By Mallory Mattingly
Derrick Stroup didn’t set out to be a clean comedian, but God had other plans.
“I didn’t start off as a clean comic and somebody that’s a Christian, and at one point, you know, I wanted to be a pastor for quite some time,” Stroup told the “Relevant Podcast.” “When I was in high school into college, I was part of the children’s ministry at the Rock Worship Center in Huntsville, Alabama.”
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“I wanted to be a better representation on stage,” he explained, saying that he opened for fellow Christian comedian John Crist for four years. “We are good buddies, and he kind of led me in the right direction.”
But he admitted, “I’ve never wanted to do Christian comedy. That’s just not the world that I’m trying to live in. But I’m a Christian comedian that does clean comedy, and I think there’s a way that you can represent that on stage in that way too.”
Growing up in Alabama, comedy felt like an impossible dream, but Stroup always enjoyed being the center of attention.
“…radio was like the first thing that I really fell in love with,” he revealed. “But, yeah, I was always the center of attention, class clown. As a little kid, I would dance like Michael Jackson at the family get-togethers. In the third grade in Miss Thomas’ class, I got up and sang an entire Garth Brooks song. And, I mean, I could not sing at all. It was horrific. But, you know, clearly, I was already addicted to being in front of people, so it’s no shock that I ended up in comedy.”
He said that coming from Alabama, he had to go “look” for comedy.
“I think you gotta work for it a little bit more,” he said. “You know, there’s not a bunch of open mics. It’s not right in your lap. You gotta kind of go get it.”
Stroup now has a Netflix special out called NOSTALGIC where he “throws it back to the ’90s with a nostalgic set about childhood rituals, pre-internet life and why cigarettes should make a comeback.”
Right now, he’s in the middle of his Running Hot tour, which kicked off in Phoenix, Arizona, at the end of March. It runs through Dec. 11, wrapping up in Anaheim, California.
We love seeing comics like Stroup use their talents to honor God and entertain fans — all without profanity or inappropriate content.
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