KP Burke performs at The Dojo of Comedy in Morris Plains.
A career in stand-up comedy wasn’t always the goal for KP Burke. But through talent, the support of friends and family, and a dash of luck, he made it happen.
Burke grew up in a loving family in Wayne, where his dad’s passion for American history led to nontraditional family vacations to forts and battlegrounds. He eventually incorporated his own interest in history into his comedy.
“A lot of my childhood memories are made from (those vacations),” Burke says. “My father had a passion for it; we connected on it, and it just kind of stuck around.”
Through his peers, he learned about places like Dangerfield’s Comedy Club (now known as Rodney’s Comedy Club) in New York. “I think every North Jersey kid had this story about going to a stand-up comedy club after their junior formal,” he says. “It was like a rite of passage at my school.”
Despite his interest, Burke was too nervous to try his act on a stage in the big city. Instead, he pursued comedy for the first time after joining the Navy and being stationed in Jacksonville, where a woman he was dating signed him up for a comedy class as a Christmas gift.
“I thought I was going to stink and be like, ‘All right, I’m better as a fan than a performer,’ but I caught the bug pretty quick,” he says. “And I realized I’ve been casually writing jokes my whole life. That tiny little class in Jacksonville turned into what I’m doing now, almost 12 years later.”
Now back in Passaic County, Burke is a regular at The Stress Factory in New Brunswick (where he will perform on Feb. 2) and The Dojo of Comedy in Morris Plains. The latter served as the location for Burke’s second and latest comedy special, “The Last Recital” (watch below).
The cover of KP Burke’s “The Last Recital.”
“We were the first ones to film there, too,” he says. “It’s a big honor because they’re just on another level. I was very excited. I shared the night with another great comic: a good friend of mine, Mike Sicoli. We sold the place out.”
“The Last Recital” was released on Amazon Music in September, and on YouTube in December. It features jokes about Burke’s upbringing in New Jersey, a recent health scare, and the dynamics of falling in love with a woman with children.
Burke cites Louis C.K., Kevin Hart and Robert Kelly — whom he toured with as an opening act — as key influences, but credits much of his comedic style to Bruce Willis’ portrayal of John McClane in the “Die Hard” franchise. He recalls a 2007 Entertainment Weekly interview in which Willis described how he infused McClane with “attitude and disrespect for authority” and “a gallows sense of humor” — traits Willis attributed to growing up in New Jersey.
Similarly, Burke describes his sense of comedy as “a little rough around the edges. Kind of blue collar, but city slick and still country strong. The kind of thing that goes on with people from New Jersey.”
In 2018, combining his passions for history and comedy, Burke started a podcast, “American Losers,” with his dad as his co-host; it highlights funny, true stories about the biggest losers in American history.
“It’s the stuff that the history textbooks — whether it be middle school or high school — kind of gloss over,” says Burke. “We were like, ‘Oh, this deserves a little bit more time in the spotlight.’ ”
KP Burke holds up a copy of his book, “History Isn’t Boring, Your Teacher Was: Mind Blowing Stories From American History in 90 Seconds or Less.”
More than 200 hour-long episodes have been recorded at A Shared Universe Podcast Studio in Eatontown. Currently, the podcast is on hiatus while Burke’s father, a 70-year-old retired shop teacher, takes a much-needed break.
Because of the break, Burke was left with a lot of unused podcast scripts. So with the help of his girlfriend and manager, Karlie Sonne, and the skills he learned getting a degree in writing from Brookdale Community College in Lincroft, he turned them into a book, “History Isn’t Boring, Your Teacher Was: Mind Blowing Stories From American History in 90 Seconds or Less.” It was released in November and features 25 stories of “American Losers” such as Dan Sickles — the U.S. congressman from New York who, in 1859, became the first person to successfully use the temporary insanity defense, while on trial for murdering his wife’s lover — alongside illustrations by Sonne.
Burke considers himself lucky to have the support of people such as his father and Sonne, who have not only helped make his dreams come true, but also made him realize there are other dreams that he might never have had, on his own.
“I’m a very lucky man,” he says. “It’s such a cliché, but when you’re ready to do something, the path just kind of appears.”
KP Burke will perform at The Stress Factory in New Brunswick, Feb. 2; visit newbrunswick.stressfactory.com. He will also appear as a “special guest” at a New Talent Night presented by Uncle Vinnie’s Comedy Club at The American Hotel in Freehold, March 4; visit unclevinniescomedyclub.com.
For more about Burke, visit kpburkecomedy.com.
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