Talk Funny to Me
Chances are you can use a few laughs. Comedy Night on June 26 at the Surflight Theater in Beach Haven, NJ is where you’ll find them.
It’s an evening of nonstop fun starring emcee Joe Bublewicz, headliner Joe Devito and feature comedian Deena Blizzard.
All three standup comics will have you laughing your way into the weekend but act fast to get your tickets.
“Surflight Comedy Nights are consistently sold out,” Steve Steiner, Producing Artistic Director, said. “This summer we’re doing Comedy on Fridays so it’s a great way to kick off the weekend. Joe always brings the best and funniest comics to Surflight and his lineup for 2026 is a Who’s Who of comedy”.
Coastal Living LBI sat down with all three headline comedians to talk battle scars, marital underwear and feeling funny even without a 401(k).
What is it like making a living while you’re making other people laugh?
Joe Bublewicz: When you’re making people laugh and forget about their problems it’s one of the best feelings in the world. When people come up to you and say you made them feel good it’s a compliment. It makes all the traveling and the craziness of the business worthwhile. Comedy is great, business eh, not so much.
Joe DeVito: It’s a tight rope walk on and off the stage. When you’re playing comedy you’re dealing with the audience, agents, bookers and travel.
Deena Blizzard: I got divorced and now I do this for a living to make money. But it’s been a blessing in more ways than not. Our job is to share with audiences what you are going through. I’m not special or unique. Someone else is going through the same things.
How’d you first get into comedy?
Joe Bublewicz: I started in the early to mid-nineties at the Comedy Works in Philadelphia, PA and Rascals Comedy Club in Ocean Township, NJ. None of them are still there.
Joe DeVito: I’ve always liked to make people laugh. I had a job where I was doing some humor writing on the side, just telling stories about my family and making my coworkers laugh. Someone said you got to try this and so she signed me up for one of these comedy classes where they throw you on stage. I did alright my first time on stage. I hung in there. Five or six years later I did Last Comic Standing and made the semifinals. And that was what opened it up as a career for me. I haven’t looked back since then.
Deena Blizzard: I was turning 30 and signed up with a comedy class. I wasn’t very good at it. I had two kids at the time and was pregnant with the third. And comedy was just about the only time I could talk to adults. I don’t know when I started thinking about comedy as a career. It was just a hobby that I loved.
What is the lifestyle of a stand-up comic like?
Joe Bublewicz: It’s a good and bad lifestyle. Theres no union, no 401(k), none of that stuff. There’s the instability of life which I didn’t like. But that instability is what keeps you on edge, keeps you writing, keeps you working, keeps you making phone calls. I’m a full-time comic, but I have a job where I manage money. It means having two brains, the money brain and the comedy brain.
Joe DeVito: Being on the road all the time takes some getting used to. You’ll have these times when you have a stretch of weeks on the road and you wake up and it takes you a minute to figure out where you are. It’s not for everyone
Deena Blizzard: It’s a hard job. Especially as you get older. Traveling is not something I am doing right now. But there were times when for a year and a half coming out of the pandemic, I was. I specifically remember when I first got started doing stand-up and I was still nursing. I brought my mom and my two kids, and I was nursing backstage. And without the support of my family and friends I could not have done what I was doing.
How long does it take to get good at doing standup comedy?
Joe Bublewicz: It takes a while. You need to get as much stage time as possible. It takes a while to find out who you are on stage, to learn to write your comedy. Usually in a couple of years, you’ll know if you have it or not.
Joe DeVito: I tell people if you can make it for the first two years that’s the real dividing line. If you are still hanging in there after two years, it’s either because you’ve got some talent or you’re too stupid to know you should have stopped.
Deena Blizzard: I’ve been doing stand-up for 24 years. I’ve had a very varied career in radio, television and off Broadway which has enabled me to be around this long.
How do you deal with a hostile audience? Do you interact with them?
Joe Bublewicz: I’ve gotten to the point where I know how to handle it. You got to be prepared. Some good comedy clubs will take care of this, they have people to police the audience, and they let them know there’s no talking or you’ll be thrown out. We appreciate that. You can do crazy shows and it’s a nightmare. But you get your battle scars that way.
Joe DeVito: You have to build up calluses. The flip side is it’s very personal though. With standup it’s like people are saying it’s not the act, it’s you I don’t like. It’s one of the things that will motivate people to get out of comedy. I would rather if someone disagrees with me but still laughs. It’s a scary person that doesn’t enjoy laughing.
Deena Blizzard: I love talking to audiences. It’s one of my favorite things to do. I think you can find some very lovely things in any kind of audience.
Where do you get your material?
Joe Bublewicz: I got married for the first time at the age of 55. There’s a lot of adjustments with that, so that’s where a lot of my material comes from.
Joe DeVito: The thing to remember is the joke is always about you. Vulnerability goes a long way.
