Spreading the gospel with a laugh — that’s the mission of Dave Ebert and his Christian improvisation troupe, hahahAmen.
Ebert, a 2004 graduate of Baptist-affiliated Bluefield College in Virginia, founded the group with three other Christian friends in 2013 in Chicago to provide family-friendly comedy shows for events, churches and other organizations.
“We love God. We love Jesus, and we love using our gifts to honor and glorify God,” said Ebert, who studied English and communications while a student at Bluefield College. “We live by the motto, ‘Our Gifts for God’s Glory.’ We are all trained, professional improvisers who want to do more than the secular comedy that tends to be full of vulgarities.”
HahahAmen uses improvisation, skits, games, audience interaction and other forms of comedic performance to offer a message about the love of Christ. The group’s shows to date include an event hosted by an Illinois state senator and a member of the Illinois House of Representatives as well as performances for local churches, schools, soup kitchens and shelters.
In addition, they now have a weekly appearance at the Comedy Shrine, a popular improv and stand-up comedy theater in suburban Chicago.
“We are hoping to travel outside Illinois and throughout the country or beyond to use our gifts to share our love of God and Jesus Christ,” Ebert said. “During our shows, we share testimonies, devotions or other presentations to help share the gospel or plant seeds in the hearts of those who might otherwise be closed to the good news.”
Ebert was an amateur comedian while growing up in Pocahontas, Va., and later as a student at Bluefield. But he didn’t start doing stand-up professionally until after college, where he had been managing and sports editor for Bluefield’s student newspaper. After graduating he began a career in radio in neighboring Bluefield, W.Va., where he became known as deejay “Big Boy Buddy Love” for Star 95-FM.
“I couldn’t make up my mind about my career path,” said Ebert, who also took part in several community theatre productions after college. “During all the job-hopping, I had an on-again, off-again relationship with God. I never truly pursued a relationship with the Lord — kind of kept Him at arm’s length, trying to do things on my own. I got married and divorced and hit some really hard times financially, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.”
Finding God’s purpose
Still searching, Ebert got into professional wrestling, taking “Big Boy Buddy Love” into the ring until 2012. But not long after, he said he finally woke up to God’s call on his life.
“Despite my rebellion God kept reaching out to me,” he said. “Finally I started opening up to the idea of reaching out to God. I started praying (and) reading the Bible for the first time. … I started trying to see what my purpose was.”
So with an invitation from his sister to share her apartment near Chicago to help him “start over,” Ebert moved to Lombard, Ill., to begin a new career in acting and improvisation. Some of his work has led Ebert to appear in three short films and four roles as an extra in NBC’s “Chicago PD,” ABC’s “Mind Games” and “Betrayal,” and an NFL Super Bowl commercial.
But his most rewarding work on stage, he admitted, is the comedy he does with hahahAmen. That, he added, is just one small way he can express his gratitude to God for faithfully and patiently waiting on him to find his purpose.
(ABP)
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