Tom Irwin: I went with a group called Comics on Duty. We did about 30 shows between February 13th and March 9th and about the same number again from November 21st through December 4th. Comics on Duty is a group formed by comedian Rich Davis, they�ve done about 1400 shows since its inception and we celebrated the 100th show in Iraq while I was there. Rich [Davis] has a whole bunch of comedians signed up for the group, but my tours were done with Tony Daro, Derrek Richards, Warren B. hall and James P. Connolly.

Alt: Was this arranged through the USO?

Tom Irwin: No. Actually, we went the first time as part of Armed Forces Entertainment and the second under USAREUR, United States Army Europe. I think Armed Forces Entertainment is actually the parent company of the USO.

Alt: So, how did you get into this?

Tom Irwin: Another comic here in LA said I should get in touch with Rich. I sent my press kit and didn�t here back from him forever. Then one day he called and said, �I want you to go to Iraq with some other performers, but you have to decide now.� I thought for a moment and said sure.

Alt: A quick decision. I take it there wasn�t much hesitation?

Tom Irwin: Not really. I wanted to see for myself how the troops were doing. And I thought that since I had been in the Army, maybe I could relate to them a bit better than maybe someone else could have. But really, I wanted the chance to give those guys a break from the hell that they�re in.

I think my decision was a good one. We�re really doing something different from most other forms of troop entertainment. We go to the shitty places. We stayed intents, in buildings with no doors. We performed in front of crowds as small as 20 and as large as 2,000.

Alt: What do you mean, �shitty places?�

Tom Irwin: We were in Fallujah, we were in Mosul, just about everywhere we performed was a forward base. There were times we had to wear flak jackets while performing. In fact, there was an incident at a show in Mosul where a mortar round landed next to the building we were in. .It was the loudest, scariest noise I�d ever heard. All the soldiers went running off to do their jobs and we were the only ones left. And I�m sure we were probably more scared than we�d want to admit.

I was there the night the first soldier in Mosul was killed. This young guy went out on guard duty, stepped on an IED [improvised electronic device], and boom, he was gone.

Alt: So your audience is just sitting there with their gear and guns, ready to go at any time?

Tom Irwin: When you�re looking at these kids, the audience is full, they�ve got rifles under their seats, these guys are just beat down. The war never stops for them, they�re dirty and tired. You walk into the mess hall and it�s pretty quite. You�ll hear people talking and laughing, but it�s somber. You don�t know what these people see during the day. After a show one guy told me that when you�re at war you never forget where you are and what�s going on around you. Not even when you sleep. But, and this is the reason I do this, he said, �for the past two hours you guys were up there, we almost forgot. It almost went away.�

Alt: Well that hits upon the important question, why this and not something else?

Tom Irwin: What? Comedy? (laughs) Or doing it in a war zone? I don�t know what sort of mental problems you have to have to do this, but I guess I have them.

A lot of our troops over there are just trying to stay alive. They don�t seem to know what their mission is anymore. What they do is hard. If you think you�re being misled by Bush, how do you think they feel? . It�s gratifying to see them having a fun time. A young soldier came up to me after a show, we do a kind of meet-and-greet and speak to as many service men and women as we can after the shows, and said the show was even better than sitting in his tent watching DVD porn. I think I�d be hard-pressed to find something more rewarding than that.

Going there, I didn�t know what to expect. When we landed it was 37 degrees and there was snow on the ground. It�s kind of open. It was muddy and cold. We were taking our time getting out of the Blackhawk and the soldiers hit the ground and were gone. We were coming in just after a group of Redskin�s cheerleaders. It was just like the Valley.

Alt: Did what you saw there square with what you thought before heading off?

Tom Irwin: Shortly after Thanksgiving in Fallujah, this Three-Star marine General was addressing the audience before we went on. He was telling them how proud he was, how there�s no place he�d rather be than right there and how they�re the only people he wants to be there with. I realized all political beliefs aside that this was amazing, this was real and I was in the middle of it all.

These performances are the only real break these guys get. And even then, it�s not really much of a break, they�re always at war and it doesn�t look like it�ll end anytime soon.

Alt: It sounds like seeing the war first hand has left quite an impression.

Tom Irwin: When I came back from my first trip through there I wrote a show called �25 Days in Iraq.� It�s a one-person show and I�ve performed it here in LA and am looking to book it in cities around the country. It�s my attempt to showcase the sacrifices of the men and women fighting this war, to humanize them and separate them from the Bush administration. And it isn�t about Republicans and Democrats, it�s about humanity and the sacrifices people make.

Alt: How�s it been received?

Tom Irwin: Honestly, I�d say the performances have been successful so far. I�ve had a variety of emails from people saying they enjoyed it, they laughed and it made them think. I try to keep it apolitical because it isn�t about that. My take is the human side. How the war affects the dynamics of families and jobs and businesses.

There�s this scene where I describe what I saw while riding into Mosul on a C-130, it�s like the last few moments before we hit the war zone. So I pick out three people, people I actually saw, and try and figure out what�s running through their heads. Now C-130�s are really loud and I had earplugs in, and I look over at this one guy who has a rosary. He looks like he�s talking, but I can�t hear a thing. To my left was another guy, young kid, my god he was so young. And here�s this young guy just staring at a picture of his wife and babies.

And then there�s this other guy across the way, Chris Shea�he�s a major�and he�s reading an Arabic dictionary. First impression though, this guy�s a major through and through�he�s all business! But he�s really a car salesman. He lives in D.C.

Alt: Is it hard to keep your personal politics out of the show?

Tom Irwin: They do creep into the show. Really, politics is a good part of why I wrote the show, the reason that there�s a risk of these soldiers being anonymous is because of the administration�s policies. People have to begin to showcase the horrors of war, in my opinion; my show offers a different platform to form those views upon.

