Tommy Hilcken might still be a truck driver if a friend had not invited him to visit his magic shop.
“He blew me away with a magic trick. I showed that $5 trick to half the world and never stopped. One day my friend said, ‘You really should do a show.’”
That was 20 years ago. Now Tommy is a “corporate comic” and “life success consultant,” giving humorous motivational pitches. He’s been to Japan three times, and performed for families of the New York Yankees.
“Things I never dreamed of fell into place. It’s what I was meant to do,” Tommy, 50, said at a recent networking event at Morristown’s Investors Savings Bank.
“Don’t get me wrong,” the Ogdensburg resident hastened to add. “Driving a truck was great. But when you’re in the Garment District all day long, you go home miserable.”
Success didn’t come overnight for Tommy, who had three young children when he decided to pursue comedy. His family’s reaction provided grist for his comic mill:
For a decade Tommy kept driving trucks on weekdays, and doing comedy on weekends.
“It was a long, hard road,” he said. Still, he sensed he was on the right path when someone paid him $90 for a kid’s birthday party.
Tommy grew up in Guttenberg watching Bob Hope and Red Skelton on TV.
Later, he gravitated to Monty Python, Sam Kinison, Andrew Dice Clay, and his all-time favorite, Rodney Dangerfield. Despite those influences, Tommy works clean.
His tip for handling hecklers?
“You don’t.” Security usually takes care of them, he said.
And his advice for aspiring comics?
“Be funny!”
It’s a serious proposition.
“The skills of delivering comedy can be taught,” Tommy said. “But the bottom line is, if you don’t think you’re funny, you’re probably not.”
