MANSFIELD, Ohio – The GIs of Comedy are invading the Renaissance Theatre at 8 p.m. Saturday, using jokes as their ammunition.
The comedic troupe of troops features military veterans who work as professional comedians bringing laughter to their brothers and sisters in uniform, as well as anyone who has been touched by a veteran.
The lineup scheduled to appear includes Thom Tran, a United States Army veteran; Eljaye Montenegro, a U.S. Air Force vet; and Justin Wood, a U.S. Army vet.
Walter Campbell originally was scheduled to perform but had to cancel for personal reasons.
The GIs of Comedy was formed by Tran, a former staff sergeant in the Army who medically retired in 2005. While on a 2003 mission in Iraq, Tran was injured after being shot in the back of the head just four days into his tour.
“That was a weird day,” Tran said. “It was my fourth day in Iraq, and we were taking over operations of this city – Nasiriyah – which is where Jessica Lynch was captured.”
In 2003, Lynch, a now-former Army soldier, was retrieved from Iraq, becoming the first American prisoner of war since Vietnam and the first woman to be successfully rescued.
“The unit that rescued her, they were getting ready to turn over the city, so we went out on a recon mission, and the recon mission turned into a firefight,” Tran said. “I took a 7.62mm[-caliber bullet] to the back of the head.
“It grazed the back of my skull and took a chunk out of my scalp out and went out the passenger-side door.”
Tran bandaged himself because he didn’t know he had been shot, adrenaline kept him going. He jumped in the back seat of a vehicle and his major drove away.
It wasn’t until 30 to 45 minutes later that he realized he was shot.
“I picked up my cap that I was wearing, and I saw an entry hole and an exit hole,” he said. “I was like, ‘That was a bullet.’”
Before seeing his cap, Tran thought he had been hit with debris or a ricochet.
“I tried to take it in stride, but captains worry about things like getting shot in the head,” he said. “I had to go to the hospital – they bandaged me up – and I had some cute nurses who flirted me back to health.”
He finished his combat tour and was a recruiter for the last year of his contract.
After leaving the Army, Tran found comedy as the only relief to what he experienced overseas, which became the foundation for the comedy group.
“For the first two years I was home, I went through a lot of the same things that most combat vets do – depression, anger, guilt,” he said. “Not to say I don’t live with those things now, but the only way I and a lot of guys deal with that is alcohol, drugs, promiscuous behavior, and things like that.”
He said it physically took a toll on him and caused major damage to his life. It was stand-up comedy that got him past those issues.
“The best anti-depressant that exists is laughter – it’s a good belly laugh, a good chuckle,” Tran said.
That idea became part of the group’s mission, which is to influence combat veterans to find creative outlets to deal with post-combat stress and trauma, as well as to highlight vets who have found success doing so.
The group frequently supports veterans who want to try comedy or other arts a chance to use their talents to combat trauma. The group has 10 comics in its rotation.
“We literally have a voice with a microphone, and we can take our creative outlet and take this message to as many veterans as possible, as well as supporters and family members who don’t know how to deal with their vets who come home,” Tran said. “All they see is the anger, the depression, the drinking – they don’t know that it’s OK to laugh.”
The comedians have traveled all over the world, performing in front of soldiers, families and other audiences in 19 countries.
Joining Tran on Saturday are Montenegro, who retired from the Air Force many years ago to be a bodybuilder; and Wood, an Ohio native who left the Army a few years ago as a specialist.
“(Wood) was in Iraq and saw stand-up comics perform, and one of those stand-up comics was a guy named P.J. Walsh,” said Tran, adding that Walsh also is on tour with the GIs of Comedy but won’t be performing at the Saturday show.
After seeing Walsh in what Tran called a place where no one could laugh, Wood came home and got out of the Army and moved to Los Angeles to become a comic.
“The circle is just completing itself,” Tran said.
The topics for their routines draw from different life experiences – such as growing up and marriage, as well as their time in the military.
“You don’t have to have served or watched ‘M.A.S.H’ to understand some of these jokes – a fart joke is a fart joke whether it happened in Afghanistan or it happened in Los Angeles,” Tran said.
In 2012, the GIs of Comedy partnered with the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, a charity that raises college scholarship funds for the families and children of U.S. Special Operations Personnel who have been killed in the line of duty.
The comedians have donated more than $10,000 in their name to the SOWF.
“The most rewarding part is when someone comes up to us and says, ‘Hey, man. I haven’t laughed in a month or three months or since I came home from Afghanistan, and you guys made us laugh,’” Tran said. “We did a show in England last year, where a spouse emailed us after the show and said, “You guys saved my marriage.’”
Tickets for the show range from $25 to $29 and can be purchased at the Renaissance Box Office, by telephone at 419-522-2726, or online at MansfieldTickets.com.
As a promotion for Veterans Day, the theater also will offer 10 percent off of total ticket purchases to the show and offer one complimentary beverage to all military personnel with a valid ID. The discount can be redeemed online and at the box office by using the code “SALUTE.”
The $15 ticket special is available for this event and can be purchased at the box office two hours before the show. Seats for those tickets are located in the back rows of the theater.
