Firefighting Funnymen
Tell Jokes To Help Their Own

By Angela Montefinise

Don’t ask retired New York City Firefighter and Richmond Hill native Billy “Bingo” Denis why a fireman wears red suspenders. That joke’s just too easy for him.

Denis, a 20-year FDNY veteran who retired from Ladder Company 126 in South Jamaica just five days before the World Trade Center collapse, has been doing stand-up comedy for the past three years, and said, “I love making people laugh. It’s the best feeling in the world. I should have started a long time ago.”

A graduate of Plainview’s Stand Up University, which teaches people how to properly perform comedy on stage, Denis gets audiences laughing with jokes like, “What does a snail say when it’s riding on a turtle’s back? Weeeeeee,” “Why does it cost so much to fight fires in Tribeca? Because they use bottled water,” and, “I love riding on a big, red fire truck. I love when all of the little kids wave to me. And I love waving back, to all of their pretty, young mommies.” He is known as New York’s Bravest Comedian, but he said it’s not because he’s a firefighter, but because “to go on stage with the lousy material I’ve got, I better be the City’s bravest comedian.”

While Denis loves telling jokes “just for the fun of it,” he also uses his talents for a good cause, and three years ago founded the benefit show, “New York’s Bravest Night of Comedy,” which raises money for a scholarship fund that sends the the children of firefighters killed while not on duty to school.

He said, “If you’re a firefighter, and you just die, your wife gets one year of health insurance and no pension. The City can’t afford to do anything better. So with this fund, we’re helping our own a little bit.”

The third annual “Bravest Night of Comedy” is scheduled for 8 p.m. on Oct. 25 at Queens College in Flushing, and will feature a full line-up of firemen-turned-comics, many connected to Queens. In addition, “Fox and Friends” television actor Brian Kilmeade will be hosting the show, and professional comedians and actors John DiResta and Joey Kola will perform.

If the school’s Colden Center sells out for the performance, Denis said $50,000 will be raised for the scholarship fund, named for Denis’ friend Firefighter Thomas Elsasser. Denis said, “It’s a great thing to come down and see. It’s for a good cause, and if you want, you can throw tomatoes. It’s just great.”

When Firefighter Thomas Elsasser was transferred to Ladder 126 in South Jamaica, Denis said he quickly grew to like him. “He was a really great guy,” Denis said. “He always wanted to help people.”

From a firehouse in Jamaica to a stage on the New York City comedy club circuit, retired firefighter Billy “Bingo” Denis will tell his jokes for a good cause at Queens College on Oct. 25. Photo by Bobby Mitts

Elsasser formed an annual one-pitch softball tournament in the early 1980s that is still held to raise money for the FDNY’s Widows and Orphans Fund, a fund that collects money for the families of firefighters who die while off-duty. The most recent tournament was held on Oct. 4 in Cunningham Park, and Denis said, “Each firehouse comes up with $300 to enter this round robin thing. You’ve got nine guys in the field, and then everybody gets one pitch. You either get a hit or you’re out . . . It’s quick, it’s fun, and it always raises a lot of money. Now that tournament is named for Tommy.”

Elsasser died of cancer in 1990, according to Denis, who said, “It just seemed appropriate to name this scholarship fund after him. He always wanted to help those families. He always thought that was the right thing to do.”

Denis may seem like a comic pro now, but he said it took “lots of work,” to learn stand up, and said, “It’s infinitely harder than it looks.” He said “stupid little things” like wearing a belt on stage and not playing with the microphone chord are important. He said, “If you’re not wearing a belt, people will be thinking, ‘Hey, why isn’t this moron wearing a belt,’ instead of listening to the jokes.”

Denis, who now lives on Long Island, said writing jokes is difficult, and said, “You’ve got to make the jokes quick and kind of stick to one subject. Me, my jokes are sort of not usually appropriate for publication. I tend to be a little dirty, you know.”

Denis proved that when he was talking about an operation he had several years ago to mend two herniated discs in his back. He said a doctor inserted a metal plate and five screws into his back through his throat, and after saying, “He must of inserted a funny bone too because people laugh at me now,” he added, “Now I can tell people I was screwed five times in one day by a man in the throat.”

