History of Club Soda Kenny?

4  2014-04-24 by Sentinel_Event

I was listening to an old Stern show replay from '93, and he was interviewing Dice. Kenny sat in for the interview, sounding like a lovable oaf and dropping his signature bad jokes. Howard asked him if this was his only job, to which he replied affirmatively, but wasn't he still a cop then? I know he was in hot water when the NYPD discovered that how dirty his act was, but it all worked out I guess.

Also, when & why did he stop being Dice's body man and start working for the boys. Was that all Jimmy's doing through his Dice connection?

18 comments

Kenny has mentioned not being a cop since the last 80s early 90s and has done the bodyguard thing since.

I don't think that's accurate since this article (to which I'll post the link and not the text -I'm looking at you r/majestik6) is from 2006 and his case was current.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/14/nyregion/14comic.html

I think he met Jimmy through Dice in 98-99 when Jimmy started opening for Dice. And i'd imagine Kenny was around the show whenever Dice started appearing

I knew that Jimmy and Kenny had been introduced to the show through Dice, but did he start working for them b/c Dice's touring dried up in the late 90s? Or was he doing both after he retired from the NYPD?

hm not quite sure about that.

I believe he was in internal affairs his last few years as a cop rather than being a uniform cop.

It would be amazing to hear him read lines from Bad Lieutenant. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103759/quotes

XM hired 'Master Po' to do security for the show in 2004. That continued for a while, but eventually they just started using Po as the butt of jokes, similar to what happened to Martini Steve. At some point, Po was off the show, and Kenny replaced him. There was an article in the daily news that indicated that Club Soda Kenny was suspended from his police officer gig for telling a racist joke on stage. IIRC, he was able to "retire" with his pension, sounds like he basically cut a deal with the police force and moved on to other things (like O&A.)

here's the article:

"Stand-up gig could cost West Orange cop his job Thursday, February 09, 2006 BY JONATHAN CASIANO Star-Ledger Staff

Around West Orange, John Feder is known as a no-nonsense police sergeant, a 22-year veteran with an $88,000 salary and a plum assignment in the department's internal affairs division.

But on the local comedy circuit, the towering cop goes by another name -- "Club Soda Kenny," a crass stand-up comic whose routine pokes fun at such taboo topics as rape, pedophilia and bestiality. The act has landed Club Soda Kenny on the popular "Opie & Anthony" radio program and gotten him gigs at top New York comedy clubs.

For years, Sgt. Feder and Club Soda Kenny have co-existed peacefully. But this week, the two personas collided when several West Orange officials were anonymously mailed a CD of Feder's act, an eight-minute, profanity-laced tirade performed at a December comedy show in Manhattan and later posted online. Feder does not wear his uniform or identify himself as a police officer in the act.

The routine, in which Club Soda Kenny jokes about raping a bride at knifepoint and molesting his own 5-year-old son, has, at least temporarily, cost Feder his gun, badge and paycheck.

He was suspended without pay Monday pending an investigation into his act, West Orange officials said. Though no administrative charges have been filed, the 48-year-old Feder could be charged with conduct unbecoming of an officer, an administrative offense that could strip Feder of his job and possibly even his pension, officials said.

Township officials would not comment on the investigation because it is an internal personnel matter. However, they said that if Feder was paid for his performance, it would be a violation of the department's policy that prohibits officers from moonlighting without departmental approval.

"Without question, he has no authorization under policy to do this as employment," Police Chief James Abbott said. "We would never allow anybody to make racial jokes or anything like that."

When visited at his home in Springfield yesterday, Feder declined to comment.

The suspension places West Orange squarely inside a legal gray area, pitting First Amendment advocates against defenders of decency.

Mayor John McKeon said the town has "zero tolerance for any law enforcement officer or other township employee that isn't racially sensitive or isn't sensitive to victims of criminal activity."

But Frank Askin, director of the Constitutional Litigation Clinic at Rutgers Law School in Newark, said the U.S. Constitution should protect Feder from repercussions at work, no matter how outlandish his routine.

"If he's off-duty, the First Amendment protects him and they can't punish him by taking his job away for exercising his right to free speech," Askin said.

