“I would hope that we are all standing hand-in-hand trying to figure out how to make this world a little better place, and we're hoping that humor is the first step to do that.”
As a preacher/comic, she’s a slash and a hyphenate. As someone who uses her skills as a lawyer in her current career… she leads what Penelope Trunk calls a “braided career.”
Serving the Lord, With Humor, and Legal Advice By MARCI ALBOHER
New York Times Blog March 20, 2008, 12:22 am
Susan Sparks sits at the intersection of a bevy of career trends. First, she needs a rather long string of words to describe what she does, usually beginning with something like “I’m a lawyer-turned-Baptist preacher who moonlights as a stand-up comic.” As a preacher/comic, she’s a slash and a hyphenate. As someone who uses her skills as a lawyer in her current career — her church relies on her for the occasional legal perspective on everything from property to contracts — she leads what Penelope Trunk calls a “braided career.”
She’s also part of a growing number of people who are trading money for meaning (she now earns about 40 percent of what she made as a lawyer), and another crowd who enter the ministry as a second career.
I saw her perform at a fund-raiser a few weeks ago in a group show where three comedians used religion as a springboard to try to break down barriers and defy stereotypes. Her jokes tend toward the “We Southern Baptists don’t talk about sex. It could lead to dancing” variety. The other two comics were Bob Alper, a rabbi/comic and Azhar Usman, a Muslim comic, who have been traveling together around the country on a Jewish-Muslim friendship tour of sorts.
Actually, I think she’s part of another trend. I just got a pitch from Dan Naiman (recently profiled in the Times), who bills himself as a “clean comic.” Did I mention that he is Indian/Japanese?
Diagnosing “Clergy Burnout” New study looks at the challenges facing religious leaders
NOW with Father Beck
“It’s clergy, but it really holds true for a lot of high stress jobs… my job is very much like an air traffic controller … and the burnout level is so high because you feel responsible for what”s going on…”
“Humor does two things. It binds us together as a community. And it breaks us open," she said. "When it's done right, ministry and comedy make people feel less alone.”
Pastors urged to put the ha in hallelujah Stand-up can help preachers connect with congregation
By Bob Smietana
THE TENNESSEAN, May 20, 2010
A time to be born, a time to die. A time to love and a time to hate.
And definitely a time to laugh.
That’s the message the Rev. Susan Sparks brought to a standing-room-only crowd of preachers in a classroom at First Baptist Church in downtown Nashville on Wednesday afternoon.
That passage also says that there’s a time to weep – but that’s where too many preachers stop, said Sparks, a former trial lawyer turned American Baptist preacher and stand-up comic.
“I think we’ve erred too much on the weeping side,” she said.
“… as I traveled throughout some different countries and different cultures – Buddhism, Hinduism, even Islam – I found that humor and laughter were not only honored, but an intimate part of these womderful world traditions.”
“Transformation—whether you’re talking about religion or any other aspect of life—isn’t so much about changing, but rather about taking the leap of faith to embrace who you are and what’s in your heart.”
Finding Faith Through Humor Laugh your way to grace. By Jennifer Haupt
A minister walks into a bar with a rabbi and a Muslim … nope, it’s not a joke but it is about laughter. “I’m America’s only comedienne with a pulpit,” says Susan Sparks, an ex-lawyer turned standup comedian and minister who sometimes tours the country as part of an inter-faith comedy act. Her new book, “Laugh Your Way to Grace: Reclaiming the Spiritual Power of Humor” is a refreshing and down-right humorous take on religion, spirituality and just plain making sense of the world. Sparks one true thing: God really does have a sense of humor.
“‘Hey! Did you hear the one about the preacher, the lawyer and the standup comedian who all walked into a bar?’
Pause, then: ‘You just met Susan Sparks.’”
Read the Spirit Check out Susan’s recent interview and review of her new book…
She’s actually all those things and that’s the big, refreshing insight she shares with the rest of us. Yes, she wants to help us loosen up, take ourselves less seriously, laugh our way to spiritual health. All that’s on the cover of her new book, which we’re recommending to you this week.
“Humor bonds us together and brings us together as a community. It breaks us open and helps us see things in a fresh new way...
”
Comedian Teaches Ministers To Use
Humor At Pulpit By Jeff Tang
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Ministers from across the country have spent the week in Nashville honing their speaking skills at the Festival of Homiletics. They were taught to lighten up a bit during a crash course in clergy comedy.
Susan Sparks is a lawyer turned Baptist preacher in New York City, who also happens to be a comedian.
