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Comic's Jokes Part Of Serious Mission

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By MICHELLE BEARDEN

mbearden@tampatrib.com

Published: February 7, 2009

Think of a Chris Rock blended with a Billy Graham.

That might be hard to do. But that's how Keith Deltano, a "serious Christian comic" from a one-stoplight town in North Carolina, describes himself.

He likes to joke about sex. And talk seriously about it. And he does it in unlikely places. Like Baptist churches.

When he started out with his gig in 1993, he was a sixth-grade teacher with a ready source of fodder for his show. His first concert was in the back of a Golden Corral restaurant in Greensboro, N.C., "because the parents wouldn't have me in church."

His purpose then - as it is now - was to turn the tide of sexually transmitted diseases, premarital sex and pregnancy among teens, and deliver a message of abstinence. Not always a popular approach, he concedes, but one that teens are surprisingly willing to hear.

"They want perimeters. They live in a culture where entertainment tells them to try everything and it's OK. They're not always getting boundaries at home, either," he says.

For the next three years, he took his nonconformist show to any Christian venue that would book him. He did it for free, he was that committed. Then in 1996, unable to balance his day job with his tour schedule, he approached his wife about making Christian entertainment his career.

"Honey, I'm a teacher. We're already broke," he told her.

She agreed. And now Deltano, a 44-year-old father of three, travels the country with his act. He says he draws upon his experience as a middle-school teacher, a youth leader and a private counselor. He likes to say: "Keith plus comedy plus Scripture equals behavioral change in audience."

"People cry, people laugh. But when I get down to teaching, you can hear a pin drop," he says.

Deltano will appear at Shiloh Baptist Church in Plant City on Friday. After his youth-oriented show, he'll conduct a workshop for parents on how to protect teens from a "sex-saturated media, pornography and online addictions." A Christian concert by local musician Elizabeth Burns and hot dogs and chips will be served to the teens while the adult workshop is going on.

He tracks all the data on teen sexual behavior, including recent studies that debunk the abstinence movement, and says media reports downplay the number of teens who took part in the surveys.

"It's a war out there right now. The public has a perception of Teens Gone Wild, and that's hard to change," he says. "But I'm in the trenches, I hear the stories firsthand and I know what I'm seeing. Give them a message in a language they understand and they will respond."

When he was growing up, the message was: Have sex, but use a condom. That came from the secular environment. In churches, the subject wasn't even brought up.

"This was back in the day when 'Deep Throat' was playing in theaters next to 'Jaws' and 'Star Wars.' No wonder we were all messed up."

Deltano, an atheist until he was 23, doesn't lie to the kids. He tells them he wasn't a virgin before he married, and how he made wrong decisions that had potentially deadly consequences. But once he became a Christian and took the word seriously, he realized there was a better, healthier way.

He sets a minimum age for his shows - 13. That's because he's not "warm and fluffy." Expect "aggressive and honest." But the message comes with humor.

"Sometimes, it's the parents who are skeptical. They grew up in the 'Do it if it feels good' generation. Now that they have kids, they may have a hard time getting it, that kids need and want boundaries.

"Well, I'm here to say it: Virginity rocks, baby."

IF YOU GO

KEITH DELTANO'S SEROUS COMEDY

WHEN: 6:30 to 9 p.m. Friday

WHERE: Shiloh Baptist Church, 905 W. Terrace Drive, Plant City

COST: Free

INFORMATION: (813) 752-8345 or Deltano's Web site, www.defyconformity.com

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