John Tole Comes Clean

Some folks are good at think­ing out­side the box. John Tole excels at it. The walk­ing epit­o­me of the fused brains of Bill Hicks and Ken Kesey is estab­lish­ing a clean com­e­dy show­case named Come Clean in town between his busy tour­ing sched­ule and oth­er projects.

A Fam­i­ly Friend­ly Show

Here it is in a nut­shell, Come Clean is, well, a clean com­e­dy show­case – one of the few, if not the only one in Austin. There’s plen­ty of com­e­dy in town. There are sev­er­al clean comics but I don’t think I can recall a pure­ly clean com­e­dy show… unless you count that youth min­is­ter who trav­els around to gui­tar church­es but even that doesn’t exact­ly apply here.

Tole is always look­ing for a chal­lenge and the pos­i­tive poten­tial for a clean, fam­i­ly friend­ly show was too much for him to turn down. He explains it like this:

“Work­ing clean is a whole dif­fer­ent ener­gy, and work­ing with ideas that cross gen­er­a­tion leads to an oppor­tu­ni­ty where a kid can have their first com­e­dy expe­ri­ence with their par­ents. I saw Eddie Mur­phy with my dad in the 80’s and it’ll be some­thing that’ll be with me forever.”

Tole has decid­ed to kick off the show with a bang. He said it wasn’t hard get­ting a few comics will­ing to do a clean show. Mag­gie Maye, Pat Dean and Cari­na Mag­yar have stepped up to the plate and will be per­form­ing on the inau­gur­al show.

Phil’s Ice­house in the Austinville shop­ping cen­ter is the loca­tion. If you’re unsure of where this is, it’s next door to iFly at 13265 US Hwy 183 N. Why Phil’s Ice­house? Here’s why:

“We want­ed to work with Phil’s because I’m a huge fan of their cul­ture and hav­ing a bud­dy who works for the com­pa­ny made it real easy to lock in. It’s a dif­fer­ent expe­ri­ence: No stage, all ages, and the back­ground (weath­er per­mit­ting), will be the activ­i­ty on a jun­gle gym.”

Pay­ing It Forward

I’m excit­ed about a show like Come Clean, it’s the type of show I can take nieces and nephews to with­out their par­ents los­ing their col­lec­tive minds. The best part is that John Tole wants to grow it into a form of men­tor­ship –pay­ing it for­ward to future gen­er­a­tions of young come­di­ans by pair­ing teenagers with come­di­ans. Even if the com­e­dy angle nev­er pans out, it’s a good way to learn pub­lic speak­ing, which is still a top fear of Americans.

Come Clean’s first show is tonight, August, 17^th, at 7:30pm. It should run rough­ly an hour which means fam­i­lies can get their young’uns home by a fair­ly decent hour. Also, Phil’s Ice­house will be ful­ly staffed and as always, it’s right next door to Amy’s Ice Cream. What’s more to ask for on a Wednes­day in August?

Inter­net Sources

Tole keeps him­self busy with com­e­dy, music and his pod­cast, Cart Path Diem. As usu­al, we list the best way to fol­low him. Don’t for­get to vis­it Phil’s Ice­house online and in real life. 

John Tole

Phil’s Ice­house

Com­e­dy Wham