http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/14/nyregion/14comic.html?_r=0

Sergeant's Raunchy Comedy Puts Police Career at Risk

For more than a decade, Sgt. John Feder managed to keep the depravity in his life neatly compartmentalized.

Norman Y. Lono for The New York Times

Sgt. John Feder faces a departmental hearing on Feb. 23 over his comedy act.

By day, he chased miscreant police officers, working as an internal affairs investigator for the Police Department in West Orange, N.J. At night, he assumed the stage name Club Soda Kenny and delivered a raunchy comedy act. He has appeared on the Opie & Anthony radio program and even with the bard of bathroom humor, Andrew Dice Clay.

But late last month, when a CD of Sergeant Feder's act was mailed to police officials and members of the City Council, the laughter stopped. They suspended him last week and filed departmental charges that could cost him his $88,000-a-year job and his pension.

Police supervisors said they had no idea that Sergeant Feder, who has a decorated 22-year career on the force, spent nights in front of audiences joking about bestiality and bladder control.

"He's been a hard-working, productive detective for a long, long time," said Police Chief James P. Abbott. "But we have a code of conduct for a reason. If the public loses confidence in us, we won't be able to do our jobs effectively. That's why police officers are held to a higher standard."

To Sergeant Feder and his supporters, the case is not about police regulations but about free speech. Paul Bergrin, his lawyer, said that since Sergeant Feder's act had never made any reference to his day job, people in the community who might not appreciate scatological humor and odes to sexual deviance would have no reason to associate his act with the Police Department.

"This is a man who risks his life every day to protect the public and uphold the Constitution," said Mr. Bergrin, who will defend Sergeant Feder at his departmental hearing on Feb. 23. "It's sad that the Police Department is trying to deprive him of his constitutional right of self-expression just because they're worried about getting political pressure."

Sergeant Feder got his start in comedy by working as a bodyguard for Mr. Clay, the comedian who became wildly successful by making brash sexual references, including many that gay activists considered homophobic, and with unsparing diatribes about the physiques of female audience members.

Mr. Clay would often invite Sergeant Feder onstage to deliver a few jokes. His countless requests to "get me a club soda, Kenny," led to Sergeant Feder's stage name. The sergeant took a brief leave of absence more than a decade ago to join Mr. Clay's national tour and, after returning to the force, began making occasional appearances at local comedy clubs and more recently on the XM Satellite Radio program "Opie & Anthony."

Mr. Bergrin said that Sergeant Feder had never received complaints from any comedy club patrons. He said he suspected that the CD was sent to police officials as an act of retaliation by a rogue police officer Sergeant Feder had investigated. "It's hard to imagine who else might do such a thing," he said.

Police officials say they are still not sure who sent the CD. But once they heard Sergeant Feder onstage delivering punch lines about raping a bride at knifepoint, having sex with his dog and sexually molesting his own 5-year-old son, they opened an investigation that led to several departmental charges, they said. The department alleges that he used a police computer to write one of the controversial monologues. It has also charged that he violated the regulation requiring officers to notify their superiors about moonlighting.

But Mr. Bergrin said that Sergeant Feder's performances did not qualify as moonlighting because he was not paid for them and, even if he had been, police supervisors were notified about his work onstage.

As for the primary charge — that Sergeant Feder violated the department's moral turpitude clause — his supporters say that obscenity is in the eye of the beholder. The West Orange Police Department's uniform standards of conduct prohibit any "deeds, signs or actions that violate public morals or the common sense of the community."

But Jamie Masada, who owns the Manhattan comedy club where Sergeant Feder gave the performance that landed him in trouble, said that the public was clearly sophisticated enough to recognize when comedians are trying to wield offensiveness as an art form.

"Howard Stern has made $500 million talking about sex with midgets," said Mr. Masada, who founded the Laugh Factory comedy club. "So people obviously find it to be entertaining. That's what entertainers do — talk about things that the public finds funny."

But Chief Abbott's opinion on the matter is likely to offend even Sergeant Feder. He thinks his sergeant's routine is outdated rather than amusing.

"Back in the '80s, when Andrew Dice Clay and all these shock comics were coming up, it was funny because it was shocking," he said. "You couldn't believe they were actually saying all these things. But now they've said it all already, so it's not shocking or funny. And no one wants to hear it from a police officer."

From the very little I know this had to do with when Kenny was a cop. He was fired for "being a stand up", but I'd guess that had more to do with his content than anything. You can't be a man of the law and peace then do any kind of racial humor or use your stories/thing you've seen on stage.

I think I remember someone saying it was a big deal. Kenny thought he was going to lose his pension and benefits and stuff. Luckily the loveable big oaf made it out ok, got pentioned off, gets his benefits and collects some "pocket money"from the boys for being security and being Jims, I guess you'd call it, road manager (not trying to be disrespectful).

He was also the road manager for Dice for years, before he worked for O&A.

Ironically, he also worked for Dice's biggest rival, Sam Kinison.

Some good Kenny stories in the Dice biography.

He's on the profanity episode of Penn&Teller's Bullshit. They recap his story there

I just don't understand the hours he worked. I mean, he was with Dice, then Norton, then O&A, all while being IA for the NYPD? Did the guy ever sleep?

Love the Kenny. His news/weather segments were always the best.

Interestingly, his lawyer mentioned in that article is one of the most corrupt in NJ history...currently serving 6 life sentences.