John Henton Offering Jokes And A Hex For Ravens At Funny Bone
By ED CONDRAN
John Henton's two passions are comedy and sports and sometimes his interests intersect. The comic-actor, a Cleveland native, who is a huge Browns and Cavaliers fan, is flying high these days.
"It can't get much better for someone like me, who loves his Cleveland teams," Henton said while calling from his Los Angeles home. "It's so good that LeBron James is back in Cleveland. I couldn't stand seeing him on South Beach looking at all of those exotic, perfect Brazilian women. Now he'll be back in Cleveland in January driving in the snow checking out the thick ankled Polish women waiting for the bus in the neighborhoods."
Henton, who is performing Thursday, July 31 through Sunday, Aug. 3 at the Funny Bone comedy club in Manchester, hopes that Johnny Manziel doesn't just lead the Browns to a Super Bowl title but that he embarrasses the Baltimore Ravens Ray Rice, who abused his wife at an Atlantic City hotel in February.
"I would love to see Johnny and the Browns beat up on Rice and the Ravens," Henton said. "I can't believe that Rice just got a two-game suspension for what he did. The NFL has the players wear pink for a month for breast cancer awareness. I guess they don't care about the rest of the female anatomy."
Henton, 53, will crack wise about sports, current events and his career when he performs at the Funny Bone.
"I can't believe that there are all these botched executions recently," Henton said. "What's up with that? Why doesn't someone dig up good ol' Dr. Jack Kevorkian. He never messed up when it came to lethally injecting anyone. The world needs Dr. Kevorkian."
The world also needs entertaining sitcoms. Henton was part of a pair of solid situation comedies during the '90s, "Living Single," and "The Hughleys." The former was a Queen Latifah vehicle, which aired on Fox for five seasons and "The Hughleys," which featured comic-actor D.L. Hughley and ran for four seasons on ABC.
"A nine-year sitcom run is nothing to sneeze at," Henton said. "I loved it. I was in a sitcom surrounded by beautiful women on 'Living Single.' I got to work with Kim Cole and Kim Fields and they were and still are fine. I was never late when I was on that set. And then there was 'The Hughleys'. That was great since I got to work with D.L., who is a perfectionist. He was there in the writer's room working every joke. He does the same thing on the road these days. If there's a guy that knows how to hone a joke, it's D.L. Hughley. I learned a lot from him."
Just after "The Hughleys" ran its course, Henton was in a terrible auto accident, in which he shattered both legs and his left eye socket. "It was bad but I came back," Henton said. "I had a lot to go through but I made it. I'm tough, just like Cleveland."
Henton hit the small screen after surgery. He has appeared on such sitcoms as "The Parkers," "One on One" and "Hannah Montana." "I still act and I do a lot of stand-up," Henton said. "All of my experiences fuel my comedy. Everything is fodder for me. I can look at all the trouble going on again in the Middle East and it can't help but make me think. But I don't think that will ever end but maybe I'm wrong and maybe it will end someday."
And maybe a Cleveland franchise will win a championship for the first time in a half-century. "Maybe that will occur before there is peace in the Middle East," Henton said. "It scares me though because it's been so long since we've won a title that the celebration will be so extreme that we'll burn the entire city of Cleveland to the ground. So maybe I shouldn't root for a Cleveland championship after all."