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Area police officers use hilarity for help
By William Jeske
Officer Michael Mancini witnesses and reports a lot of strange stuff on his beat. While other officers may shrug off boorish lawbreakers and their pathetic excuses to get out of trouble, Mancini considers it material for his stand-up comedy.
Mancini currently serves as a Santa Cruz Harbor Patrol Police Officer, but says he's also traveled the world in the last 14 years doing stand-up comedy.
On Sept. 30, Mancini, along with two other comics, donated his humor to benefit the families of the fallen firefighters, police officers and paramedics who perished in the Sept. 11 tragedy.
Jessicah Jenkins, owner of the Rooster T. Feathers Comedy Club, 157 W. El Camino Real, organized the benefit show. According to Jenkins, the benefit raised $3,038. Her charity of choice was the New York Police & Fire Widows' & Children's Benefit Fund.
"It's a pre-existing charity," Jenkins said, "and I didn't want any of the money that was collected to get stuck in limbo."
According to the organization's website, "The New York Police & Fire Widows' & Children's Benefit Fund Inc. was established in 1985 by Daniel J. 'Rusty' Staub to assist the families of police officers and firefighters who have been killed in the line of duty. The fund gives grieving families a $10,000 check immediately after they lose their loved ones, regardless of financial need."
Jenkins said she spent 10 years as a paramedic until a neck injury left her unfit for duty. She said that soon afterward she bought Rooster T. Feathers, and she has operated it for seven years.
Along with Mancini, Jenkins enlisted comic Heather Woodhull, who was billed as an alumna of Columbine High School, and Sunnyvale Public Safety Officer Mario Moreno.
No one really knew when would be a good time to get back to the business of comedy. The headliners played it safe by relying on material that didn't touch on human misery or missing people.
"I changed some things in my act," Woodhull said. "I took out some sensitive material--no airline jokes."
Moreno agreed. "It's hard for people to get back to having a good time," he said.
However, the officers say most people have already reverted back to how they treated them before the attack.
"People were polite the first week [after the attacks]," Mancini said. "But two weeks later, people are back to their rude selves."
The evening's material mostly centered around relationships, marriage and work-related minutia.
"I'm a big guy," Moreno said, "so I have this routine about wearing a motorcycle uniform and the remarks I get from people."
Moreno said he has served as a Public Safety Officer for 24 years but has been doing stand-up comedy for the last six.
Mancini said some of his best material comes from the ridiculous excuses he gets from traffic violators.
"There was this one woman who made an illegal U-turn," he said. "When I asked why she made that turn she said the sign said 'No--You turn.'"
Mancini said there's more to an officer's duty than pulling over bad drivers. "We really do put ourselves in harm's way. Police and firefighters really are the heroes," he explained. "It takes something like [the terrorist attacks] to show the country what we really do."
The New York Police & Fire Widows' & Children's Benefit Fund can be reached at www.nypfwc.org, 631.544.4616 or at 6 Kim Place, Kings Park, N.Y. 11754-5023. For more information on Rooster T. Feathers, call 408.736.0921. Ages 21 and older only.
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Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