Deena Blizzard: Dating is ripe for comedy. I am divorced and I talk about starting over, being naked for someone else, things that are real for half the women on the planet. The great thing about being a female comic is the conversations you can have on stage that are very specific to being a woman. Like marital underwear. My girlfriend said, ‘Well, now that you’re divorced, you have to get all new underwear. Single underwear.'”
Do you get nervous before you go onstage?
Joe Bublewicz: Lately I’ll get a little nervous when the person who comes on before me isn’t doing well. Is it the crowd or is that person just not having a good set. Hopefully you’ve been doing this enough so that you can see what’s working and what’s not.
Joe DeVito: I don’t get nervous before going on stage. It’s more like I get irritated.
Deena Blizzard: It depends. But after 24 years of doing this while it’s always in your belly in the back of your mind there’s something that says you wouldn’t have made it this far if you weren’t prepared for what is coming. You just have to be able to trust yourself.
Is the comedy industry different today? Is it more competitive?
Joe Bublewicz: The business aspect of it today is different. Managers and club owners want to know how many people are following you not how many people are coming to see you. It makes a difference.
Joe DeVito: The business is going through some ups and downs. The 80’s was the comedy boom. It’s very different today. It’s annoying when you hear someone gets a gig because they have a million followers and wear a wig and jump around. But what’s good about it is it’s never been easier to build your own following, although a man in my age group should never be doing anything on TikTok. It’s a competitive industry because there’s always limited spots for clubs or auditions.
Deena Blizzard: It’s a very competitive business for sure but not because of other people. Our job is not only to tell our stories but to find our voice. When you are on stage you have to be representative of your generation.
There are pros and cons to being a standup comedian. Let’s start with a pro.
Joe Bublewicz: If you’re doing it well, comedy is like a drug. When you do a good show and you’re driving home it’s a good feeling. You’re on cloud nine. There’s been times when I’ve been on stage and didn’t feel good or I was sick and I get on stage and have a good set and it’s like wow I feel better! Laughter just makes you feel better when you’re not feeling good.
Joe DeVito: It’s tempting to be Zen and say it’s the same thing, but you are in charge of your fate. What’s great about comedy is there’s just so many ways you can turn something into a joke. Sometimes it’s a one liner and sometimes it’s a longer story. There’s nothing like it when you’re on stage and you say something and you make a room full of strangers laugh. It’s very validating. You realize there’s something I said that people can connect with.
Deena Blizzard: There are a lot of pros. I think the one thing I take for granted is the camaraderie of comedy and just constantly being around funny people. I didn’t really realize it until I hung out with normal people and then I think ugh this is so boring. You spend your life being funny and you need to be around people who are funny. I have a real respect for the comedians I work with. I feel like I am at home when I am on the stage. I love it. Stand up gave me a chance to survive through my divorce, empty nesting and my dad passing away.
A con?
Joe Bublewicz: You have a bad show; well, it’s a long car ride home. You worry, was it the crowd? Was it me? Most comics are neurotic and self-critical. There could be 100 people in the audience and 99 of them are laughing and all you can see is the one who isn’t. We want to please everybody and that’s a hard thing to do.
Joe DeVito: When you first start out, you’re losing money on the travel to the gig. There’s no way around that. I laugh when I hear people ask how I can avoid doing that.
Deena Blizzard: For me there is never a time when my brain ever turns off. There is never a time when I am not thinking about the hustle. There is no 401(k) with this job. I have a side hustle where I run Airbnb’s and that is my retirement. It’s a lifetime hustle. You are always thinking about what is next. The thing about comedy is no one is resting on their laurels.
What do you people find funny about you?
Joe Bublewicz: People relate to me. Comedians know how to deal with something that’s very relatable to others. It’s your job to make into a joke what other people go through.
Joe DeVito: What do people find funny about me? My delivery, not just the joke. Comedy is just a performance. You’ve got to deliver it in a certain way and that’s one of the things you learn when you get more experience. You can have good material but if you can’t deliver it the comedy just isn’t going to get there. With standup you’ve got to be up in front of a lot of people. You can’t be in front of the bathroom mirror with a hairbrush unless you’re doing your act in a hair salon.
Deena Blizzard: When my life was falling apart, I didn’t really feel all that funny. It was hard for me because being married and having kids was who I was. And when that was over, I was like who am I now. Comedy in general is about feeling vulnerable. Men and women relate to what I have to say.
For Tickets to Comedy Night
Purchase tickets ONLY through the Surflight official website or by calling the Surflight Theater box office at 609-492-9477 (ext. 1) or in person at the box office window
Contact Information
Surflight Theater
201 Engleside Ave, Beach Haven, NJ
Phone: 609-492-9477
Instagram: @surflighttheater
Joe Bublewicz
Instagram: @jjbubs
Joe DeVito
Instagram: @joedevitocomedy
Deena Blizzard
Instagram: @onefunnymother