Comedian James P. Connolly sounds like Steve Martin–seriously!

I was stuck in the car a few weeks ago, waiting to pick my wife up at work, tuning around the Sirius Satellite Radio dial, looking for a few laughs. I had already heard the Howard Stern Show earlier in the day and went a few clicks past him and landed on the Blue Collar comedy channel.

The voice I heard—the inflection, particularly—sounded like Steve Martin. It wasn’t him,  but the performer had me laughing the way I used to laugh 30 years ago upon hearing new material from Martin.

This was a fellow named James P. Connolly and he had me in stitches with his routine about how men—when it came to sizing up women—were either ass, breast or leg men. I won’t try to tell his jokes here, but it was so funny I put it on pause and replayed it for my wife when she got in the car.

AUDIO EXCERPT: “When I was in Desert Storm, we were there for a little over a year, and the day we were leaving, they issued us desert boots. It was like a game show parting gift… When I go back to entertain the troops now, I strap those babies on because they probably cost the government $7,425—per boot.”

Mrs. Media is not usually in the mood for standup comedy—from me or anyone else—when she gets out of work, but this time I insisted she listen. Three minutes later, she was laughing as hard as I was and I was convulsing all over again.

So I did something I never did before—I tracked down a comedian I heard on Sirius and invited him on the show based on maybe five minutes of material.

Connolly is not an unknown, having performed at the Comedy Store and the Improv, hosted “Movie Obsessions” on VH1 and appearing frequently on the nationally syndicated “Bob and Tom Radio Show.” He’s also released a CD, “The Master Plan,” which you can order on his website.

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Download James P. Connolly’s comedy album, The Master Plan

Download James P. Connolly’s comedy album, Pure Polyester