Don’t ask this blue comic (Josh Blue) for a magic trick

Josh Blue was fine with placing third in last summer’s “America’s Got Talent” until he learned that a magician won the NBC reality-TV show contest.

“It was really cool having the exposure, being on national television, but I was so upset that I lost to a magician,” Blue said while calling from Boise. “Magic sucks. It’s not real! Being a magician is two steps below being a mime in my book.”

When Blue, 43, isn’t poking fun at prestidigitators, he is mocking himself. The self-deprecating comic has not let his disability, cerebral palsy, get in the way of his comedy career or his life.

Blue, who will perform Friday and Saturday at Spokane Comedy Club, used his disability as a defense mechanism while he was growing up in St. Paul, Minnesota. Blue ran with what he knew as a comic 20 years ago and became a national figure after appearing on another performance reality-TV show, “Last Comic Standing,” in 2006, which he won.

“I enjoyed being on ‘Last Comic Standing,’” Blue said. “The cool thing was that I was competing against comedians, not magicians.” When Blue returns to Spokane Comedy Club, he’ll joke about the pandemic and what it’s like being the single father of a son, Simon, 13, and a daughter, Seika, 11.

“I have some good kids,” Blue said. “My son did tick me off by trying to do a magic trick recently, but I said, ‘Not in my house!’ They know what’s not allowed in my house. A lot of stuff that I talk about is taken directly from my life, so it’s unique. I’m a comic, and I’m proud of it since it really is more difficult than being a magician.”

Blue has a point. Comedy is often inexplicably regarded as the lowest rung of entertainment even though material is oftentimes made up out of the ether. “It’s definitely risky being a comic,” Blue said. “You lay it all out there. But I love it. I can’t imagine doing anything else, and I love coming to Spokane.”

Blue, who resides in Denver, is taken by the beauty of the city. “Spokane is very pretty, well except by the club,” Blue said. “It’s pretty rundown in that area, but I like it because there are so many homeless people there and look at me – I fit right in.”

The athletic Blue is a role model for the handicapped. Blue’s success as a comic and member of the U.S. soccer team at the 2004 Paralympics for athletes with disabilities in Athens, is inspiring.

However, Blue can’t help but rip himself and the squad. “We were so bad that we didn’t have to worry about getting tested for performance-enhancing drugs,” Blue cracked. The personal digs are part of Blue’s charm. “I’m a comedian,” Blue said. “Sometimes, you make fun of yourself. It’s part of what I do.”