When you talk to a comdian who plays the national circuit of comedy clubs, you expect to hear a joke a minute.
Not so with Nathan Timmel, 39, of North Liberty, the subject of today’s Ramblin’ column in The Gazette. He’s a real down to earth guy, a Wisconsin native who left Los Angeles for North Liberty three years ago. Of course, love had something to do with it since he’s marrying Lydia Fine in August.
Nathan is preparing for another tour in Iraq to entertain the troops this month. He was over there in 2004 and went to Afghanistan in 2006. It was that trip to Iraq where he collected the string of glass beads from a chandelier that, as you’d expect from a comedian, he draped over his right ear for a picture. (left)
“It’s a ton of red tape, it’s a ton of contracts,” Nathan says about the process to entertain for the military. ”My case was lucky. I did a show and a guy walked up on stage and asked if I’d done any shows for the military. He gave me a card and told me to call this person and to use his name.”
Performing overseas for troops is a lot of long flights (commercial and military), hot weather and sand, and worth about $100 a show, not as much as Nathan can make in the states.
“I don’t care. That’s not the point,” he says. “Probably I’d do it for free.
“The point is to do something not everybody gets to do which is to perform in a war zone. The second point, whether I believe in the war or not, it’s visiting people stuck in the war zone.”
As a comedian who takes a humous look at life, Nathan listens to what’s going on in the camps and picks up some new material by listening to the solders’ gripes. “I can give voice to them, when they can’t do it themselves,” he says. “They seem to enjoy that.”
He knows he’ll also get material for future shows, too. For one, his wedding is scheduled for Aug. 8 after he returns — if he returns.
“So this is a way out from that,” Nathan jokes. “Oh, I got taken hostage. I couldn’t make it back.”
But, honestly, he’s looking forward to marriage. And to living in North Liberty, in Iowa, in the Midwest. It’s just that next birthday that bugs him — he turns 40 in November.
For more on Nathan click here to see his Web site. You can also find a variety of Youtube video clips of his performances.
