'Club Soda Kenny' gets sergent suspended..

[Steff]

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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