I recently got on the phone with the boys from God’s Pottery. You can read part of our chat in print in today’s New York City edition of the Metro newspaper, in advance of their Thursday, Oct. 2, show here at Comix. Or you can read all of it, right here, right now!
God’s Pottery made television history this summer as the first comedy duo to compete on NBC’s Last Comic Standing. Make that the first acoustic Christian folk music comedy duo. So who do Jeremiah Smallchild and Gideon Lamb think they are, anyhow? Do they think they’re big shots now? Let’s ask them!
What made you decide to enter a televised comedy competition?
Jeremiah: "We just went to the New York audition. They said, ‘Why don’t you come on by.’ Maybe they had heard of our Web presence."
Gideon: "Or heard us in churches…Sometimes we’ll just be telling a funny story and they’ll be laughing, and then we’ll talk about the Lord."
Jeremiah: "I thought they were going to gang up on us. Look at these silly guys talking about Jesus."
Gideon: "But they opened up to us."
Jeremiah: "Even (celebrity judge) Richard Belzer. He’s Jewish."
Gideon: "Half Jewish."
Jeremiah: "But he loved us, and…"
Gideon: "And I think we’re getting somewhere with him."
Here’s a clip from a recent performance, in case you aren’t already familiar with God’s Pottery:
Any regrets about going on TV?
Both: "No, NO!"
"We had the opportunity to be on a television show, but
aside from the hundreds of people we reach, there’s free chips, and snacks,
and drinks. You have to be careful with all the free sugar snacks we
can get."
"Who are we, Carol Burnett?"
It gets weirder from there.
Jeremiah: "We should be going back to Vegas."
Gideon: "A lot of unfinished work."
Jeremiah: "A lot of progress we need to do."
Gideon: "There’s a lot of mountains out there, but I’m talking about mountains of sin."
Jeremiah: "There are mountains, too."
Gideon: "And we’ll have to go back and make some of those mountains go away."
Jeremiah: "The metaphorical ones."
Have you gotten any strange or crazy offers since being on TV?
Jeremiah: "Well, we don’t consider any gig strange or crazy. We’ll go wherever the kids need us. We have gotten offers to go around the country, open some community centers."
Gideon: "We’re just excited to get all these new email buddies."
Jeremiah: "We have gotten lots of new email buddies, and MySpace buddies."
You also can show your friendship and kinship with God’s Pottery by buying and wearing one of the T-shirts they wear. Do you have lucky outfits?
Gideon: "You know when you find a favorite hat
and want to wear it to the ballgame every time? We like the feel of it. It just feels good and we…there are actually…"
Jeremiah: "I have a number of copies of the same shirt who were made by a friend of mine so I can wear them all the time. You wouldn’t want to wear the same shirt every time."
Gideon: "Well, you could."
Jeremiah: "You could, you could."
Gideon: "I have my Virginity Rocks shirts."
Jeremiah: "We also have shirts that say ‘Woman are People, Too.’ ‘Youth Are Our Future.’ Because they are. Gideon is a fan of cats, so he made a shirt that said that, because he is."
Gideon: "I am. I’d never lie about that."
Jeremiah: "We also have a shirt about Las Vegas. ‘What happens in Las Vegas stays in God’s memory for all eternity.’ We made that shirt for the show."
Gideon: "And it really spoke to people."
Jeremiah: "And that one we may be able very soon to offer."
Gideon: "When you get something so great, you want to share it with the world. Like Christ."
Jeremiah: "Good news."
Gideon: "Good."
Jeremiah: "Good news."
The presidential election seems very heated as it heads into its final month. Any thoughts on that?
Jeremiah: "You know what, Sean? We are firmly fans of the president."
Gideon: "We support the Constitution. The rules. The right to choose who is right."
Jeremiah: "Right."
Gideon: "We just want it to be fair."
Jeremiah: "If Jesus could run for president, that’s who we’d vote for."
Gideon: "There’s a rule in this country where you can’t run for
president if you’re not born here. But what if they’re reborn here?"
Jeremiah: "That’s a good point. Loophole!"
God’s Pottery is coming live to Chicago’s Lakeshore Theater. Performing this Thursday, November 19th, at 8:00pm. Check out http://www.lakeshoretheater.com for all the info you need!