some of them travel a couple of hours to be able to tell jokes and then listen to others work for a couple of hours. Whatever the case may be, it gives people a chance to be a first time performer or a regular a chance to test new material.

"Now it is 21 and over to be in there so there are no boundaries," he says about language, but added most try to keep it under control. His feeling: "cursing just to be cursing will cause the words to lose their effectiveness and will eventually cause a comic to lose the audience."

During the workday, Gant doesn't try new material on the customers at Frames Etc. He said the new material comes from just talking to customers and listening to what they have to say on the subject of life. If he makes them laugh with a response, he remembers it.

"Working at Frames has given me a lot of confidence of talking to people about life experiences and the more obscure part of life," he said. "But I don't like to joke about other people when there is so much to look in the mirror and laugh at."

So what does Gant do when he has heard material he likes and can develop?

"It bounces around up here for a while," he said while pointing to his head. "It's up here until I am ready to write it down and expand on it, or take away from it."

Gant is doing two shows a month at the Hideout as well as "helping to bring people to Parkersburg to do shows." On Saturday, Stewart Huff, who has appeared on HBO, will be at the Hideout for two shows. Tickets are $10 and show times are 6 and 9 p.m. with doors opening an hour prior to each show.

Gant Comedy Productions is a two-person gig, according to Gant.

"Laura, my wife, she and I are a team," he said. "She does the booking and helps me write a lot of the jokes. I wouldn't be doing this without her. She tolerates me doing this at times because there's this 7-year-old daughter of ours, named Lilly. Yeah, she'll grab a mic and jump up on stage and say 'give it up for my mom and dad,' at some shows. Then again, she doesn't get to see or hear all of the shows. No, no, no. Some people use the words we really don't want her hearing right now. We're very protective of what she hears."

Gant, who is in his late 30s, said comedy was a natural choice for something to direct his time toward.

"I'm too old to be a professional wrestler," he said, "so I did comedy."

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