Denis, who said he had “a bad week in his life” 25 years ago and “got married,” has been with his wife Cathy for the past 25 years, and said, “She doesn’t seem to mind my jokes. I guess she plans to stick with me despite my humor . . . She thinks Carrot Top is really funny. So she doesn’t have great taste in comedians anyway.”

Firefighter Steve Alleva, a Bayside resident who works for Ladder Company 7 in Manhattan, is another comedian on the bill for the Oct. 25 show, and said he was always the class clown in school. He said, “My teacher actually wrote that on my report card . . . The first time I did stand up, though, was for this benefit three years ago. I should have done it earlier, man, I love it. It’s something I always wanted to do.”

He said that he tries to avoid being dirty in his jokes, and said, “Every comedian is different and focuses on different things. My parents are divorced, so a lot of times, I stick to that.”

Although Alleva said he doesn’t like being asked to say something funny, saying, “It’s like telling a chef, ‘Hey, cook something for me,’” he did give one example of his material, and said, “My mom’s always asking me about my ex-girlfriends. It’s an annoying habit she has. You know, what ever happened to Jennifer, what ever happened to Stephanie, what ever happened to Susan. Well, one day I finally asked her, ‘Hey mom, what ever happened to dad?’”

Alleva, who has been a firefighter for 11 years, said he “loves making people laugh,” and said has done shows at Comic Strip Live, New York Comedy Club, Stand Up New York and a host of others.

He said, “I love being on stage,” but added, “There’s nothing worse than telling a joke and hearing silence in the empty room. My God, I’d rather fight fires in that instance.”

Firefighter Ed Murray of Ladder Company 164 in Douglaston has always gotten chuckles out of the guys at his firehouse, but said, “I never would get on stage. I’m deathly afraid of it.”

When Murray, who lives in Floral Park, saw an ad for Denis’ comedy benefit in a Fire Department newsletter in 2000, though, he decided to give it a try. He said, “I don’t know how I got up there, but I did it, and once I did, I knew that’s the place I wanted to be.” Murray has only performed stand-up at the previous two benefits, and said, “I’m going to think of every excuse I can to get out of this one. But I know I’ll end up on stage. I’ll just be petrified.”

Murray said he tends to “stick to sex” in his stand up work, and said his wife Donna will be hearing his material for the first time on Oct. 25. He said, “That’ll be something. Let me tell you, it may be worth it to go to see that.”

Denis said he put comedy aside for a while after Sept. 11, and said, “I just couldn’t do it. There are so many guys now who you call, and there’s just nobody on the other end.” Denis, who kissed his wife for the first time between the North Tower and the World Financial Center building where she worked, said, “Sure, it was hard to see that. It’s kind of hard to tell jokes when you’re heart’s aching.”

Denis’ father also worked for the Port Authority for 35 years, so Denis has a photo of himself with the original model of the World Trade Center. He said, “There I am in my Nehru jacket next to the model. It’s crazy to think back on that.”

After going down to Florida to get away from New York, Denis got back on stage to surprise his friend during his 50th birthday party, and said, “I’m glad I did. We’ve got to get back to normal as best as we can.”

Alleva said he “stepped away from comedy for a while after Sept. 11,” and said, “Now I think of it as a distraction. Things are never going to be the same, ever, but we can honor those lost by continuing our lives as best we can.”

At his Douglaston firehouse, Murray is the senior firefighter, and said, “I told the guys a few months after Sept. 11 that it’s alright to laugh. For a while, in all honesty, it didn’t seem alright to laugh. It seemed wrong. But we’re going to survive this. We have to try to act normal.”

Besides Denis, Alleva and Murray, Queens resident Jimmy Lawrence of Ladder 126 in South Jamaica and Ed Sullivan of Engine 211 in Ozone Park will be performing, along with Manhattan firefighter Adam Lake.

The first two benefit performances, which made $12,500, were held at the Governor’s Comedy Club in Nassau County, which only holds 300 people. Colden Center holds about 2,100 comedy fans, so Denis said, “This could be huge. I just hope people come out.”

Those who attend the show are asked to make a $30 donation per ticket, and can buy tickets from the Colden Center box office either in person or over the phone at 793-8080. The box office is located on the Queens College campus in Flushing on Kissena Boulevard near the Long Island Expressway.

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