Last modified: Thursday, September 20, 2007 1:49 PM EDT John Turco of Attleboro is an insurance agent by day, comedian by night. (Staff photo by MARTIN GAVIN) A stand-up guy: Attleboro's John Turco rising in comedy ranks BY REBECCA KEISTER / STAFF WRITER John Turco's first time could have been a disaster. He was nervous. He'd wanted to do it for a long time, since he first fell in love with the idea and snuck downstairs after bedtime to get a glimpse of the pros on his parents' television. When the big night came, he was completely unprepared. There could have been a serious case of stage fright. Instead, he got a lot of laughs. And that's a really good thing when you're talking about stand-up comedy. "It was a big charity show in college, and this group had asked me to come watch," said Turco, now long past his comedic debut. "About two hours before the show, they needed more people. I sat down, wrote some jokes and I had no idea if it was going to work." It did work and has been working ever since for the 37-year-old Attleboro resident who regularly performs at comedy clubs in the Providence and Boston areas. He recently did a week-long headlining stint at the Comedy Connection in East Providence where the crowd ate up every minute of his adult-oriented set. Back before that first performance, Turco was a journalism major at the University of Georgia when he joined the Georgia Amateur Comedians Club just to give stand-up a shot. "I couldn't even see because of the lights and thought I was going to fall off the stage," he said. "It went great." He's always loved comedy. It was George Carlin that he use to sneak down stairs to watch as a youngster, even though he was not allowed. College provided the first outlet, but he didn't become serious about pursuing his passion until he was in his mid-20s, living back in Boston, near his native Norwell, and after going to some open mic nights. He gave up a dream of a job in newspapers after interning at the Scituate mariner, because comedy and journalism just didn't mesh. "Because of the schedule," he said. "Journalism is nights and weekends, and comedy is the same deal. I knew I wanted comedy more. After a while I realized comedy was something I could possibly do full time. Now I don't think I'll ever be able to stop." But his plan is clear. The next Jerry Seinfeld, despite the often remarked-upon resemblance, is not something he aspires to be. He's not doing the stand-up thing full time. By day, he's an insurance agent, a job he fell into through a connection over 10 years ago when he needed a steady paycheck. He keeps that up while pursuing comedy gigs, which don't, yet anyway, keep a roof over the heads of his wife, Jenn, and their two children, Olivia, 4, and Nicholas, 1. Turco does five weeks out the year at the Comedy Connection in East Providence and makes appearances at outlets like Corins in Pawtucket about once a month. Gigs at Nick's Comedy Stop and the Comedy Connection in Boston, as well as frequent stops in Hartford and several corporate jobs, fill out his schedule. He also just got word that he'll appear in the Boston Comedy Festival, a contest he was selected for through an audition tape. "Balancing....it's exhausting. It's tough to balance life with comedy," Turco said, explaining that his normal day has him out of the house from 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. "I come home and head right back out. Sometimes I don't even come home. My wife is awesome about it, but it is getting harder as the kids get older and they miss me. My daughter really wants to go to a show." He's hoping corporate shows and college work, which bring in the bigger bucks, could someday cut out the day job. "But as far as going to New York and being discovered? That's not in the cards," Turco said. Big things could be in his future, however, if the laughs a recent show brought are any barometer of his talent. Opening his set by speaking to the audience, and regularly bringing them into his act, was a bonus to his hilarious thoughts on kids, marriage and life. Though he says his style is pretty sarcastic, the observation might be that it's slightly more obvious than that, but enjoyably so. "Did you ever hear that the best lie is 99 percent truth?" he said. "I think that applies with jokes. It's just 1 percent exaggeration. I get material everywhere, because everything is funny. I would say the biggest victims are my mother, my wife and my dad. The only time my wife gets miffed is if she gives me a joke and I don't tell it because I don't think it's good enough." On stage, he's easy to enjoy, looking completely at home, almost like he's just hanging out being the funny guy in the group. "But people who don't know me usually are pretty shocked," he said. "I'm not one of those guys who is always joking around. It's hard to explain. I just feel like the times I'm on stage, I'm totally at ease, and everything is as it should be." John Turco will be performing Friday, Sept. 14, at the American Legion Post 440 in Newton; at the Boston Comedy Festival, Oct. 10-17; and at the Comedy Connection in East Providence, Oct. 24, 25 and 28. Web site: www.johnturcocomedy.com. REBECCA KEISTER can be reached at 508-236-0336 or at rkeister@thesunchronicle.com.