Atlantic City Weekly

Share this Story:

ATLANTIC CITY — This weekend’s lineup at the Trop’s Comedy Stop Cafe features a group of five veterans — veterans from the standpoint of their respective skills as stand-up comedians and veterans for having all served in the U.S. Armed Forces. 


It’s also a lineup that grew out of irony, for while the five are adept at cracking up crowds wherever they travel, the founder of the GI’s of Comedy once lost his ability to laugh, and very nearly his life. 


U.S. Army (R) staff sergeant Thom Tran got shot through the head four days after he and his unit were deployed to Iraq in 2003. He survived his injuries and completed a 12-month tour of duty, but two weeks before returning he learned that his best friend had been killed.


“After returning home I got diagnosed by the VA with a serious case of post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD,” says Tran, 32, a retired eight-year Army veteran. “I remember being about 25 and being unable to smile for about a year. One night my girlfriend had to take me to the hospital because my blood pressure went up to about 160 over 120, and the doctors at the VA told me I had to learn to relax or I’d have a heart attack before I’m 30. But I didn’t know how to relax. I stopped laughing and wasn’t enjoying the things I used to enjoy in my life.


“I knew stand-up comedy was something I always loved. I remember watching [Eddie Murphy’s] Delirious when I was a kid and not even knowing what a lot of what he was saying meant, but I just found his delivery so hilarious. So I started doing stand-up comedy, and it helped me focus on something other than the trauma.”


Tran’s sharp wit shines through in clips on his Web site (thomtran.com), where he’ll not only deliver conventional jokes but sing satirical songs he penned while he plays guitar. “I actually grew up as a musician [in Buffalo, N.Y., relocating to Los Angeles in 2008], but before I joined the Army at 18, I decided that if I wasn’t going to be Eddie Van Halen I should probably do something else with my life.”


Tran has a radio broadcasting background and was asked to perform stand-up at a USO benefit sponsored by the L.A. station (KRTH 101.1 FM) he worked for. That led to other USO gigs, and friendships formed with other comedians who also happened to be military veterans. 


“As we kept doing these benefits I kept running into more and more guys who I found out were in the military, and some of them were hilarious,” says Tran. “I remember thinking, ‘There’s never been a tour composed exclusively of veterans who were comedians.’ and I thought that if anybody’s going to be able relate to these kids who are living in these shitty conditions far from their home towns and fighting these wars, it’s going to be guys who have lived in those shitty conditions and fought these wars.”


Tran got in touch with four of the more blue-chip veterans/comedians he struck up friendships with — all of whom had returned individually to perform in the combat zones for their veteran brethren — and created what he called the GI’s of Comedy tour. 


“The idea had been lingering in the back of my head for a while and earlier this year [April] we booked a show in the Jon Lovitz Comedy Club here in Los Angeles and it sold out,” says Tran. “I’d never produced a show before and it was huge — we had girls dressed up like 1940s Bob Hope-esque dancers called the Satin Dolls singing the National Anthem, we had the service flags and the American flag on stage, and it was amazing. The buzz we got was so big that we thought ‘We could really do this,’ and things just kept on rolling. We put together a tour.” 


Bob Kephart, owner of the Atlantic City Comedy Stop Café & Cabaret in the Tropicana Quarter, saw an Associated Press article about the troupe and tracked down Tran. 


“[Kephart] said, ‘Look, I want to get you guys into A.C. before this explodes,’” says Tran. “He’s been in comedy for over three decades and knows his comedy, so we said sure.”


The GI’s of Comedy will be in town for seven scheduled shows Friday through Sunday, Sept. 23-25, before heading up to New York City for a week-long series of gigs. 


“It just so happened to work out that [the GI’s] represent every branch of the military,” says Tran. “Tom Irwin and I represent the Army, Will C represents the Marine Corps, Jose Sarduy the Air Force and G Reilly the Navy.”


They also happen to be from diversified ethnic backgrounds and ages ranging from 32 to 52. On his Web site, Tran is quoted as saying, “When we put this tour together it shocked me that, you know, there’s a black guy in the Navy, a Cuban in the Air Force, an Asian in the Army and a white guy in the Marine Corps,” says Tran. “I was like, ‘All I need is a Muslim in the Coast Guard.’”

The GI’s of Comedy 


Where: Comedy Stop Café, 
The Quarter at Tropicana 


When: Friday through Sunday, Sept. 23-25. Times are Fri. 9pm and 11:15pm; 
Sat. 12:30pm, 9pm and 11:15pm; Sun. 12:45pm and 9pm. 


On the Web: GIsofcomedy.com