Brad Stine
(born 1960 [1]) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and author. Relatively unknown until 2003, Stine first gained exposure when he "came out" as a conservative [2] Christian on his debut album, Put a Helmet On!
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Biography
Early life
Stine was born and raised in
Bremen, Indiana, by Jerry and Nancy Stine.
His father was an auto-body repairman and
front man for a local musical
combo called the Regents and his mother was a housewife. He has three siblings, and he is the second eldest.
Stine's parents divorced when he was eight, but they later remarried and moved to
California, only to divorce once again. He stayed with his father, who briefly left the auto-body business to travel with his brother to carnivals in the Midwest. His father later remarried and returned to his previous work.
Early career
Stine started practicing magic tricks at age 13, which later led to his performing magic in Southern California bars and restaurants. Stine also learned to perform
sideshow stunts and began honing his comedy skills.
In the late
1980s, Stine was hired by a manager and toured colleges across the country with comedians
Craig Anton and Emery Emery. His first television appearance was on
Showtime’s "Comedy Club Network."
Stine continued to work in comedy clubs and on TV, and eventually dropped his magic tricks and stunts. He started taking acting lessons and auditioned for movies and television shows. On the advice of a fellow comic, he eventually made his Christian faith and conservatism the focus of his act.
Personal life
Stine lives in
Brentwood, Tennessee, with his wife Desiree, and their two children.
[3]
Comedic style
Stine's style has been described by
Newsweek
as "aggressive" with a "rat-a-tat delivery"
and by
The New Yorker
as "frantic, aggressive, and caustic, with echoes of
Robin Williams,
Sam Kinison, and
George Carlin."
However, unlike these and a lot of other comedians, Stine does not use profanity or sexual humor because of his Christian faith.
[4] He has been described as "a clean Denis Leary" and his material targets "liberals, humanists, political correctness and judgmental Christians."
[5] Stine has admitted, however, that his conservatism has sometimes resulted in the loss of appearances.
[6]
Major appearances
Stine has appeared on several stand-up comedy shows, such as
A&E’s "
Evening at the Improv" and
MTV's "Half Hour Comedy Hour," and has appeared on news programs such as
FOX News' "
Hannity & Colmes [7],"
CNN's "
Paula Zahn NOW [8]" and "
Glenn Beck [9]," and the
NBC Nightly News. Stine has also been interviewed on
National Public Radio [10] and has been featured on FOXNews.com
and in
Newsweek [11],
the New Yorker,
USA Today, and several other newspapers nationwide. He was a featured performer for
Promise Keepers in 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2007. Also in 2004, he performed for "R: the Party," a party hosted by
Jenna and
Barbara Bush during the
Republican National Convention in
New York City.
Stine has also appeared with
Go Fish (Christian band) for the song
Christmas with a Capital "C",
which criticizes the politically correct term "happy holidays" and supports the use of the traditional term "Merry Christmas."
He also played the leading part in
Tim Hodge's
Time & Chance.
GodMen
Inspired by author David Murrow,
[12] Stine founded
GodMen, a proposed alternative to
Promise Keepers that emphasizes "spiritual masculinity."
[13] GodMen's inaugural event was held on
October 28,
2006, in
Nashville,
Tennessee, and drew 200 men.
[14] Their second event was held on
March 10,
2007,
[15] in rented space at a Franklin, Tennessee, mall
[16] and drew about 300 men.
[17] Many more events are scheduled for 2007 and 2008.
[18]
Acting work
Stine has appeared in minor roles in a handful of big and small screen movies.
[19]
Multimedia
Brad Stine currently has two books and five performance videos/recordings available. A VHS was also available for purchase on a nationwide church tour. In September 2008 Brad was featured in the multi-comedian DVD
The Apostles of Comedy
, which also features comedian/actors
Ron Pearson with Chicago natives Jeff Allen and Anthony Griffith. The four comedians have been touring the country as The Apostles of Comedy since 2008 and are scheduled through May 2009.
[20] [21]
Books
Videos/recordings
References
- Adam Green, STANDUP FOR THE LORD, the New Yorker, 2004-08-02
- Catherine Donaldson-Evans, Growing Group of Comedians Veer Right, FoxNews.com Foxlife, September 01, 2004
- Bob Faw, Christian Comedian Brad Stine, PBS' ''Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, May 27, 2005
- NPR, Christian Comedian Brad Stine, ''Fresh Air from WHYY'' audio interview, September 2, 2004
- Milwaukee Journal Sentinal, A guy walks into a church…, Jan. 23, 2007
- ABC News, Coulter, Limbaugh Team Up For Comedy Show, February 17, 2007
- FOX News, Transcript (PDF format), ''Hannity & Colmes'', September 6, 2004
- CNN, Transcript, ''Paula Zahn NOW'', August 11, 2004
- CNN, Transcript, ''Glenn Beck'', June 06, 2006
- NPR, Live from New York: Comedy at the GOP Convention, ''Talk of the Nation'' audio interview, August 30, 2004
- Eileen Finan, Real Men Talk About God Newsweek Web Exclusive, Oct 30, 2006
- Brandon O'Brien, A Jesus for Real Men, Christianity Today, 4/18/2008
- Anita Wadhwani, Spiritual event wants GodMen, not girly men, The Tennessean, 10/26/06
- Jenny Jarvie and Stephanie Simon, Manliness is next to godliness, Los Angeles Times, December 7, 2006
- Paul Coughlin, New Male Spirit, Crosswalk.com, Feb 21, 2007
- ABC News, Group Advocates Macho Christianity, March 15, 2007
- ABC News, Christian Men...Too Wimpy?, March 15, 2007
- Godmen Events
- Brad Stine's page on the Internet Movie Database
- Jim Weiss, 'Apostles of Comedy Movie' World Premieres on GMC June 19 & 20, Christian News Wire, 2008-06-17
- JEFF STRICKLER,, 'Apostles deliver their comedy sans crudeness, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, May 1, 2009