MANSFIELD — Tony Deyo was well on his way to a life filled with the normal kinds of boxes being checked.
Bachelor’s degree in music education. Master’s degree in percussion performance. A job teaching high school and middle school band. Married.
“The next things were buy a house … have a kid,” Deyo said this week.
Comedian Tony Deyo at the Mansfield Playhouse on Feb. 20
National touring comedian Tony Deyo will perform Feb. 20 at the Mansfield Playhouse at 8 p.m.
The New York City resident is a family-friendly stand-up comedian known most notably for his sharp, quick material and near-perfect comedic timing almost certainly gained from his years as a professional symphony musician. New York City’s Village Voice calls him “one of the tightest joke writers in the business.”
Tickets are $15 and can be purchased online at www.mansfieldplayhouse.com
And then an unexpected box showed up — comedy.
Then 28 years old, Deyo was teaching in Austin, Texas, when he saw a notice about a stand-up comedy class at a local comedy club.
As a youngster, Deyo had always been impressed with the ability of comics to make people laugh.
“I had loved comedy my whole life. I started watching comedians (like Jerry Seinfeld) on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, which ages me a bit,” he said with a laugh. “It was incredible.”
He felt a funny calling to take the class.
“I kind of felt like this was a now-or-never moment in my life. I had a real job. I was married and I was checking off what I called the suburban checklist,” Deyo said.
“Once I bought the house and had a kid, it would be somewhat irresponsible of me to then decide to be a stand-up comedian.
“So before I got that far into regular life, I decided to at least give comedy a try. I was completely OK with the idea I might fail at it because I knew the odds were pretty slim,” he said.
At the end of the six-class course, graduation was a stand-up performance on the comedy club stage.
“You had to get up and perform. That was probably the only way I was going to do it because I wasn’t a guy who would go on his own to an amateur night and try it. Doing it through the class was the way that forced my hand.
“I had to go on stage and tell jokes.”
His graduation set lasted just a few minutes, a performance he still has on video.
“Every few years I try to watch it and I can’t get through 30 seconds of it. It’s so bad,” he said with a laugh
“The funny thing is I got enough laughs that night that made me think I could do it … keep going. I watch it now and I am like, ‘Oh, man, I can’t believe someone didn’t tell me to quit immediately.’ “
Deyo didn’t rush home to tell his wife he was throwing his career away to pursue comedy full-time.
“I found a loophole in the normal, quit-your-day-job-and-struggle-as-an artist,” he said. “I was teaching bands, but I was also writing marching band shows in the summers. I would choreograph how they move around on the football field.
“I did the math on it. I figured out if I quit teaching and spent the entire summer writing band shows, I could make my whole living doing that. It gave me about nine months to try to become a stand-up comedian without having to worry about paying the rent or keeping the lights on. So that’s what I did,” Deyo said.
Thus began his long, storied comedy club search to become a success.
Along the way, one of his strangest gigs came deep in the Appalachian mountains of West Virginia.
“You do a lot of different venues, especially when you’re starting out. You say yes to everything when you’re young.
“I was hired to do a holiday Christmas party for a logging company. I showed up in my suit, because that’s what I always wear. That’s what I was wearing on the video they saw when they hired me and said, ‘That’s the guy for us.’
“When I showed up, I could not have been more out of place anywhere in my life …. and it was the worst show I’ve ever had in my life,” Deyo said.
He kept grinding and it worked.
In 2013, Deyo made his late night television debut on the Conan O’Brien show. Within a year, he had added appearances on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, AXS TV’s Gotham Comedy Live, and Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen.
His album, Comedy Road Trip, landed on the Billboard Magazine comedy chart and debuted as the #1 selling stand-up album on iTunes, and his Dry Bar special has amassed more than a million views.
He has made multiple appearances on Jeff Foxworthy’s podcast, “A Comic Mind,” named one of the year’s best by the New York Post.
Deyo describes his comedy as “very clean.”
“I didn’t start off 100-percent clean. I was pretty clean when I started. But at some point you’re like there is no reason to be 95-percent clean. If you want to be a clean comic, embrace it,” he said.
He said his style has also evolved over the last two decades.
“I used to write jokes that maybe had a little basis in truth. But I would also tell a joke if I thought it was funny even if it was completely fabricated. I really don’t do that anymore.
“Everything I talk about now comes from my own life,” said Deyo, still married and father to a 12-year-old son.
Music continues to play a role in his livelihood and his life.
“I still write a couple of band shows in the summer, just because I love it,” Deyo said.
His musical background has also played a key role in his comedic success. His timing on stage is pitch perfect.
“I feel like I am not an energetic performer. The words and the timing and the rhythm of every joke is so important in helping make up for that. That comes from my history as musician.
“I always feel a little better for the money I spent on college and not using that degree anymore.
“At least I got good timing out of it.”
