Storytelling comic DC Benny to stand up in the Side Door

Comedian DC Benny’s last name is Wartofsky, which probably doesn’t look so appealing on a marquee. So DC Benny it is.

He was born in the Washington, DC area, so there’s some logic involved.

A veteran standup with more than 35 years’ experience on the road, he’ll be at the Palladium Side Door Friday (Jan. 17), with an opening set from Kerry McNally, the host of the online chat show Tampa Bay Tonight.

DC Benny has appeared on Comedy Central, NBC’s Last Comic Standing and numerous other programs, and acted in dozens of TV commercials and series, including Amy Schumer’s Life & Beth (he played the father of Michael Cena’s character).

“I just love going up there and making people laugh,” he says. “And if I can make some money at it, great. You have to do these other things to sort of remain a commodity. I still get calls to do stuff, and I’ll do it, but it’s really just about the live performing and the connection with the audience.”

He doesn’t tell jokes, per se; rather, he is a storyteller. A gifted storyteller who can bring on the sort of laughter that starts small and quickly evolves into the rolling belly-laugh variety.

There’s the (mostly true) story of how he was dressed in full clown regalia for a Comedy Central shoot; during an unexpected pause in filming, he wandered into Washington Square Park and, still in costume and makeup, harassed a performing mime. Then proceeded to share a powerful smoke with him on a park bench.

Hilarity – the unintended kind – ensued.

“When I started comedy, I started in the Black comedy rooms, like the Uptown in Harlem,” Benny recalls. “I was a white comedian in the Black comedy rooms. There was not a lot of time for exposition, so I just did characters. I would do one character in a situation, and another character in a situation.

“The laughs came, and people really liked it, but there was nothing, really, of me onstage. It was just these characters: Here’s somebody I observed at the deli, or here’s a guy going through the drive-through … or whatever.”

Then came the big breakthrough. “One day, I was telling my wife this story of going to the prom with this drug dealer’s sister. He had told me I had to go to the prom with her. He threatened me.

“She was like ‘That is so funny. Why don’t you tell that onstage?’ I had always done that with my friends.

“That was the first piece, and then it just kind of organically evolved into me telling these stories populated with the characters. I jump into the characters, out of the narrative, and then back into the narrative. I blend those two styles together.”

Another story involves his brief tenure as a real estate agent. During an open house, he’s visited by a man with a pronounced stutter – the very same guy who had recently heckled Benny at a nearby comedy club. The comedian, trained in such things, humiliated his heckler that night.

One hundred percent true, Benny swears.

“I did comedy hardcore, full-time, but I got sick of being on the road so much. I really wanted to stay in New York City, and just do my auditions, and there’s 11 clubs in the city … you don’t make the money you do on the road, but you get really sharp.

“I had a friend who was working in real estate. So I fell into that – got my license and did that for about five years in lieu of going on the road. I was happy working in the Tri-State area and augmenting my income a little bit. Then I got Last Comic Standing, and that took me out of real estate and put me back on the road.”

The stuttering homebuyer who recognized him became another bit in Benny’s arsenal of expository humor.

Benny met McNally years ago at the Comic Strip, a New York City club, where they were both doing standup. And they remained friends.

Next on the agenda: Benny and Mrs. Wartofsky have purchased a home in St. Petersburg.

“We’re wrapping up some New York business, and we’re heading out there,” he says. “We’re going to keep our place in New York, and come back in the summers.

“We love it there (in St. Pete); we think it’s a perfect small, manageable city that’s laid out really well. And we’ve got a lot of friends there. It’s really perfect for this time in life.”

For information and tickets to the Jan. 17 show, visit this link.