The Truth of Titus

A Sacramento Comedy.Com Interview

Early 20th century Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung once said “Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” But what does this have to do with comedian Christopher Titus? Well, therapy is an effort to expose the truth on an individual basis just as a comedian exposes the truths of the world. And what is more honest than making fun of your own mothers mental illness?

“I started talking about my mom’s mental illness on stage one night and it was incredibly cathartic” says the comedian. “The first night I did it, it was creepy.  But by the tenth show of doing those jokes, the pain went away and the absurdity of it became evident.  And I really dealt with it, it was therapeutic.”

Honesty seems to have a reoccurring influence on the comedians’ life. At the tender age of 10, Titus went to his local library and checked out albums by George Carlin and Richard Pryor. His father was not pleased to find his son listening to such vulgarity and asked him where he attained them, and Titus replied honestly, “the library let me check them out,” “Well, if the public library allows it I’m sure its okay,” his father responded.

And as simple as that young Christopher Titus was listening to the most brilliantly honest comedians of the time. “I love Richard Pryor, Bill Cosby and anybody who tells the truth.  And the way Pryor told the truth interested me; I admire anybody who cuts to the soul of what life is.”

Currently, Titus is busy with a charitable organization.  “I hate charities and I’ll tell you why because that statement sounds ridiculous.  Every time I go to a charity event, the people involved with organizing and building the charity are more concerned with their own personal agenda. And I got irritated. So I decided to start my own charity.”

And that’s exactly what he did. Titus started The Inside Youth Project which focuses on children between the ages of 8 and 18 who have been in foster homes.  He explains that children in that age group need just as much if not more assistance than their younger counterparts, “the older kids have a lot of trouble because once you’re 12 or 13, people start treating you like an adult and they stop helping you.  They assume these children know what they’re doing, and they don’t.”

Although, Titus has found some reluctance from potential donors to his charity and being the honest person that he is, he simply provides these skeptics with a proposition: “You can help these kids now and in a couple of years they can move into your neighborhood as neighbors or you don’t help them and in a couple years they’re going to be stealing all the stuff from your house and probably shooting your wife in a home invasion robbery.  You decide.  And most of the time they write me a check.”

Once again, the truth prevails.

Information for The Youth Project can be found at http://www.ChristopherTitus.com

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