John Valby, also known as Dr. Dirty, is song parody’s id. Armed only with a keyboard and a gruff barroom croak, Valby riles throngs of inebriated college students, weaving together gross-out humor, songs insulting every race, gender, orientation, age, sports team and profession, and ditties so sexually frank, he rarely gets through a line or verse without breaking up. (Your kids probably know a few Valby tunes, if they’ve ever hung out on a school playground, unsupervised.)
The holidays are a special time for Valby, 71, who released his Christmas album “Herniated Jingle Balls” back in 2001. Valby returns to Toad’s Place in New Haven on Saturday, Dec. 26, for his annual XXX-Mas Show, a tradition that stretches back nearly a quarter century.
Q: Early on did you have a sense you’d be doing Dr. Dirty for 40 years?
A: I’m not sure I really planned anything. I always knew that I would work until the day I died. I knew that much. My father told me that. He said, “Retirement is an illusion.” At one point I thought I’d be doing the blues, or doing real music instead of comedy. I sort of backed into comedy, but it worked out.
Q: At first, you threw some comedy songs into your act, and the next night, people kept hounding you to hear them.
A: That’s a true story. I always say that I became a mirror. What the crowd responded to, I kept, and what they didn’t, I dropped. I would try clean stuff, but they’d be yelling “Barnacle Bill!” After all, I’m there to entertain them. It’s not to express my soul, or any of that stuff.
Q: Over the years, you’ve probably witnessed what people will or won’t laugh at, what’s off-limits and what falls within boundaries, and so on. How have comedic tastes changed?
A: When I first started, I was not allowed to say “f**k.” When it was Nixon’s time, I picked on the president, and some people got just irate that I would pick on the president of the United States. Of course, that disappeared. People have become way desensitized to dirty stuff, because it’s all over TV. Most ads have a sexual component to it. Colleges and universities got a little politically correct. I would play them one time and the administration would be horrified. The kids, of course, loved it. When they changed the drinking age to 21, that changed a lot for me, because 18 to 21: Those people love dirty songs. They love to drink and party.
Q: Your act took a hit because of that?
A: Yes. I used to play at a lot of college pubs. They’d have a Rathskeller or something like that. But when the drinking age went to 21 that disappeared, because only the seniors could go. And also, when it became more politically correct, they didn’t want drunken idiots wandering around the campus.
Q: How many gigs do you play a year these days?
A: It’s down to 75 or something. I used to do 100, 110, but a lot of places are out of business that I used to go to. I’m older, so I’m not pushing as hard as I used to. I’m still doing it, though. I gotta.
Q: You must be finding a lot of inspiration these days, with the upcoming election cycle.
A: Trump has such a great name. The rhyming with “Trump” is wonderful. If he wins, it would be awesome. And he’s such a freaking idiot. He’s always saying something stupid. You’ve got your Jared from Subway. Who’s the idiot with AIDS who’s walking around saying he’s winning, Charlie Sheen? And then there’s “Call Me Caitlyn.” There’s a lot of fertile territory these days.
Q: When you’re looking for musical material, do you stick with the classics? Do you listen to popular music?
A: I listen to some of it, but there aren’t a lot of memorable songs that move fast enough for parody to work. You can’t do something really slow. “The long and winding road…” I mean, that’s just too slow. We tried stuff to that, but it just moved to slow. These days, there’s not a lot of melody out there. I basically go with songs that people know. That’s why the Christmas stuff is so good: People know the original words to it, so they get the play on words.
Q: What will be your lasting contributions to pop culture?
A: I have no freaking idea. Maybe “Eat Bite.” I have, like, 50-60 versions of that. “End of the Month,” that’s my sister’s favorite. She just loves that one. You never know. I always think of Tchaikovsky, one of the greatest composers of all time: he hated “The Nutcracker Suite,” and that’s the only thing of his that we ever play anymore. It’ll last forever, but he hated it. You’re not a good judge of your own sh*t.
Q: Tell me about the typical Dr. Dirty fan.
A: There’s a bunch of regulars who come out whenever I visit a certain part of the country. I have some who follow me around to almost every job, which is really strange. I’ve found over the years that police office, or emergency-room nurses and doctors, people that work with the nitty-gritty of life: They love dirty comedy. They need a release from all the sh*t that they see in their job. There are a lot of horny people, people who like to party, who want to go have a few beers, sing a dirty song, hoot and holler and blow off steam. I like my fans. There are a lot of neat people that I’ve met over the years. A lot of sports fans, because I pick on sports — whatever team is local, I definitely pick on them. I’ll definitely be picking on the Giants and, oh my god, the Patriots: “Take me out to the other inflated ball game, take me out to Gillette…” I can’t wait.
JOHN VALBY’S XXX-MAS SHOW is Toad’s Place in New Haven on Saturday, Dec. 26, at 10 p.m. Tickets are $15. Information: toadsplace.com.
