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For many people, their introduction to Jen Fulwiler came when her comedy special appeared on Amazon Prime during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
About ten minutes into Jen Fulwiler: The Naughty Corner, she touches on her conversion to Catholicism.
“I was a lifelong atheist before I became Catholic,” Fulwiler says in her routine, “and when people hear that I chose to join the Roman Catholic Church, they’re like ‘Eh, why?’ … Not just the Catholics!”
Speaking to Crux Now, Fulwiler said she didn’t intend to focus on her faith, but it is what people want.
“I don’t say anything that I think crosses lines,” she said, “I’m just adding a little lightness to Catholic culture and the quirky things about it.”
In many ways, she is the poster child of a Catholic convert woman – married with six kids, often doing work for Catholic institutions, even with her own show on the Catholic Channel at Sirius XM and now her independent podcast, The Jen Fulwiler Show.
“I shared all these deep thoughts and things that I thought were deeply philosophical, but what I heard over and over again was that people only listened to my show because it was funny,” Fulwiler said.
Comedian Jen Fulwiler. (Credit: Fulwiler family.)
“They were kind of glossing over these profound points I was trying to make. That just kind of got me thinking about how I could give people more of that, [since] they seem to like that,” she explained.
However, her comedy career wasn’t why she was speaking to Crux Now.
Last year, her 19-year-old daughter, Lane, who is a sophomore at Texas A&M University, was diagnosed with medulloblastoma, a form of brain cancer. Lane is currently receiving treatment at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
“As is typical with situations like this, the family has been through an entire range of emotions,” Fulwiler told Crux Now.
“Right now, we are still in active treatment. She is being treated at Saint Jude in Memphis, Tennessee, so I’m living in between two cities, and my mother is also living in between two cities. I’m away from home a lot,” she said.
“I’m missing a lot of things with our other kids, and everyone is just taking it one day at a time. We are all very grateful for our faith. All of us have been leaning on our faith very intensely at this time, and we’re just so grateful to be Catholic,” the mother added.
Fulwiler said she knows that when people hear something like what her family is going through, they think, “Oh my gosh! What if this ever happened to us?”
“It’s such a terrifying thought. I know I used to think that when I would hear of bad things happening to people’s kids,” she said.
“I will just say another thing that is such a cliché, but I have found to be so true: God gives Grace for the situation, not the imagination,” she explained.
Jen Fulwiler and her daughter Lane. (Credit: Fulwiler family.)
“Someone told me that a long time ago. It means when we imagine our worst fears playing out, we always imagine only the bad things, and we forget to imagine all the ways that God is going to show up and remind us that he is there. That is what we have seen as our own worst-case scenario plays out,” she continued.
It can make someone look back at her standup special on Amazon Prime six years ago, where she spoke about the last message she received from her father before he died.
“He was in the ER when he was texting me,” she said on Jen Fulwiler: The Naughty Corner, adding she didn’t know that at the time. His last text read: “Knock them dead.”
“He didn’t want to worry me, so he didn’t tell me that he was in the hospital. Based on what I know now, I think he might have known that the situation was very grave. And I think the irony of that phrase, knock them dead, might have been intentional,” Fulwiler told the audience.
“But my father’s legacy to me is the ability to find humor in any situation, even if it’s a little dark,” she continued. “And that is the gift I want to leave you tonight.”
(You can read more details about Fulwiler’s daughter’s battle
with brain cancer at the family GoFundMe here.)
What follows is Fuwiler’s interview with Crux Now, edited for length and clarity. She began by telling Crux Now how she went from doing radio broadcasting to stand-up comedy.
Fulwiler: I shared all these deep thoughts and things that I thought were deeply philosophical, but what I heard over and over again was that people only listened to my show because it was funny. They were kind of glossing over these profound points I was trying to make. That just kind of got me thinking about how could I give people more of that, [since] they seem to like that.
It was actually just a moment that I believe was inspired by God – that I just one day just sort of out of the blue – I felt like this it was the right path for me to do stand up, and it was like a switch flipped on one day, and I never looked back.
Can you tell me a little bit about when you became Catholic?
My husband and I both became Catholic in 2007. Neither one of us were Catholic before: He was a non-practicing Baptist and I was an atheist. We had a totally non-religious wedding, and so we didn’t know or hear anything about Catholicism.
I started reading a bunch of books after our first child was born. I had a sense that something spiritual was probably out there. I did a whole bunch of research into religion, and I read a bunch of books, and it became pretty clear to me that Jesus is who He says He is and that he founded a Church, and this is the one. That was it for me.
My husband had a lot of different preconceptions about Catholicism, since he came from a Baptist background; so together, we had the sum total of possible objections against Catholicism. He had all the Protestant objections, and I had all the atheist objections. But they were all resolved one by one once we started looking into it. We had two kids at the time, and we converted in 2007.
I know that when people do convert, they can get very “spiritual” about it. You don’t seem that way in your comedy. You can make a joke of it. How come you are not “overly pious?” How did you find the humor in our religion?
Well, I think for the first few years, I was self-consciously pious because it didn’t come naturally to me. This wasn’t something I was raised with, so I do think I kind of overcorrected the other direction in the first five or six years because I was just getting my footing.
I do think that working in the Church – I did quite a bit of work in Catholic media and I was a Catholic speaker – you know I kind of saw where the bodies were buried, so to speak, and there was a phase where I was tempted to get very cynical because I had seen the imperfect parts of some of the behind the scenes of certainly Catholic media, the Catholic arts, things like that, and humor was the way I processed it.
But it’s always important for me to note I still consider myself a devout, serious Catholic. I’m always careful in my comedy. I don’t say anything that I think crosses lines, but what I do in my comedy is: I’m just adding a little lightness to Catholic culture and the quirky things about it.
Turning to a more serious issue: Your daughter has a serious brain tumor. First of all, how has the family been dealing with this?
One day at a time. I know that’s a cliché, but that is all you can do in a situation like this.
My 19-year-old daughter was a sophomore at Texas A&M University, doing great, thriving. Just a couple of months into her sophomore year, she was diagnosed with a brain tumor that turned out to be medulloblastoma brain cancer. It’s a very serious diagnosis, and it’s a tough battle.
As is typical with situations like this, the family has been through an entire range of emotions. Right now, we are still in active treatment. She is being treated at Saint Jude in Memphis, Tennessee, so I’m living in between two cities, and my mother is also living in between two cities. I’m away from home a lot.
I’m missing a lot of things with our other kids, and everyone is just taking it one day at a time. We are all very grateful for our faith. All of us have been leaning on our faith very intensely at this time, and we’re just so grateful to be Catholic.
I know you can’t speak for your daughter, but she is at that age where people often ask about religion. How is she taking all of this?
I know what she thinks about it, because I actually did a live chat on my Patreon and I interviewed her with my fans.
They asked her that question, and what she said was that being Catholic helped give her the perspective to process this. It helped her consider other people who are su
