Columbus comedian Jeff Bodart opened a show earlier this year with what sounded like a classic comic cliché: “It’s great to be here.”
He then quickly followed with, “It has to be. After all, this is my house.”
It was indeed during the Zoom streaming appearance, from his art room, that viewers paid good money to see.
The 43-year-old performer, who will mark 20 years as a nationally touring standup act next month, is preparing to headline live, half-capacity, safely distanced and masked audience shows at 8 p.m. today through Saturday at Crackers Comedy Club in downtown Indianapolis.
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Bodart has done just a few other live performances in places such as Oklahoma this past summer.
One difference he’s noted at those dates: even tipsy audience members are so happy to have in-person comedy return that they are forgoing any heckling.
Bodart has noticed only one or two attendees becoming “overly enthusiastic,” as he humorously put it. And he kindly put one gentleman in his place.
“Sir,” Bodart quipped, “when I wrote these jokes, I don’t recall adding any speaking parts for you.”
The funnyman expects the weekend appearances to include a mix of new material and perhaps some old material with updates and added insights. In the past, his classic bits have included the true story of phoning his dad to come pick him up sick and exhausted halfway through the Mill Race half marathon a few years ago, and a range of references to aging and battling his weight.
That material includes this gem: “A woman asked me what was my five-year plan. I said, ‘I don’t know. Maybe to be able to sit Indian-style again?’”
Bodart also still pens jokes for the hugely popular and national “Bob and Tom Show” five days per week.
“I enjoy writing for somebody else’s brain,” he said.
His own brain still is willing to take a few chances in front of others for the sake of sheer fun. Such as the recent evening he ordered a pizza, and a young man who delivered it immediately noticed a wall full of guitars on the wall behind Bodart.
“Are you famous?” the delivery man asked.
So Bodart pulled an instrument from the wall and played for the young man, eventually providing enough evidence that he was sadly no guitar god.
In recent months, he has spent some of his downtime taking walks at the nearby Garland Brook Cemetery, where he loves the solitude.
“It’s very easy to social distance there,” he said.
During his comedy downtime, he has worked some at his brother’s screen print shop and also sold some of his celebrity sketch art.
“I’m not a millionaire,” he said. “But it’s really going OK.”
He still loves bantering with a crowd, which comes from his early days as an emcee when it was required. And he yearns for a return to a semi-normal life — one in which he is on the road 40 to 45 weeks per year — within the next several months.
“I think we’ll have a good turnaround, and comedy and live shows in general will bounce back,” he said. “I am hopeful.”
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Who: Columbus headlining comic Jeff Bodart.
When: 8 p.m. today through Saturday.
Where: Crackers Comedy Club, 207 N. Delaware St. in downtown Indianapolis.
Tickets: $36 to $120, available at crackerscomedy.com
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