The courts have upheld that view in the past.

In 1985, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Baltimore Police Department could not punish an officer for performing a blackface routine while off-duty, even though the performance sparked outrage and demonstrations throughout the city.

However, Alana Goebel, assistant director of the New Jersey Coalition Against Sexual Assault, said police departments should not tolerate officers who joke about rape, regardless of their right to speak freely.

"The coalition thinks it was absolutely an appropriate decision by this officer's superiors," Goebel said. "Rape isn't a joke."

Local comics and booking agents said Feder entered the comedy world almost 20 years ago when he befriended up-and-coming shock comic Andrew "Dice" Clay at Rascal's Comedy Club, which has since moved from West Orange to Montclair.

Clay offered Feder a job on his security team and would often incorporate him into his act. When Clay hit his peak in the late 1980s, Feder took a leave of absence from the police department to tour with him, said Tony Camacho, a New York agent who used to book Clay for Rascal's.

"That's where he got the name Club Soda Kenny, from Dice saying, 'Get me a club soda, Kenny,'" Camacho said. "He was like a sounding board for Dice while he was on stage."

When Clay stopped touring, Feder returned to the police force, but his stage name still carried weight on the comedy circuit.

"He has a certain reputation as a funny, tough-guy character -- you know, the whole Dice entourage kind of thing," said Ed Cavanagh, the entertainment director at Rascal's.

That reputation has landed Club Soda Kenny regular features on "Opie and Anthony," a program on XM satellite radio known for its low-ball humor and adolescent pranks. He's also appeared in the hidden-camera DVD "Meet the Creeps."

The CD sent to West Orange officials was from a Dec. 8 performance at the Laugh Factory comedy club in Times Square. For eight minutes, Club Soda Kenny rants about everything from pistol-whipping his wife to having sex with his dog.

The segment later was posted online with a picture of Feder and a brief description of his act. Both have since been taken off www.cringehumor.net, though the site still offers an "Opie and Anthony" segment featuring audio and photos of Feder.

Bob Levy, a South Jersey comic who performed with Feder about a year ago at Caroline's Comedy Club in Manhattan, said Club Soda Kenny is more of a cult character than an aspiring comic.

He admitted Feder's act was "pushing it a little," but said comedy routines do not always reflect a person's true feelings.

"If it doesn't affect your day job, what does it mean? It doesn't mean anything. It's like telling someone who's a cop you can't go out and sing karaoke.""

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Levy was doing a gig outside the Star-Ledger's office on the street corner so they decided to ask him his opinion on the situation.

a plum assignment in the department's internal affairs division.

Fuckin rat. Comes from a whole family of rats.

Nice catch. I didn't notice that. So Kenny was working in IA, and the videotape of his comedy was likely 'payback' from someone he'd investigated.

Kenny was a bodyguard/assistant/road manager for dice

Not sure when he started working for O&A. I'm pretty sure he did what he did for Dice, for Jimmy for a while

As has been stated. I'm trying to understand not only when, but why he jumped ship soto speak from Dice's right hand along with Happy Face, to working with Jimmy and O&A.

Probably because Dice has been irrelevant for a long time

This was my guess. When Dicemania began to wind down in the late 90s/early 2000s there probably wasn't any need to guard dice's body or any road to manage.

Dont know exact reasons but a little back story. Kenny use to listen to O&A early on (1999-2000) and I believe is why Dice even started doing the show because Kenny told Dice (who was living in LA) about Ant's impression which he use to do a lot/whole bits with, Dice would call in randomly from LA because Kenny would tell him if they were talking about him.

Then of course Kenny would come in if Dice did and then the whole process of Jimmy becoming 3rd mic etc. just makes a lot of connections for Kenny to be a go to guy for the job, As for why he left Dice I have no clue.

Didn't Dice go back and forth b/t Stern and O&A when it was best for him? I seem to remember when one show wouldn't have him or it was more heat for his shows he would go on and bash the other since they were "enemies". I know there's that one clip from years back where Opie calls him out.

EDIT: Here's the clip > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCwSUV567Ns FOUNDRY YESSS!