Jim Gaffigan on Joking for Pope Francis

Comedian and Indiana native Jim Gaffigan has been mining his evolving Catholic faith for humor in the current season of The Jim Gaffigan Show on TV Land. But the jokes could get very real this weekend when he performs at the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia—for an audience that is expected to include Pope Francis on his first visit to the United States. “I think I might be opening for the popemobile driving in,” Gaffigan quipped in an interview with Terry Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air.

“My faith is very personal,” he continued. “It’s not something that I want to project on other people, but some of my fear and anxiety surrounding it, I think, provides some good comedy for my act.”