Page 38 - August 2017

The 2017 Funniest Cops winners with 100 Club CEO and emcee Joe Ahern from
left, Ron Gaines (1st place), Ron Rufo (3rd place)and Tom McKenna (2nd Place).
Stand -up Cops
Police Officers joke it out at 5th Annual Laugh Patrol to become Chicago’s Funniest Cop
100 Club of Chicago CEO Joe Ahern served as emcee for the event.
O cer Milan Sipic returned to the stage this year with his unique wit and other attributes that added to his performance.
Retired Chicago Police O cer Ted Roberts took the stage for the rst time at the 5th Annual Funniest Cop event.
n STORIES BY AMBER RAMUNDO n PHOTOS BY JAMES PINTO
In the dimly lit corner of a of a theater on the east side of Chicago, a man sits alone. He gazes forward at the seats that will soon be occupied. At the front, the stage illumi- nates under a single spotlight. Glowing on the backdrop is “The Laugh Factory” in a spectrum of bright colors.
Here, at Chicago’s famous comedy club on North Broad- way, a group of law enforcement supporters have gathered to watch some of the city’s finest, those who protect and serve, flex one of their more secret, possibly unexpected, assets – their humor. Retired Chicago Police Officer Ted Roberts surveys the scene as the seats before him start to fill with friends, families and members of Chicago Lodge 7, including President Kevin Graham, who funneled in from the meet-and-greet that took place in the atrium pri- or to the show on July 25.
During Roberts’ 30 years of service that spanned the south side of Chicago and ended in the 004, there was never anything like the Laugh Patrol to select Chicago’s Funniest Cop that raises money to provide support to
38 CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ AUGUST 2017
families of fallen first responders. But after learning about the event sponsored by the 100 Club of Chicago merely days before curtain call and mulling over whether he had what it would take to join officers performing three-min- ute stand-up routines, Roberts decided that he wanted to see if he could go from being one of Chicago’s finest to one of Chicago’s funniest.
Less than 24 hours before the event, he called Joe Ahern, CEO of The 100 Club, and asked, “Is it too late to join?”
Ahern was delighted to have a new performer for the event, in addition to another officer, Raid Ghanimah, as well as Chicago Lodge 7 President Kevin Graham, who would perform on the Laugh Factory stage for the first time. But Roberts was almost going into the performance blind.
“I cleaned off my glasses, so I’m not as blind as I could be,” he joked before the event even started. “I’m going up there and say the first things that come to my head. Three minutes is probably going to feel like an eternity.”
At 8 p.m., Ahern was the first to take the mic, subbing in for their perennial emcee Tom Dreesen, the famed co-
m
T
y S a
t “ u a
1 p r m
q t c
t h
c c t i b s a
b l I