I sat down with local Catholic good guy and humor connoisseur, Steve Garone to talk about the much anticipated St. Phillip Neri Festival, which will be held January 8th from 1:00pm to 8:00pm at Vertucio Farms. I have become so excited about the festival and the overall project of catholiccomedy.com, that I decided to share the conversation here on the Gadfly Report:
Q: What inspired you to host the St. Philip Neri Festival?
A: I was looking at all the virtual conferences that were going on and they were all about why we should be scared or angry or sad and I was just tired of it.
So, I decided that we needed to get back together in person to talk about humor, joy, and love, and what better way to do that than a good, old fashioned, festival.
Q: Tell us a little about why St. Philip Neri is the patron Saint of comedy.
A: TECHNICALLY, he's the patron saint of humor and joy. That's because he used humor in his preaching and taught people to use humor, theatre, art, etc. to spread the Gospel. He opened up an oratory and taught the laity how to preach. This was important, because it was in the middle of the Reformation, where you had bishops and priests fighting and leaving to become Protestants with Luther. St. Philip Neri taught lay people to spread the Good News when the clergy weren't seen in the best light.
Were I the kind of person who could decide who is the patron saint of what, I would also make St. Philip Neri the patron saint of podcasters and lay speakers. So, if you enjoy a lay Catholic podcaster or speaker, you have St. Philip Neri to thank, even if you didn't know it.
Q: Who are the guests at the festival and what should we expect from each?
A: You are all the guests!
But, as for the speakers, we have Fr. Leo Patalinghug, who is a priest, public speaker, and chef. He has several books out about bringing people together through food and humor. He'll be talking about coming back to the table and cooking good foods to invite your neighbors over to eat.
Adam Manihan and David Niles are from the Catholic Man Show, which is a radio show and podcast. They are Catholic dads who talk about being a Catholic dad in the current age. They will be the MC's for the event, but will also be giving a talk about creating a men's fellowship group in the community.
We also have Sherry Boas, author and owner of Crowning Glory Tea Room, a Catholic tea house in Fountain Hills that has tea rooms based on saints and tea flavors named after saints. She's going to talk to the ladies about setting up a Catholic tea party to reconnect with ladies in the community.
Q: What age group is the entertainment intended for? Are my kids going to be entertained by the activities, performers, or both?
A: We're working with some groups to set up activity stations for kids that will include arts and crafts, but the farm itself is already set up for whole families to enjoy, which is why we were so excited when Vertuccio Farms agreed to host us.
We've also gotten them to agree to keep their Christmas lights up, so there will be a light show as well. We should remember that Christmas STARTS on December 25th, so, we'll be celebrating the Christmas season while we're there.
The more ticket sales we end up getting, the more stuff we'll be able to do, so stay tuned and maybe we'll have a few more surprises for the kids.
Q: Who are your favorite funny people?
A: I'm a fan of the classics. Laurel and Hardy are probably the funniest people to have ever graced the silver screen. I'm also partial to Kevin James, who is a very devout Catholic and a very funny man. His YouTube channel is a bright light in an otherwise dark pit of YouTube channels.
I'm also a fan of the comedy stylings of Mitchell and Webb. They're not Catholic or American, but they have a gift for seeing the absurdity in the world and poking fun at it. A good deal of their work is not suitable for Catholic sensibilities, but they have a number of truly hilarious bits that aren't offensive at all.
Q: Have you thought of doing stand up comedy yourself? What is holding you back?
A: I have, of course, thought about it, but I don't have a great stage presence and I have a stutter when I'm nervous. I am working on a sketch comedy show on YouTube, though, which allows me to create comedy without having to deal with my shortcomings. It also gives me a chance to run the sketches past someone before I post them, so I can be assured they are, in fact, funny and not just amusing to me.
Perhaps with some time and coaching, I, too, could do stand up comedy, but I'll leave it to the experts for now.
Q: Last question: How much money did you pay to get the domain name "catholiccomedy.com"? What vision do you have for the brand going forward?
CatholicComedy.com cost me $12 for the URL. I pay around $50 a month for a website and e-mail access, but I think it's worth it.
I have a lot of ideas for what I'd like to do with it. The main points is just to spread joy. I often tell people that I'm just getting the word out there until Kevin James notices and takes his rightful place as leader of the CatholicComedy site.
The dream is to somehow fall onto a large bag of money that would allow for a Catholic Comedy film studio, so we could make sit-coms, movies, sketch shows, etc. that would appeal to a Catholic audience. What formed.org does is good, but they don't have a lot of entertainment. Most Catholic content these days is podcasts, vlogs, and documentaries on the saints. All of that is GOOD stuff and we should keep making it, but your average Catholic is not going to tune in to watch that on a regular basis. We need something that's entertaining AND wholesome. We need something that will showcase Catholics being Catholic, without it being a lecture on Catholicism.
So, that's what I want to do. I want to create something that's fun for everyone, but that Catholics can watch without having to go to Confession afterwards.
In the end, I'm just a guy who wants to be able to watch a TV show without having to justify it in my mind or explain why this character is doing something evil. I'd like to just enjoy something and, if the only way that can happen is if I make it myself, then I'll make it myself in the best way I can. If someone come to me and was able to get it done without sacrificing either quality or morality, I'd be just as happy as if I were able to make it happen.
It's not about WHO can get it done, just that it gets done.
If you have not bought your family tickets yet, do it NOW! If you already have and still feel the burning desire I do to see this cause succeed wildly, buy tickets for others! Christmas is just around the corner and these tickets are not held at bay on cargo ships outside of California. You can get them at catholiccomedy.com/festival today!