COMEDIAN JOE RECCA started doing comedy in 1987 at the Comedy
Café in Washington, DC. A veteran comedian who started doing comedy
with Dave Chappell. “Dave Chapelle and I would sit in the back of
the club waiting to do our five minutes.”
Joe’s style of comedy can be described in three words: Funny, Funny,
Funny. His real life comedy comes from life experiences.
Observations of growing up in the south, racism, ex-wife,
relationships; Joe’s comedy covers it all.
All ages, all races, everybody can relate to Joe’s comedy. Joe’s
creativity comes from a love of making people laugh. Joe says, “No
matter what race you are or what language you speak, we all laugh
the same, everyone understands laughter.”
Joe was a probation counselor working in corrections, “People will
listen to anything you have to say if you make it funny. There was
an inmate who would find Jesus every time he got locked up. He’d
say, ‘I’m back with Christ’. You wasn’t with Christ when you had
those people lying face down in that liquor store. ‘Christ will set
you free’. Christ better be on the parole board”.
I am a faithful follower of Jesus Christ. I’ve been a comedian for
over 17 years, and I’ve been confronted with a lot of difficulties
including the death of both my parents and recently my grandmother
passing away. With all the ups and downs and trials that life has
brought me since leaving my job as a probation counselor in 1990 and
going into comedy full time the one common denominator has been God.
God has always been my rock that I held on to at times when I didn’t
have a stable place to live when I didn’t have money to buy food and
wasn’t sure where the next dollar would come from, when I could feel
the walls closing in on me, and then out nowhere a phone call would
come in and work would come and I would be able to pay my bills. So,
I know the power of faith and hard work.
A year or so ago I took a paint-less dent repair class so I could
learn how to remove dents out of cars because I was tired of
struggling as a comedian, but I was so bad at dent removal I wound
up putting more dents in the cars than I took out. I got booked to
do a comedy show in New York and got cancelled the day I was to tape
the show.
So I prayed and asked God to help me in my career. You see I’m
working hard just to put a little heat on me. A comedian called me
and asked me to help him write some material because he was
auditioning for a television show on BET called Coming to the Stage
this was the second season of the show. It was the highest rated
show on BET and made the first season winner Lil JJ famous. So I
went to the audition of Coming to the Stage and waited and waited in
this long line because there were over 80 people auditioning in
Baltimore.
From Baltimore they selected me and 2 other comedians to go to
Hollywood to tape Coming to the Stage along with 30 others they
selected from around the country.
I just wanted to be seen on the show and get some exposure, but
after my third week on the show I started to ask God to help me to
win. And this is how I know what God has for you, he has for you.
Because when I thought I was going to get voted off the show there I
was still in the running. The show was a 13 week show and I was on
the show for 7 weeks and in the finals the judges declared me the
winner of Coming to the Stage…the Superstar of Funny. I received a
$7,000 Ice-tech watch, a Disney cruise, a walk on appearance on the
UPN sitcom Eve, and a BET special. The exposure gave my career the
boost it needed to the next level and got my name out there. So I
know the power of Faith, Prayer and Preparation!!
