{"id":1787,"date":"2007-07-16T17:00:29","date_gmt":"2007-07-16T21:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/?p=1787"},"modified":"2014-12-16T17:01:21","modified_gmt":"2014-12-16T22:01:21","slug":"getting-laughs-engineering-expense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2007\/07\/getting-laughs-engineering-expense\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting Laughs at His (Engineering) Expense"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Jeff<\/a>
Jeff Caldwell \u201984: The one-time engineer now makes headlines as a stand-up comic.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As a youngster, Jeff Caldwell \u201984 made people laugh. \u201cUsually it was the teacher laughing and not the kids,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI enjoyed making quips in the classroom, but my humor always appealed to an older set.\u201d Instead of Bugs Bunny or the Three Stooges, Caldwell\u2019s childhood heroes were Steve Martin, Richard Pryor, and the members of Monty Python\u2019s Flying Circus.<\/p>\n

But it was only after a stint working as an engineer and a couple of years in an engineering PhD program that Caldwell, now a professional comedian who has performed for both David Letterman and Craig Ferguson, decided to give comedy a serious try. \u201cBetween finishing my undergraduate degree and starting my graduate work, both at Hopkins, I worked at sewage pump stations,\u201d Caldwell says. \u201cI hated it. I had no idea what I was doing. I think my education had been, up to that point, more theoretical. My boss wanted me to do things like size a pump and I had no clue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Caldwell may not have realized it at the time, but that experience was the beginning of the end of his engineering career. He first got his nerve up to try stand-up comedy in front of a crowd in 1986, at what was then Baltimore\u2019s Charm City Comedy Club.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat first time did not go so well,\u201d he recalls with an amused smile. \u201cI\u2019m not by nature an extrovert or a public speaker and I\u2019m sure it was totally awful.\u201d However, three weeks later he gave it another shot and within a year was no longer doing free open mikes but was getting paid regularly for his act. He dropped out of the graduate program (\u201cI was being foolishly practical by studying engineering,\u201d he concludes) and put all his efforts toward comedy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just decided I was going to be myself and tell jokes,\u201d he recalls. \u201cIf they didn\u2019t laugh, well, that would be OK.\u201d But they did laugh. And soon Caldwell was hanging out with and learning from some of the up-and-coming comedians of the time, such as Paula Poundstone, Paul Reiser, and club owner Bob Somerby. \u201cI got to learn from the best and, meanwhile, develop my own style,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

That style earns Caldwell a unique reputation that is most often typified by two adjectives: clean and clever. \u201cI don\u2019t have a problem with dirty humor,\u201d he says. \u201cI just am not dirty.\u201d Comedian George Carlin describes Caldwell as \u201cfunny and smart.\u201d For his part, Caldwell finds no \u201cinherent value in insulting people. I thought the whole point was to make them laugh,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

And laugh they do. Today, Caldwell performs regularly on television, for corporate audiences, and in comedy clubs across the nation. One recent spate of travel took him from a comedy club in Dayton, Ohio, to a bar in Manhattan, to a fundraiser for the symphony orchestra in Jackson, Tennessee\u2014all in a week\u2019s time. And this past fall, he performed for Hopkins students at the newly opened Charles Commons.<\/p>\n

Caldwell ties his routines to reality\u2014and his own life\u2014as much as possible. Take his opening joke for Late Night with David Letterman: \u201cI used to have a real job. I was a civil engineer. But, you know, people begin to talk when your third bridge falls down.\u201d The audience roars. He gives them a few seconds, smiling as if he approves of their response. \u201cYou know you\u2019re not mechanical enough to be an engineer when you use a screw driver and have to say \u2018lefty loosey, righty tightey.\u201d By the second joke, he has the audience members in his pocket and they never die down.<\/p>\n

It seems his engineering education is paying off, after all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a youngster, Jeff Caldwell \u201984 made people laugh. \u201cUsually it was the teacher laughing and not the kids,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI enjoyed making quips in the classroom, but my humor always appealed to an older set.\u201d Instead of Bugs Bunny or the Three Stooges, Caldwell\u2019s childhood heroes were Steve Martin, Richard Pryor, and the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1788,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research-development","issue-summer-2007"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nGetting Laughs at His (Engineering) Expense - JHU Engineering Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2007\/07\/getting-laughs-engineering-expense\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Getting Laughs at His (Engineering) Expense - JHU Engineering Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As a youngster, Jeff Caldwell \u201984 made people laugh. \u201cUsually it was the teacher laughing and not the kids,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI enjoyed making quips in the classroom, but my humor always appealed to an older set.\u201d Instead of Bugs Bunny or the Three Stooges, Caldwell\u2019s childhood heroes were Steve Martin, Richard Pryor, and the...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2007\/07\/getting-laughs-engineering-expense\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"JHU Engineering Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-07-16T21:00:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-12-16T22:01:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/RDsummer200712.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"355\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"354\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Abby Lattes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Abby Lattes\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2007\\\/07\\\/getting-laughs-engineering-expense\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2007\\\/07\\\/getting-laughs-engineering-expense\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Abby Lattes\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0244393be370fbc3ead8ec26062e9742\"},\"headline\":\"Getting Laughs at His (Engineering) Expense\",\"datePublished\":\"2007-07-16T21:00:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-12-16T22:01:21+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2007\\\/07\\\/getting-laughs-engineering-expense\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":650,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2007\\\/07\\\/getting-laughs-engineering-expense\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/07\\\/RDsummer200712.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Research & Development\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2007\\\/07\\\/getting-laughs-engineering-expense\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2007\\\/07\\\/getting-laughs-engineering-expense\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2007\\\/07\\\/getting-laughs-engineering-expense\\\/\",\"name\":\"Getting Laughs at His (Engineering) Expense - 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