Don’s House of Comedy keeps a legacy alive
Story by Libby Simpson and Lucy Coffey
Photos by Nate Upchurch and Lindsey McIntosh
Design by Charlotte Miller
Editor’s Note: This article was originally released in Issue 19 of the WKU Talisman print magazine. Click here to read more articles from the Talisman’s semesterly print.
When Janese Cleary first started Don’s House of Comedy in 2021, she said she had no idea where her life would go.
Four years later, Cleary said the comedy club has hosted comedians from all over the United States and continues to attract different personalities.
Comedian Pat McCarthy from Kansas City, Missouri, said via Zoom that he’s been doing comedy for three-and-a-half years. He said he got connected with Don’s House of Comedy after comedian Jon Schieszer asked McCarthy to open for him in Bowling Green.
McCarthy said that he got into doing stand-up comedy during late high school and early college.
“As I got into watching specials that came out on Netflix and social media, I was like, ‘Oh, this might be like a thing that you can just do,'” McCarthy said.
McCarthy said that he started going to open mics and found comedy to be something that anyone can do.
“It’s just the easier way to manifest being funny,” McCarthy said. “I can’t write a movie, or a show, I can’t do improv, I can’t do any of that, but I can talk.”
McCarthy said that his personality on stage is a lot different than his personality off stage.
“I’m more awkward in real life, and on stage, I am a bit more lively,” McCarthy said. “It’s hard to examine yourself, but I would say I’m a big personality on stage.”
McCarthy said that for him, comedy is an outlet. He said that it’s a way for him to be a caricature of himself, and that the best part about doing comedy is that all of his best friends are stand-up comedians.
He also said that his material for shows used to be more unfiltered. His material now mainly focuses on the things he sees in the world, and a lot of the conversations he has. He said it also focuses on things that he doesn’t like, whether it be something that someone says to him or something that he says in a situation.
“I think comedy in general is just like a list of things that I personally don’t like, mostly about myself,” McCarthy said. “You don’t realize how relatable your insecurities are until you get on stage and talk about them. Youíre like, ‘Oh, this is everybody. This isn’t just me. I’m not crazy.'”
Comedy nights are currently held at the White Squirrel Brewery on State Street. Although the club doesn’t have a permanent location yet, Cleary said a home is on the horizon. Cleary has the future planned out clearly, including VIP seating and a specialty drink menu.
From a cleaning service to a nonprofit helping people with disabilities, Cleary said she has owned over 10 businesses, including commercial cleaning and fire restoration. However, she said that Don’s House of Comedy is the most meaningful to her.
Cleary said that the club was inspired by her late husband, Don Cleary, who loved live comedy. When he died in 2019, she said her life changed completely.
During his fourth tour in Afghanistan while in the Army, Cleary said that her late husband suffered an injury, making him unable to walk. From then on, Cleary said she became his full-time caretaker. After numerous surgeries, Don Cleary became confined to a wheelchair.
“For the last seven months of his life, he was confined to a hospital bed,” Cleary said.
Cleary decided to get her late husband an iPad as a way for him to stay busy and keep his mind active. She said he read and was always researching new topics and ideas.
“Up until about a week before he died, he kept telling me he had to get well because he didn’t finish his research,” Cleary said. “He got hurt four days into his fourth deployment, and so he felt like he didnít finish that.”
Cleary said she made sure to remind her late husband that he completed everything he was supposed to.
“God helped him walk away from something that he might have immediately taken his life,” Cleary said.
When Cleary first got the phone call that her husband had been injured in Afghanistan, she was told he might not make it. Later, she found out her late husband would live, but with a life-altering injury.
Even though Don had lost his mobility, Cleary said he never lost his love for life and always kept an upbeat spirit.
“In 11 and a half years, he never felt sorry for himself,” Cleary said. “He never was angry about the injury.”
With 12 doctors at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Cleary said she would stay at the hospital for weeks at a time with Don.
“I still had the responsibility of getting the bills paid, keeping the house running, keeping groceries in the house,” Cleary said.
Cleary said that she and her children downloaded a walkie-talkie app on their phones so that her late husband could always stay in contact with them when they weren’t together. No matter where Cleary went, she said that he always made sure to make an appearance.
“I’m sitting in a big mega church and the pastor is saying a prayer and all of a sudden across my phone he says, ‘Hey Baby, say hi to Jesus for me,'” Cleary said.
She said life was difficult after Don’s death.
“Three weeks before he died, he sat me down and said, ‘You have to promise me that you’re going to take care of yourself and that you’re going to start another business, and that you’re going to figure out how to go on without me,'” Cleary said. “He said, ‘I’m not afraid to die. I’m afraid to leave you, because I just need to know that youíre going to be okay.'”
Cleary said she promised him that she would carry on his wishes.
“So, starting Don’s House of Comedy, I feel like I’m fulfilling that promise to him,” Cleary said.
Kansas City, Missouri, based comedian Jon Schieszer said via an Instagram call that he’s worked with Cleary three times over the past five years. He said he started working with her through his friend, Davey Wester, who began working with Cleary around the time that she was first starting Don’s House of Comedy.
“She was just such a sweet person, and I was introduced to her not too long after Don had passed away,” Schieszer said. “I felt for what she was going for, just trying to keep the memory of the love of her life around his passion of comedy.”
Schieszer said that he didn’t think about doing comedy until he was in college, when he was eating at an Arby’s and made a joke about a man driving by in a lifted truck.
“It was so ridiculous, like, are you going to drive over cars? Why do you need that truck?” Schieszer said. “Everyone at the table laughed, and I don’t know what it was about that monster truck in that one little line.”
He said that after that, he went to a club in Kansas City, Missouri, to see what kind of comedy was being showcased.
“I might have laughed twice during the whole show, it was just so bad,” Schieszer said. “It was encouraging me, so then I called my best friend, and we started going to the open mic, and within three weeks, we were both in the finals of the funniest comedian in Kansas City.”
Schieszer said that his best friend ended up moving to Los Angeles, which was a big reason that he ended up moving there himself.
“Before I moved to L.A., I’d gotten up on stage maybe like 20 times. I was pretty bad,” Schieszer said. “I was just happy that I was like, ‘Hey, I’m doing this crazy thing.'”
Schieszer said that he’s unfiltered when heís on stage performing.
“There’s a part of me on stage that likes messing with an audience, and it’s not a sabotage thing,” Schieszer said. “I’ll just toy with them, or say some stuff off kilter.”
Schieszer said that the challenge when heís on stage is whether a joke is going to work with the audience or not. He said that while a joke might isolate 80% of the audience, 20% is going to love it.
“It’s not even really a risk,” Schieszer said. “There’s something so satisfying about saying something that might confuse, god forbid, repulse somebody in the audience, and then 45 seconds later they’re laughing at something else.”
Schieszer also said that he thinks that he’s nicer off stage than he is on stage, and that comedy lets him get out some of his frustrations.
“I mean, I’m a nice person,” Schieszer said. “I’m not too much of an asshole, but I think I’m able to get that out on stage. If I didn’t have a stage, I’d be a much grumpier human just in person.”
Cleary said that after Don passed away, she made a list of what she wanted in a new partner. She said that she found that in John Heinze, her current partner. Heinze serves as the creative director of Don’s House of Comedy.
“Life goes on, you know?” Cleary said. “You have to try to be happy after losing someone.”
Even on show days when ticket sales are low, Cleary said she tells herself things will work out. She also said that Don’s House of Comedy is important to her for many reasons.
“I carry on his legacy and I’m able to bring laughter to a world where we all struggle,” Cleary said, “and for that hour and a half, two hours, I can help you forget all your troubles.”