Hacksaw now does comedy

By Cathy DeDe, Chronicle Managing Editor

Something new for Hacksaw Jim Duggan: The WWE pro wrestling Hall-of-Famer and Glens Falls High School football great is now touring with a one-man stand-up comedy show.

On February 2, Hacksaw — still “Moose” Duggan to locals who grew up with him in the 1960s and ’70s — opens his latest tour of the Northeast with a hometown show at Sweet Basil Comedy Club on Route 9 in Queensbury.

It’s called the “2×4 Tour,” a nod to Hacksaw’s signature weapon in the ring.

“It’s not comedy like a lot of jokes,” the wrestler told The Chronicle in a phone interview from his rural home in South Carolina — where he says he and his wife raise ducks, chickens, dogs and cats and their two teenaged daughters.

“It’s just this kind of one-man show, behind the scenes,” Hacksaw says. “(Fellow wrestler) Mick Foley started it, and quite a few guys have done them.”

He says, “I tell a lot of road stories, with a few jokes sprinkled in there, ribs that wrestlers played on each other, Andre the Giant stories. There’s a Q&A afterwards, and we’ll take pictures. I try to keep it family-friendly. I try to put a positive spin on it.”

He traveled quite a bit with Jake “the Snake” Roberts, who carried a 16-foot python named Damien in the ring.

“I was pretty used to traveling with that snake in the back seat. Damien was always trying to get out of the bag. He lived in a duffle bag most of the time when we were on the road. So, we’re in this rental car with the snake and suddenly he’s out of the bag, I’m looking at this giant snake in the back seat. We hit the brakes and slam into this Cracker Barrel restaurant parking lot, you know, with the white rocking chairs in front. Jake and I jump out, two big guys, and we pull out this 110-pound python from the back seat, stuff him back in the bag and drive off.

“I bet those people on the rocking chairs are still saying, ‘You won’t believe this thing we saw.’”

He says, “I have 30 years in wrestling. I never had to go to rehab, no felony convictions.” Pause. “A couple of misdemeanor arrests, but, hey, it was the 80s.”

He says, “There are only a few of us old timers left from the wrestling golden age. It’s a fun, unique night out.”

“No matter what platform, a lot of folks seem to be very intrigued by our business,” Hacksaw says. He says he toured around the U.S. and into Edinburgh and Scotland with the show last year, with good results.

“They love wrestling in Europe. I’ll be there doing a charity golf tournament or something: In Barcelona, nobody knows Peyton Manning, but they see me and yell, ‘Hoooo!’” — his signature call.

“Its nice to have the people from my hometown come out. It’s nice to be remembered this many years after my heyday. It’s humbling,” Hacksaw says. “I’ll have a big guy come up at a show and tell me, ‘Me and my dad used to watch you,’ and then he tears up right there.’”

Tix for Hacksaw’s Tuesday, Feb. 2, show at Sweet Basil’s: $20 advance, $25 at the door. Info: www.hacksawshow.com.

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