“Do they look at me funny? All the time, I tell them I’m a minister and a standup and they say ‘okay, but why?’” said Sparks.
Sparks believes humor and laughter belong in sermons.
“It's okay to laugh in the place of the sacred.… I doubt God's the one who has the problem.”
Issues of Faith: Humor in the Pulpit
Interview with Ben Hall
“A comic, a musician and an actor walk into a bar…and holy crap, they turn out to be a minister, a rabbi and a priest.
”
Secret Lives —As told to Billie Cohen
Time Out New York / Issue 649 : Mar 5–11, 2008
Rev. Susan Sparks
Baptist minister and stand-up comedian
I do a lot of humor in the pulpit, and I try to do what I call “conscious comedy” in my show—just to make people think. I’ve done Carolines and Stand-Up NY. I had an interesting show recently, with a stand-up rabbi and an Islamic comedian. I did the opener as the Christian chick. [It used to be that] in the clubs, people would find out I’m a minister and they’d just go, “Eww.” So in the beginning, I would not let them introduce me as a minister, because the audiences—you would lose them. Now, I’ve kind of come full circle and am talking about it up front, but doing it from a very raw and honest perspective, which is about the conflict and personal journey of being a minister and a real human being.
Travel Inspiration: I couldn’t shake this nagging feeling that I had to change.
Real-Life Stories: I quit my job and traveled the world.
By Laura Michonski, AOL Travel
Have you ever dreamed of quitting your job to travel the world? … meet ten people who actually did.
Susan’s story started many years ago when working as a trial lawyer, moonlighting as a standup comedian. After ten years in the practice, her career track seemed more like a masquerade ball than an expression of my gifts.
“I knew my heart was being called elsewhere—perhaps even to the ministry…”
Susan Sparks first tried comedy on a training course she took as a trial lawyer and wound up on CNN. “CNN said they wanted to film the class, which I thought was a joke. I thought my stand-up was lame, but that item ran on CNN all day.”
“Worshippers want to laugh... Comedy club patrons want to think. Why not satisfy all the customers?”
Preacher Aims for the Funny Bone
By Ken Garfield
So who wouldn’t want to meet a lawyer-turned-preacher and standup comic who’s been called a cross between Matlock, Billy Graham and Ellen DeGeneres?
Pour yourself another cup of coffee and let me introduce you to a Charlotte native who has found her home in a Manhattan pulpit on Sunday morning. And in smoky comedy clubs on Saturday night.
“I am the only female standup comedian in the country with a pulpit. Perhaps my life path is best captured in a quote from my favorite movie Kung Fu Panda: 'our destiny is usually found on the road we take to avoid it.'”
Dispelling the Starving Artist Myth Susan Sparks – Stand Up Comedian & Pastor
By The Abundant Artist
I have to say that when I first got Susan’s email responses to my interview questions, I was totally stunned. How many artists take a day job that is outside of their true passion, just to make ends meet, and then find themselves staring their true calling in the face time and time again? Susan Sparks is a stand up comedian pastor. Today she shares her story of how a religiously apathetic lawyer became the only comedian (that we know of) in the country with a pulpit.
“Everywhere I went, whether it was the laughter of Buddhist monks or the Sacred Clowns of the Navajo, I found examples of how comedy – joy and laughter – was an integral part of the Holy.”
Inspiring Woman: Minister and Standup Comedian Rev. Susan Sparks Posted by Roxanne Samara All Things Girl
After ten years as a trial lawyer, I left the practice to pursue a career in ministry and standup comedy – a job that frankly, didn’t exist. I had felt a call to the ministry for some time, but was unsure how a comedian would ever fit into organized religion. I decided to travel around the world hoping to find some – any kindred spirits. I traveled for two years doing everything from working for Mother Teresa and climbing Mount Kilimanjaro to driving my Jeep Wrangler from NYC to Alaska. Everywhere I went, whether it was the laughter of Buddhist monks or the Sacred Clowns of the Navajo, I found examples of how comedy – joy and laughter – was an integral part of the Holy. Consequently, I returned and entered Union Theological Seminary, graduating with an honor’s thesis on humor and the sacred.
“From an early age, I knew God to be a stern combination of Walter Cronkite and Clint Eastwood in ‘High Plains Drifter.’ Jesus had the same Cronkite-Eastwood personality, just contained in a body that had the obvious Aramaic features of a Nordic Viking.”
Laugh Your Way to Grace Response Magazine
Good ministers, like comedians, stand in solidarity with their audience — not just through the silly, frustrating challenges in life but in the places of our greatest pain. Comedy says we are all in this together.
