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Stand-up comedian Bernie McGrenahan entertains Airmen, Soldiers and civilians during his “Happy Hour” comedy show April 14 at the Hercules Theater and April 15 at Vogelweh’s Galaxy Theater. McGrenahan tours military installations around the world sharing his own personal struggles with alcohol dependency to encourage service members and their families to drink responsibly.
It was time for happy hour at the Hercules Theater, but no one was serving drinks. Disguised as a stand-up comedy routine, this happy hour turned into a training session on avoiding at-risk drinking, sexual assault, drugs and suicide.
Comedian Bernie McGrenahan visited Ramstein April 14 to talk to service members about his own life experiences with sexual situations, alcohol, drugs and suicide, passing his very serious message through comedy.
The U.S. Army Garrison Rheinland-Pfalz Army Substance Abuse Program invited McGrenahan to visit the KMC, which included shows for the Sembach and Baumholder Army communities. McGrenahan tackled relationships, the military, cars, his height, toilet paper and his experiences with his disabled brother before telling his own tale of the hardship alcohol and drugs have had on his life.
He said he started drinking as a teenager, telling the tale of how he and his friends would “only drink on the weekends” and “one night a week.” His “one night a week” of drinking quickly became two, then three nights, plus weekends.
McGrenahan said this downward spiral due to alcohol continued through much of his young life. After two DUIs, being fired from his job, being kicked out of school and being forced to move back home with his mother, he was still not convinced he had a drinking problem.
He did, however, notice that alcohol and drugs were starting to take a toll on his brother Scott.
He said Scott was stealing money, started acting moody and depressed, and skipped work. When he confronted his brother, Scott claimed to have things under control. An hour later McGrenahan was on his way home when he noticed police cruisers and an ambulance outside his house. His sister came running out of the house hysterical telling him not to go in the house. Scott had shot himself in the heart.
“When my brother took his life that day, that young, handsome man didn’t think before he pulled the trigger that standing behind him was his mother and his father, his brother, his sister, his other brother, his uncles, his grandparents, and all his cousins, and 40 of us took that bullet with him,” he said. “It went through every one of us and traveled in our heart and out our back. We live with that hole in our soul the rest of our lives.”
Even this traumatic event wasn’t enough to show McGrenahan that he had a problem with alcohol though. It wasn’t until his third DUI charge and six months in the Los Angeles County Jail that he set himself straight.
While doing his time in county jail, he took a hard look at himself and knew he had to turn his life around. He made a vow to his mother and stayed true to that moment by not having a drop of alcohol in 22 years.
“I have a story to tell just like everyone else,” McGrenahan said. “It’s what you do with that story that makes a difference, and I hope my story can help you.”
McGrenahan will continue his “Happy Hour” tour throughout the military and continue to share his life altering decisions through comedy.
