November 19, 2005 Feature Herald Times. A Funny Father.

By Kate Braser

"His is a life of laughter...There was a time when Tassell dreamed, and even achieved, the live of a jet-setting, club hopping comedian.  When he wasn't sending an audience into fits of laughter, he was thousands of feet in the air, flying to his next gig.  That all changed three years ago when Darby, now 3, was born.  ...Comedy and fatherhood go hand-in-hand.  His conviction the two can and should be respectfully intertwined emerges in his career and in daily intereactions with Darby."

"Tassell has rearranged his normally grueling travel schedule and gladly shares parenting duties with Janet...But even when he's on the road doing shows, Tassell is mindful of the impact his comedy can have on portraying fatherhood in a positive light..."

"That's why he is especially excited about the past year ago he joined Indiana comedians Kevin Burke and Dave Dugan to form the Hoosier Dads.  "We are just three guys hitting middle age with young kids and we get to talk about how great and funny it is to be a dad," he said.  While Tassell prefers to downplay the roll he adds to the group, claiming his two counterparts ae funnier than he is, he is no newcomer to the comedy world.  One of his five books, "Hell Gig, Enlightening the Road Comic," is considered a Bible for the comedy business. Tassell has also appeared with Jay Leno, Jeff Foxworthy, and on MTV."

"He describes the Hoosier Dads as "the exception to every comedy rule."   "Especially with our concept of being a good dad," He said, "I want to be there with my kid 24/7. We're hands on Dads.  I did a show on MTV and I didn't like the atmosphere.  We all love it here in Indiana and want to raise our families here."  The novelty of the group seems to be catching on.  Tassell said he thinks what lends to the shows success is that all three men involved are "tired of the standard vision of parenthood we saw, where the dads weren't there."

 Thursday, June 23rd 2005, Brilliant and still missing Dave Chappelle chooses the Hoosier Dads show in Dayton for his first performance since disappearing from his show and show business last year.  In an hour long set which he mentioned was his first in a long time Dave talked openly about where he's been and what he's been up to, even taking questions from the audience and discussing comedy with Hoosier Dads, Kevin Burke and Brad Tassell.

The crowd was thrilled when after the main show when I, me being Brad Tassell, came onstage and announced that an Ohio dad wanted to come onstage and do a rebuttal, when I introduced Dave Chappelle there was an audible gasp, and then cheers from the crowd who had no idea their would be such a fabulous cap on an already hilarious evening. 

Dave also did in the neighborhood of 45 minutes of brand new material no one in the country has seen.  He said he was a little rusty, but no one agreed that was the case as Dave eased through new material as if he'd been honing it for years. 

I realized at one point that the camera that I set up in the back of the room to capture the Hoosier Dads material had just recorded 45 minutes of Dave.  I leaned into Kevin Burke and asked him what he thought the tape might be worth, as Dave had not only given us a ton of huge new bits he will probably use in his next special, but had told us what every media outlet in the country had been speculating on for many months.

A second later I alerted Dave to the fact he was being taped and I would gladly give the tape to him.  And audience member told me I was crazy and that tape would be worth tens of thousands of dollars, but Kevin, Dave (Dugan), and my integrity, and the integrity of the Hoosier Dads show are worth a lot more than... wait did you say tens of thousands.   We did not even think about taking the tape for ourselves. 

Although, we are now counting on Dave to take his portion and mail us back our show!

Dave also signed a Hoosier Dads T-shirt which we would like to auction off and give the proceeds to Relay for Life.  Here's a picture below.  Let us know what you want to pay? 

Hey if you want a Hoosier Dads T-shirt signed anyway with 5 dollars going to Relay for Life, go to the contact page and send me a message and I'll get one out to you.