Interview with Comedian Ken Davis - Part 3

KD: Here's the way I would evaluate it: at my worst, God chose to use what I was doing to impact the Kingdom and at my best, God chose to use what I was doing to impact the Kingdom.

I used to speak frequently to junior high students. Now there's a audience that doesn't give a lot of positive feedback! They climb the walls and swing from the chandeliers during the entire time you are speaking. On one occasion my audience  of 80 kids were given Q-tips and straws and they were blowing them at each other. Of course, when it came time for my talk, they sat them all in one corner of the gymnasium. But they didn't collect the straws, nor the Q-tips. So, during my presentation I am getting hit in the left eye and then in the head. It was when I had just told my funniest joke and some kid in the back sneered "Ha, Ha, Ha," that I thought, "Okay, that's it. No more Mr. Nice Guy. No more Mr. Funny Guy." At that point, I turned into Jonathan Edwards and began to speak to those poor souls, those "sinners in the hands of an angry God." I told them they were hanging over the pit of Hell by a thread and were certainly going to burn. 

I remember that night well because I was sick with laryngitis. And I was also sick with the worst attitude I could possibly have had. I spoke out of anger and retribution for their lack of respect. At the end of the night I said, "If you want to trust your life to Christ, stand up." About forty of them stood up. "Sit back down," I said, figuring that I had screwed it up by making it look too easy. So I started telling them that their friends might leave them. I made it sound like trusting Christ was the worst thing you could possibly do. Finally, I said again, "If you really want to trust Jesus, stand up." And the same bunch stood up and went to the back of the room to pray to receive Christ.

As as I walked past them on my way for a drink of water, I heard a boy about 12 years old, praying the most sincere prayer of commitment that I have ever heard in my life, probably to this day. He had responded to the most horrible, misrepresented presentation ever given by entrusting his life to Christ.  I realized then that God looked down and saw my bad attitude. He saw the bad presentation. He saw all of it and said, "There are 40 kids that I love and want, and I am going to use what you are doing." 

And there have been times when I have stepped before an audience of 58,000 men at Soldier's Field in Chicago and absolutely knocked the ball out of the park, as far as I was concerned. My heart was right. I was in the right frame of mind. I had given the best presentation I have ever done. In that moment, God looked down and said, "There are several hundred or several thousand men here that I want, and I will use what you are doing." So at my worst God used what I was doing to advance His Kingdom and at my best God used what I was doing to advance his Kingdom.

BMC: There's got to be times when you don't feel like being funny. How do you stay engaged? 

KD: Part of the way that happens is that I am not a funny guy off-stage. I received another strong criticism from someone who said that I was faking what I do on stage, because off stage they thought I was aloof. I am the farthest from aloof you can possibly get. On personality tests, I rate off the charts as an introvert, as someone who is a loner and not comfortable in crowds. Yet, the safest place on earth for me is on the stage, because I really am alone. On-stage, I am in control. If there's any place where God has been working with me lately, it's to challenge me to trust him in places where I am not in control. He's challenging me to work on developing one-on-one relationships, where humor doesn't necessarily carry the day. I think my friends would say I am a funny person and fun to be around, but I am certainly not the life of the party. I am not the guy that makes it happen, I am more introspective, serious and somewhat demented!

BMC: As you look at the next phase of your ministry, what lies ahead for you?

KD: My current passion is to continue doing what I am doing as effectively as I possibly can. As I look toward the future, I am toying with and praying about the idea of helping folks in my stage of life; to encourage them, to make them laugh, and to help them find hope in this season of life.  I'm thinking about writing a book on this season called "Skating on Golden Pond." There's a lot happening in this stage of life. We become parents to our parents and they take on the role of children; we lose our parents; we watch their health fail; we watch a generation of younger people devalue their elder's role in society. 

All of that sounds real serious. But we also see our own bodies falling apart. Plumbing that stops working, for instance.  I think it's hilarious and if you can find the humor in it, it helps you face the more serious stuff. There may be some criticism if I tackle this project, because I am going to be honest. A guy said to me once, "I have been married for forty years and my wife and I have never had an argument and never had a bad thought toward one another." I said to him, "You must be married to a carrot!  You're certainly not married to a human being." 

So I expect this book to be an honest, straightforward and encouraging look at the aging process. Hope doesn't have to die when you get older. If anything, God opens up areas for us to minister like we have never ministered before, just in different ways. For me, I think God will change my ministry to become more personal, one-on-one, more relational than event and performance based. 

BMC: Thanks, Ken, for sharing your heart and life lessons with us.