Last Comic Standing's Ralphie May returns to the Garden State

NEWTON — Ralphie May is still standing and will be performing at Newton Theatre on Saturday, Oct. 26.

Known for coming in second place in the first season of NBC's "Last Comic Standing," May continues to travel the country with his comedy tour.

Being on the show has catapulted his comedic career.

"Yeah without a doubt," said May of how the show helped his career. "I was barely getting by, now I get to perform for huge audiences all around the world."

Since the show, May has appeared on countless comedy shows including "The Wayne Brady Show" and "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno." He has also released six albums — his most recent "Too Big to Ignore."

"There is a lot of dirty stuff, filthy," said May of his newest album. "Very funny stuff. It gets more applause than anything I've ever done before."

He plans on performing acts from this album at Newton.

"It will be all new material," May said. "I want to knock their socks off."

May has performed in New Jersey before and says the audience is just like everyone else.

"People are people, man," May said of New Jersey natives. "It's like a little more stress, a little more conditioned to being mad at something because they always like that. Other than that, people are people."

New Jersey will always be near and dear to May, as two of his idols were from the tri-state area.

"I was a big fan of Buddy Hackett," May said. "Jeffrey Ross, he is a New Jersey guy and a good pal of mine."

Most of the material, May gets from his everyday life are from experiences with his friends, family and wife, Lahna and two children, April June May and August May.

"Sometimes it's good, sometimes not so much," said May of how his wife feels about including her in his act. "I catch hell ever now and then."

After 25 years of performing on the road, May says he no longer gets nervous getting up on stage. But he does encounter audience members who try to interject themselves in his act every once in awhile.

"Sometimes stupid asses, who want to be a part of the show," said May of audience participation. "But after I take them down a few pegs they realize they didn't want to be a part of the show."

Being on the road most of the year does weigh heavily on May with a four and six year old at home.

"For me what is hard is being a daddy and husband and trying to be a road comedian that to me is very, very hard," May said. "And it makes it very, very hard to get on a plane and tell your babies you will be back in three weeks, it just kills ya. You miss so much so fast."

Although he misses his kids, he prides himself in being able to make them laugh.

"I make them laugh a lot," May said. "It's one of my goals, one of my things I am good for — to make them laugh."

As for the future, May hopes to hit the big screen.

"I'd liked to do SNL (Saturday Night Live), that's always been a dream of mine," May said. "I'd like to be in a big movie, one that my kids can see and make people laugh hard."