Young comic finds voice

Conor Delehanty recalled the night of his fifth-ever comedy show. He was missing the IU rugby team’s first meeting of the 2011 season. An hour before he hopped onto the stage of Bloomington’s Comedy Attic, he received a call from head coach Tom Phillips informing him of the cancelled meeting.

“Over half of the team e-mailed him saying they were skipping the meeting to come see me,” Delehanty said.

The IU junior rugby player performed his first stand-up comedy show Dec. 1 at the Comedy Attic.

Though new, he joked his way into his sixth show last night at Bear’s Place as a part of the Comedy Caravan.

“I’m a baby comedian, almost to the toddler stage,” he said.

Indianapolis-born, Delehanty said he thought of becoming a comedian while watching Comedy Central.

“I’m the youngest, but I never really got beat up because I was big,” the former high school football player said.

His oldest brother, Joe Delehanty, is a 24-year-old student in the IU Maurer School of Law. He remembered it differently.

“We had a baby sitter who took us to the White River to play,” he said. “I think Conor was only about four, but I threw a rock at his face.”

Joe described the knot it left as “a big, color-changing bulge” that scarred Conor’s forehead.

“He was crying, and the baby sitter asked what would make him feel better,” he continued. “He wanted McDonald’s.”

The Delehanty boys, including IU-Purdue University Indianapolis student Reid Delehanty, all said they consider themselves to be thinkers. Conor Delehanty uses his introspective thoughts to avoid paying attention in his IU classes.

“Sometimes I think about the power of the simple movement of vocal chords and tongue,” he said when describing his talent at making others laugh.

The self-proclaimed “emotionally introverted” Conor Delehanty studies philosophy, criminal justice and religion, with plans to major in all three.

“I’m an upbeat, friendly guy most of the time,” he said. “I had a cynical side though.”
In his freshman year at IU, he said he broke through his cynicism and began to look at his future differently.

“I can still think in that voice,” he said. “I laugh at that way of thinking though, and that’s where a lot of my comedy comes from.”

Knowing he was funnier than some of the stand-up acts he watched on television, he began writing and putting together a routine. Junior Sarah Empson has seen two of
Delehanty’s shows.

“I was surprised by his confidence on stage during his first show,” she said of her friend. “His personality really shined through.”

Empson said she enjoyed Delehanty’s fresh look on events and loved his jokes.

“He was so much younger than the other performers,” she said. “It was great because he was funnier, in my opinion, than the guys who’d been doing it for a while.”

Delehanty’s routine has grown the past two months to the point where he feels a new level of comfort in speaking about uncomfortable topics.

“In one show, the whole front row was filled with black people,” he said. “So I said, ‘It’s nice to see all the black people sitting in the front row,’ and I paused and said, ‘Good job, Rosa Parks.’”

Delehanty said he knows that his jokes are all in jest, but hopes that no one turns out like him.

“There’d be a lot less generosity and tenderness in the world,” he said while laughing and rocking back on his chair.

Delehanty is taking his new stage time one day at a time. He said he knows he is just beginning his comedy career, but always the thinker, he can’t help but daydream about his future on stage.

“It gives me something to do in class,” Delehanty said.