Dale Black Died and I Maintained Some Modicum Of Decency and Respect

Dale as Santa with me, my wife and our then 2 month old baby

My friend Dale Black passed away a couple of weeks back. I was invited to speak at his wake and to read one of Dale's favorite poems alongside Mark S. Allen.
This experience taught me that I do indeed have a filter. Here are the two jokes I DID NOT perform tonight.

"I invited Dale to play Santa Clause at a Santa Roast I wanted to put on. Dale said "A roast? The comedians at a roast tend to be somewhat bawdy. Will they be working blue?"

"Of course!" I answered. "It's a roast."

Dale looked very uneasy. "Keith, I don't think thats the kind of thing Santa would want to be involved in."

And so we didn't get to roast my favorite Santa. I just saw that his ashes are in the lobby. Guess we got to roast him after all."

Insert groans here. And now, joke two:

Dale was my daughter's first Santa. We're an atheist family so there are many things my daughter will not be taught to believe in, but she will grow up believing in a very sweet man named Santa Clause.

Of course, thanks to Dale, she'll also believe that Santa Clause died when she was two.

Woah, rough crowd. It's like a funeral in here! Who died? Oh yeah, that's right. If it helps, I know Dale would've scowled at both of those jokes and then he would've facebooked me the next day to share some tags he thought of for them. He was a talented, warm, fun loving, sweet guy and I will miss him.