Sitting with her pink Bible at the Starbucks in Cornelius, Kim Coleman quotes Scripture as fast as most people can tell you their birthday. Her serious Bible study lets her take a light-hearted approach in her work. A full-time Christian comedian, she has been making congregations across the country laugh with her comedic perspective on the Bible for four years.

Coleman, 41, who majored in theater at Appalachian State University, has worked professionally in theater for 17 years. She performed with Illustrated Theatre and Stage Door Theatre in Chicago, Dramatic Arts Studio in Nashville and The Market House Theatre in Kentucky. She’s also appeared on television in “To Sir with Love II” with Sidney Poitier and “Following Her Heart” with Ann-Margret.

Introduction to Christian comedy
The North Wilkesboro native discovered Christian comedy while living in Houston, Texas. “I didn’t know about Christian comedy or anything like that or that theater was in churches,” she says. That changed when she found the A.D. Players, the oldest Christian theater company in the country, and Lakewood Church, Houston’s mega-church that has an average attendance of 25,000 on Sunday mornings.

“Two different things were happening. … I went to work at the A.D. Players, then I got on the drama team at Lakewood, and you had to audition to get on the team,” she recalls. “I was asked to write something for the women’s ministry, and I did. Then I told the director, ‘I think I can do this by myself.’ ”

Coleman performed her first stand-up comic routine for 600 women at Lakewood. “It was a 10-minute set, and from there I just got asked to go churches across the country.”

Coleman soon discovered Christians in Theatre Arts, an international organization of professionals based in Greenville, S.C., and the Christian Comedy Association.

“The Christian theater movement is huge,” says Coleman, who moved to Cornelius with her husband and two daughters three years ago. “I got into it just by developing a show and being asked to go to different churches. … I just got some huge opportunities.”

Recently she shot a video in California titled the “Holy Roller Comedy Revival.” The show featured nine Christian comedians. Coleman was the only woman.

She has two agents who book her shows, and prices vary depending on the amount of time involved and the size of the audience.

Coleman’s sets cover topics such as her children, fashion, women’s issues and being an older mom of young kids. One of her favorite bits is about trying on low-rider jeans. “I was trying on low-rider jeans one day. … I thought low-riders were a car and by the time I got those things on it looked like I’d blown out my two rear wheels, so I said in Ecclesiastes it says there’s a time to lose and a time to throw away,” she says. “In as many ways as I can find to tie it back in (to the Bible), that’s what I do. That’s just how my brain goes.”

A way to understand
Coleman writes all of her material and says sometimes it can take as long as six months for her to get a bit exactly the way she wants it. Other times ideas come to her in minutes. “I just rehearse at home,” she says. “If I can’t rehearse it in front of my daughters (ages 5 and 7), then I’m not going to do it.”

That’s probably one of the biggest differences between Christian comedians and typical stand-up comics – there’s no profanity. “I know that there are clean, secular comics as well, but we will try to relate the Christian experience in a comedic fashion,” Coleman says. “There seems to be so many people that want to do Christian bashing already, and we’re not saying we’re perfect. We know that, that’s the thing. We’re only saved by grace. We’re not perfect, but if we can go in and talk about things that we need to be aware of and present it with humor, it’s easier to understand.”

Although Coleman grew up in the Baptist church, by the time she was a teenager she had stopped attending church. “ It didn’t have any meaning for me, and then there were some personal issues that were going on,” she explains. “I was a victim of childhood sexual abuse. The biggest thing I had to deal with was, why did God let this happen?”

Comedy and laughter helped her overcome her emotional scars, and she started going back to church in 2001. She’s now a member of Grace Covenant Church in Huntersville, where she leads the adult drama team.

When asked what she wants people to get out of her act, she quickly says, “Healing. … There are just so many people out there that are hurting and don’t know that it’s OK to laugh and that you can get through things.”

She immediately follows that statement by quoting Proverbs 15:13, “A merry heart doth good like a medicine.”

Want to Go?
Kim Coleman will be one of the featured comedians at Ultimate Comedy Theater at Grace Covenant Church on May 19. For more information, visit www.kimcoleman.org.