The Killers of Comedy
May 10, 8 p.m.
Music Mill, 3720 E. 82nd St.
$25, 317-841-1850

The Rev. Bob Levy and the Killers of Comedy make their first Indianapolis appearance May 10. And unless you're a Howard Stern listener, that probably means little and matters even less.

But for Stern fans, it's an opportunity, in Levy's words, "to hang out, drink and have a ball" with some of the folks who make Stern's Sirius satellite radio show the soap opera/freak show it is. And in this case, that means they get to keep company with "a filthy bastard" (veteran standup comic Levy), a racist clown (Yucko the Clown), one of the Howard 100 News reporters (Shuli), two Stern show writers (Richard Christy and Sal Governale), a jolly dwarf (Beetlejuice) and a former professional wrestler (The Iron Sheik).

It should be every bit as raunchy and outrageous as it sounds.

In a noontime interview last week, Levy talked about the Killers of Comedy, Stern sidekick Artie Lange's recent on-air meltdown and how Levy's signature comedy bit — eating blue cheese from a woman's rear end — came to be.

NUVO: I've heard you host comedy roasts and as a guest on the Howard Stern show, but I don't really know your comedy. So tell me your best joke.

Levy: No, it's too dirty.

NUVO: It's fine. This is an alternative paper.

Levy: They're all the best.

NUVO: Then give me whatever joke you want.

Levy: I can tell you a true story. I was getting a hand job from my girlfriend. She was giving me a backhanded hand job. She had her hand backwards. When I looked up, when I was about to come, my dick was facing me and I turned my head real quick and it went in my ear. Not on my ear — in my ear. Nothing but net. The second one hit me in the neck. But what are you going to do? That happens sometimes.

NUVO: So is that what you do on stage — tell a lot of stories?

Levy: No, I do a lot of one-liners too. Work the crowd and all that.

NUVO: Do you have a one-liner you can tell me?

Levy: I talk about big vaginas a lot — how young ones are tight, but when they get around 40, it looks like a catcher's mitt from 1920. Are we gonna fuck or play catch? What is that thing?

NUVO: You're really the only professional comedian on this bill. So is it the freak-show factor that brings out the crowds?

Levy: Four of us are real comedians. Then you've got Sheik and Beetle. But even if you don't know the Stern show, you're going to get it.

NUVO: But that's pretty much who comes to the show, right — Stern show fans?

Levy: But a lot of times they bring people with them and they're like, "Oh, man, I've never seen you guys. This is great." Sal does 15 minutes, Richard does 10. Sal blows the room out, I'm telling you.

NUVO: So what's the show like?

Levy: Shuli is the emcee. He's been doing comedy for 11 years. He'll bring up Richard, Yucko, Sal, me. Then me and Shuli bring out the Sheik and me and Shuli bring out Beetle. It's a great show, it really is.

NUVO: You're famous for eating blue cheese from women's asses. How did that start and is it true you've stopped?

Levy: That started in South Carolina in about 1992. We did it after the show with some girl in the audience that just needed money. We gave her about $38. There were eight of us there. Then last week in Houston, I had a mother and daughter come up. I don't think I can top that, so I retired it. Unless I can beat that.

NUVO: So Indianapolis is going to have to work hard to get you to do this again.

Levy: Yeah. You'd better bring a mother, daughter and a grandmother.

NUVO: You wrote and starred in a porno, “Stood Up,” but you didn't have sex in the movie. Why was that?

Levy: Well, who the fuck wants to see me fucking? I don't even want to watch. I've got no mirrors in the house. I don't want to see that.

NUVO: How did your relationship with the Stern show begin?

Levy: That was in 2002. [Former Stern show associate producer] K.C. Armstrong saw me in a comedy club and told them about the blue cheese thing. That's how I got on. Then I won this listener thing. They had that roast contest where we roasted all the staff, and I won that.

NUVO: When you're on the Stern show, do you feel like you're part of a long-running, really weird soap opera?

Levy: It's great. It is like this sort of soap opera because it just continues. It's amazing to sit in there. It's like you're sitting with friends who want to kill you. You get attacked, but you like them.

NUVO: Is it true Jackie "The Jokeman" Martling gave you the nickname reverend?

Levy: Yes. That was at an open-mike night at Rascal's, when I first started doing comedy. That was 18 years ago. He called me that because I'm a filthy bastard.

NUVO: On the Stern show, they give you tons of grief because you mispronounce words. Are you goofing around?

Levy: No. It's from growing up in Staten Island. People talk like that. And I didn't finish high school, so I really do fuck up words. And I can't spell good.

NUVO: So you didn't finish high school. What did you do?

Levy: I did landscaping and house painting. I was like, "I've gotta do something. I don't want to push a lawnmower my whole life." Being I wasn't Mexican, I wasn't gonna go nowhere in the business. I had to get out.

NUVO: Were you listening to Stern when Artie had his meltdown?

Levy: Yeah. It was sad. I was really upset because I love him and I love [Lange’s assistant] Teddy. I was just hoping everything was all right. And everything worked out great.

NUVO: Were you surprised they let him come back? When it happened, I thought Sirius wouldn't allow him back because of liability issues.

Levy: Howard's thing is a different thing. And it's always been crazy. It just happens. I figured he'd be back.

NUVO: They said as soon as that happened, some comedian put in his resume to take Artie's spot. Was that you?

Levy: No fucking way. I'd love to find out who that scumbag was. I think it might be somebody who's already working up there somewhere in the daytime. I think it's a bullshit move. Everybody he's friends with was concerned about him. Not trying to get his fucking job. And I wouldn't do good getting his job because I just woke up.