I bring up the casualties, the fact that there are no pictures of flag-draped coffins. I bring up this stuff in my show, does anyone remember who the ninth person killed in action was?

Alt: Do you know if any of the soldiers you met or performed in front of have been killed?

Tom Irwin: I�m not sure, not that I�ve noticed. We see so many people. Say we do four shows a day at an average of 400 people per show. By the end of the day we may have met all 1600 of them and I can�t remember who is who. We performed in Mosul and Fallujah, I�ve been in that mess tent that was bombed. There were eight Marines killed at the last base we visited in December. Did I meet any of them? Maybe. I just don�t know.

I look at the faces and names in the newspapers and on CNN sometimes. Sometimes I can�t. It�s kind of like looking at the Sun. When the names come up, when the pictures are shown, sometimes you think, �oh no, I don�t want to find out it was someone I just met.�

Alt: I guess we�ve heard the worst, what�s the best part of performing with Comics on Duty?

Tom Irwin: It�s great to sit there and just let someone talk. They want to be anywhere besides there, and it�s good to give them an outlet. To get out and be able to say what I want to say is great. I think the troops liked the material I performed dealing with the ridiculousness of being in the military. There are odd things I learned while there too. We did a couple shows in Saddam's old palaces. The first one we did, we were told that for ten years three meals were prepared every day in anticipation of his impending arrival. But, for ten years he never showed.

As for the audience at my shows, well what can I say about it. There�s lot of peaks and valleys. It�s amazing how silent I can get the crowd to be. I�ve had people come up to me afterward and say, �dude, that was kind of sad.� Ell, it�s about war. I�m not trying to make it sad, it just happens.

For me though, the best part of doing this are the relationships I developed with the guys I met. It was amazing to see people living with such adversity who are able to stick together and make it through such a clusterfuck. Just sitting and talking to soldiers about what their lives are like, what they miss from back home. I met people whose businesses were going under and their employees were going to lose their jobs while they�re stuck in the desert. I talked to people about their families, about everything.

Alt: Would you go back?

Tom Irwin: Yes, absolutely. There are no plans right now but I�m sure it�ll happen. There is in fact a portion of my show here I address that question, would I go back and why. One thing I can say is that when I do go back I want to go with the same guys, Tony [Daro], Derrek [Richard], Warren [Hall], and James [Connolly], I went with the first two times. And I think they feel the same.

Alt: What sets Comics On Duty apart from USO and like entertainment? Is it mainly because you guys go to the 'hot spots?'

Tom Irwin: Definitely. Comics on duty has cut its teeth on being the organization that brings comedy to military personnel in places that other people won�t go. We will go to Baghdad, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Fallujah, any where we need to go to bring some humor to the people who need it most. I don�t know of many organizations that can say they have had a comedy show come to a brief (we did keep going and eventually finish) stop because the building they were performing in was mortared. Comics on Duty executive director Rich Davis, is adamant about the level of talent he brings out on the road. Everyone must be a headliner, and he also tries to bring a unique blend of comics styles out on the road for each tour. Comics on Duty is also unique in the amount of shows it will do per tour, four shows a day in three different cities per day? All by helicopter flights? No one but us are crazy enough to think that�s a good idea.

Alt: Have you run across times where your jokes just didn't work with the military audiences?

Tom Irwin: My joke about famous French philosopher Jaque D�ansdrestat and his theory on people being able to access a level of metaphysical weightlessness in their lives seemed to not be their cup of tea.

Alt: What issues appear touchy to them?

Tom Irwin: The troops are pretty open minded, yet there is a general competitiveness between branches. The marines think no one is tougher that them, and the army is proud of its work etc. So when you would make jokes that pitted them against each other, they were very protective of their fellow soldiers from their respective branches. For example if I intentionally spoke highly of the marines, while performing in front a bunch of army soldiers, I better damn well have a reason for it, or a way out of it.

Alt: Aside from the press kit, how are you going about promoting 25 Days in Iraq? Have you approached any non-profit organizations?

Tom Irwin: Actually yes I am doing it through that route. The organization that I am closest to putting something together with is Operation Truth, out of NYC. I am working to put a benefit together with the organization's founder Paul Rieckhoff. Operation Truth www.optruth.org) is an amazing organization started by Paul, who is an army lieutenant and led a platoon of soldiers through Iraq for a year. While he was in country, he spoke out about the bureaucracy and bad planning that was bogging down the efforts of the troops, and he wound up on 60 Minutes. Recently when the mess hall in Mosul was blown up, MSNBC had Paul on to talk about it. Paul is very into my show and he and I seem to be on similar paths in attempting to give voices to the people fighting the war. I will be featured as vet of the week on Operation Truth�s web site in two weeks. Do yourself a favor and go to their web address and watch some of the commercials they have made. Absolutely crushing. So I hope to do my show in NYC as a benefit for op truth very soon. By Brendan Coyne

Tom Irwin began his standup comedy career about ten years ago right here in Buffalo, performing at local venues the Comix Caf� and Comedy trap, as well as the Funny Bone chain before heading out West to try his luck in Los Angeles. And he�s found his share during the five-and-a-half years he�s been gone from Western New York, but this former Army combat engineer says any accomplishments made prior to the two stints he performed entertaining troops serving in the hottest of hotspots in Iraq last year pale by comparison.

Irwin�s no supporter of what he reflexively calls �Bush�s war.� He feels the president�s administration betrayed the nation and refers to the missing�and no longer sought after�weapons of mass destruction the war was predicated on frequently during a recent interview with Altpress. That said, Irwin�s no comic crusader trying to turn the troops against their civilian leaders. Rather, he�s a concerned citizen who�s seen more than most and fervently hopes the 150,000 men and women serving in Iraq come home alive.

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