Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 29, 1993 TAG: 9301290210
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOE KENNEDY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
JUST HILARIOUS
Ten years ago in California, June Boykins persuaded her husband, Steve, to accompany her to the Comedy Store, a well-known comedy club, to see what it was like."He saw the people on stage and he said, `My God, they're as crazy as you.' "
Steve spent the next year taking her all over the state to comedy clubs, in which June performed as an amateur, until finally he told her, "This is cute, but if we're going to be getting in at 2 a.m., you should be bringing in some money."
Boykins hit the road and became a pro. Billing herself as Just June, she has made network and cable TV appearances and even had a role in Eddie Murphy's movie "Coming to America."
She'll return to the Roanoke Comedy Club on Wednesday to star in a fund-raiser for the Roanoke Valley Chapter of the National Organization for Women.
The event is designed not only to raise money but also to dispel what some see as the humorless image of the organization and of feminists in general.
"We want people to know that being a feminist doesn't mean male-bashing all the time," said chapter co-coordinator Gina Scariot. "We wanted people to know that we have fun, too."
In a telephone interview from Raleigh, N.C., where she was appearing at the Spotlight Comedy Theater, Just June said she plays no favorites, but targets men and women equally in her gibes.
"I love men," she said. "I criticize all human beings. When you accept the fact that all human beings are crazy, regardless of race, gender, sexual preference and politics, and you're just as crazy as the next one, you feel a lot better about life."
It wasn't easy breaking into standup comedy as a black woman, she said, and once she got started, she had more trouble breaking out of the black clubs and into the mainstream.
Now she travels 29 weeks per year, while Steve works as a civilian employee at Edwards Air Force base and supervises her two children, son Buddha, 19, and daughter Joy, 14.
"I'm the ultimate woman," she proclaimed. "I'm a veteran, I'm college educated, I am a wife, and I suffer from PMS." That last item alone makes her a perpetual murder suspect, she said, though she preaches moderation and balance in life.
"As human beings, we have to enjoy life," she said, "Otherwise you stress out and wind up in the post office with an M-16 ready to go."
She feels blessed: "I'm able to do what I do, and I have a husband that tolerates me. We've been married 193 years."
She met him in the service: "The Marines, child. That's the place to meet a few good men."
June's road to the stage actually started at Cal State-Fullerton, where she earned a degree in theater arts.
"I was going to teach," she said. "My emphasis was oral interpretation. That's what I was going to do. Then, when I went to a high school, I saw all these children and all this passion and I said, `My God, I've got just as much passion as they do. Let me get it out of my system and I'll come back and teach.' "
She doesn't sound like she'll be heading for the classroom any time soon. To her, the juice of comedy comes in live performance, when her spontaneity kicks in, "when you break that fourth wall and create. . . . I'm living for that moment."
In college, a professor told her the key to comedy was "watching the mind in action - otherwise, you're an actor doing your play."
While waiting for the inspiration to strike on stage, she relates the jokes and stories she writes for herself.
Those jokes tend to be on specific, topical subjects as well as universal themes. Little, if anything, is out of bounds - even Somalia.
"The warlords have decided they're not going to fight till we fatten them people up," she told a crowd the other night. That brought some boos, to which she replied, "Yeah, like you're over there."
Other popular subjects include politics and common concerns of modern women. "I voted for Bill Clinton because he was cute," she said, "and I figured if I'm gonna have a man lying to me for four years, I want him to look good while he does it."
And, "If I had money, I'd have breasts. I'd have tenacious tatas. I would."
It's not uncommon for well-endowed women to complain of their situation, she said, and even to say they would give away some of what they have if they could.
"I've wondered if men would say the same thing," she muses on stage. Invariably, the cry from the males in the crowd is, "No way."
"That's so selfish," she said. "Women aren't like that. We share. A beautiful woman needs tatas."
Boykins said she enjoys coming to Roanoke because Jimmy Butler, the comedy club's owner, has a true appreciation for the art of comedy. Not all club owners do.
"We are artists," she said. "I always said the difference between a humorist and a Van Gogh is that instead of losing our ears, we lose our minds."
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