Arts & Entertainment

Norton Resident Brings the Laughs Just in Time for Christmas

Andrea Henry and Myq Kaplan co-author children's joke book.

Andrea Henry isn’t your average mom. By day, she’s a college counselor. By night, and whenever she has free time, she’s a writer and comedian bringing the laughs to anyone who will listen. Her latest project resulted in the book “Real Kids’ Jokes by Real Stand-Up Comics.”

What do you call someone who was fired from NASA? An Astro-not. What car do cows take to the prom? A liMOOsine. These are just two jokes in the 97-page book, which was co-written by “Last Comic Standing” season seven finalist Myq Kaplan.

“He’s a really prolific joke writer,” Henry said of Kaplan. “We just kind of started batting around kids jokes over email and we amassed a couple hundred of them as just part of an exercise and something fun to do and so then we looked into compiling them into a book and that’s how the book came to be.”

Henry grew up in Brockton and lived outside of Boston for a couple of years. When she got married to her husband Dave, they wanted to live on the water. Not too long after they found a house on Norton Reservoir where they raise their 4-year-old daughter Eve.

Looking for a new hobby, Henry took a stand-up comedy class at Boston Center for Adult Ed and found that she enjoyed it a lot. Her final class was at a club where she performed, and the owner invited her back.

“I’m pretty quiet, so it kind of came as a surprise to a lot of folks,” Henry said. “I gave it a shot and it worked out, and I’ve been working regularly at it for the past couple of years.”

Henry has since appeared on Comedy Central's “Open Mic Fight,” “Nickelodeon's Search for America's Funniest Mom 3,” “NBC's Last Comic Standing” and “Yuk Yuk's Great Canadian Laugh Off.” She was the opening act for The Last Comic Standing Tour, Gary Gulman, Caroline Rhea, and E's Chelsea Handler.

She also participated in Comic in Residence, Butterfinger's Stand Up Comedy Showdown, The Rhode Island Comedy Festival and The Boston Comedy Festival. Her screenplay, “Worst Wedding Ever” co-written by Erin Judge was awarded Best Comedy at The Woods Hole Film Festival. Check it out. “There She Is...” A short film about her trials and tribulations won Best Regional Film and The Audience Award for Best Comedy at the SENE Film Fest.

If all that wasn’t enough, Henry is also a regular contributor to “The Reader’s Digest” and “US Weekly.”

Henry’s comedy usually consists of dry-one liners and is geared toward adults. She tapped into her childhood, however, for "Real Kids' Jokes by Real Stand-Up Comics."

The book, ideal for ages 7 to 10, is available for $5.49 on Amazon. The Kindle edition is $.99. For more information on Henry, visit AndreaHenry.com. For more information on the book, visit www.realkidsjokes.com.


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