BETHLEHEM, Pa. — It's been more than 15 years since Bethlehem native Doogie Horner made it to the semifinals of NBC-TV’s “America’s Got Talent” as a stand-up comic.
And these days, Horner is having much more success as an author and illustrator.
He's had several successful books and now is working on the fourth title in his series of young-reader graphic novels "The Adventures of Invisible Boy."
But Horner's stand-up career still is lively enough that this year he released his third comedy album, "The Bees Knees," recorded at Underground Arts in Philadelphia.
General admission seated tickets, at $25.07 each, are available at the Godfrey Daniels website.Godfrey Daniels
And at 7 p.m. Saturday, Horner will perform at the fourth annual Winter WonderJam show presented by the "Your Next Favorite Band" podcast at Godfrey Daniels, 7 E. Fourth St., Bethlehem.
General admission seated tickets, at $25.07 each, are available at the Godfrey Daniels website.
"It varies, but I still perform pretty regularly," Horner said in a call from his home in western New York. "But I've always wanted to draw comic books."
Success with books
Horner, who graduated from Northampton Area High School as Eric Horner, was working as an author and graphic designer for a Philadelphia publishing company when he auditioned for "America's Got Talent" in 2010.
With his dry, quirky comedy routine and bookish, businessman appearance — thick, horn-rimmed glasses, bushy beard and suit — Horner won over a jeering, hostile New York crowd on his first appearance on the show.
The episode became an Internet sensation, and Horner later won over the skeptical celebrity judges. Even after viewers voted him off the show, he was brought back as a “wild card” before finally being voted off again.
That success prompted Horner to move to New York, quit his job at a Philadelphia publishing company and become a full-time stand-up comic.
By 2015, he recorded his first comedy album, "A Delicate Man," at Helium Comedy Club in Philadelphia.
But even after moving to New York, Horner continued to work as a freelance book designer, illustrator and author.
He illustrated a series for Quirk Books, with titles such as “Kid Presidents,” “Kid Athletes” and “Kid Artists.”
Then he released a book he wrote and illustrated, “Some Very Interesting Cats Perhaps You Weren’t Aware Of,” that whimsically imagined secret cat lives.
He followed that with "Everything Explained Through Flowcharts"; "100 Ghosts," a book of drawings of ghosts in comedic situations; "A Die Hard Christmas" — a comic-book take on his love for the movie "Die Hard" — and other books.
In 2019, he released a young adult novel, "This Might Hurt a Bit," that was full of references "to Bethlehem and the areas around there," he said.
Continuing literary work
When the coronavirus pandemic set in, Horner said, he and his family — by then he had a son — moved to the Berkshire mountains for a year or so, "with the intent of moving back."
"But once we got out of New York City, it was, like, ‘Oh, it’s kind of nice,’" he said.
"I don’t know if you’ve ever lived in New York, but it casts this weird spell on you where you’re like, ‘Oh, how could you ever live anywhere else?’ But then when you leave, you’re like, ‘Wait, what was I thinking?’"
He said his wife got offered a job teaching animation at a college in western New York right when they were about to move back.
"And so we moved to western New York,” he said.
He continues his literary work, especially the "The Adventures of Invisible Boy" series.
The first book in the series, in which a kid at school is rendered invisible by a school science experiment, won Best Graphic Novel of 2024.
He followed it with "The Adventures of Invisible Boy: Zeroes to Heroes,” and a third, “The Adventures of Invisible Boy: Monster Mash,” is scheduled for release Aug. 4, 2026.
“I just started writing Book 4, and that will be out in about a year after that,” he said.
New comedy albums, new approach
But amid that literary career, Horner has continued as a comedian.
He released a second album, "Dad Max," in 2022, and a third, "The Bees Knees," in the past year.
He said he gets back to the Lehigh Valley "about twice a year" — he performed at Musikfest last year — and usually around the holidays.
"I’m, like, ‘Well, here’s a nice time to come back, see family and friends and stuff.’"Comedian Doogie Horner, about returning to the Lehigh Valley
"Because I’m, like, ‘Well, here’s a nice time to come back, see family and friends and stuff,’" he said.
His older son is 9 and he now also has a younger son who is 3.
Horner said that has had an effect on his comedy.
In addition to evolving from the conceptual, one-liner-heavy style he showed on “America’s Got Talent” to being “more conversational, where I act more like myself on stage,” he said he thinks about the age of his listeners.
He sometimes talks about his sons in his routine.
Horner said that after appearing on "America's Got Talent," "it was crazy. I got recognized everywhere I went. And that was cool, but I think the key to this is having low expectations.”
That may be an explanation of how Horner will be part of the show at Godfrey Daniels.
“He just wrote to me and asked whether I’d do it," Horner said of "Your Next Favorite Band" podcaster Phillip Reese. "I am not hard to get."
