Qualifying for Rio is no laughing matter for Olympic boxer and comedian Cam F. Awesome

— -- A heavyweight boxer, a vegan and a standup comedian walk into a bar ...

No, wait. Technically, it isn't a bar, it is a comedy club. And it's located in a Reno casino where the U.S. Olympic men's boxing trials are being held this week in December. And the heavyweight boxer, the vegan and the comedian are not three different people. They are one person, and he is fighting for a spot on the U.S. Olympic team. Cam F. Awesome. And, yes, that is his name (though not his original).

And on each of the two nights leading up to his first bout at the U.S. trials, Awesome supplemented his training regimen by walking past the casino's gamblers and slot machines, entering the doors of the Laugh Factory, taking the stage and performing a standup routine.

That's right. A heavyweight boxer partially prepared for a grueling week of punching opponents for a potential spot on the U.S. team at the Rio Olympics (Aug. 5-21) by delivering punchlines at a comedy club. Not only that, he performed three times.

"I wouldn't do that in a bazillion years,'' said Andre Ward, 2004 U.S. gold medal-winning light heavyweight boxer. "But that's how he's wired. It may cause him to relax and get into his zone and do his thing. It's just amazing. When I heard he did that, it was just unbelievable. But he pulled it off.''

He did. Awesome received several standing ovations during his standup routines and also won the heavyweight division at the end of the U.S. trials. No joke.

"That's Cam, that's Cam,'' said Marlen Esparza, the 2012 Olympic bronze medalist in the women's flyweight. "People have a different way of dealing with stress. You can't freak out. That's his way of dealing with the pressure, of just being relaxed, not changing what he would normally do. That's how he deals with it.''

Awesome's coach, John Brown, trained Tommy Morrison and has met lot of movie stars but says Cam is the funniest person he's ever met. "Can you step on a stage in front of an audience and try to be a comedian? Oh my god, I'd rather face a firing squad,'' Brown said. "He's a very unique individual.''

There is no question about that. Awesome's views on life, culture and politics will leave you nodding in agreement, sometimes shaking your head in puzzlement, occasionally reconsidering your previous viewpoints, and most assuredly, laughing over and over.

"I thought I looked amazing. I thought I won the first round. And I was like, 'He's going to bring some more the second round.' Then the second round came and I was like, 'OK, I won that round as well. Cam, keep up the good the work? You truly looked amazing. Some people say you're the Taylor Swift of boxing. I'm not saying I'm the Taylor Swift of boxing but I'm not not saying I'm the Taylor Swift of boxing.'" -- Cam F. Awesome in a post-match interview at the 2015 Pan Am Games

How does someone wind up a heavyweight champion and a standup comic?

Awesome, 27, began doing standup in 2013 at a Kansas City club near his home because he enjoys making people laugh and because he just knew he had the ability. "The first time I did comedy, I was like, 'This is a piece of cake, I'm a natural, I'm amazing.' I look back at tapes now and I was just horrible,'' he said. "Now, I'm to the point where I won't post anything. Because if I see shows I did in 2013, when I thought I did good, I would be, 'Oh, my god, I don't want anybody to see that!' And in 2015 I would look back at the 2014 Cam and not be impressed. Now I'm like, 'I'm great! I should show everybody!' But I'm pretty sure if I look back next year I won't."

He says it's easier to bounce back in boxing than comedy, but his boxing achievements are impressive considering he was not a great athlete in high school on Long Island. Nor a good one. Nor even average. Awesome says he was cut from every team for which he tried out. He started boxing simply to lose weight. "I weighed about the same as I do now, but I was a lot shorter,'' the 6-foot-2 boxer said. "I used to wear baggy clothes and I would walk hunched so you couldn't really see [the fat].''

While explaining this, Awesome went on to say that if a person really wants to lose weight her or she should "go do missionary work or go volunteer in a Third World country where you have to live off the land for 90 days. You can live where those people are living and eat what they eat. And I bet you'll lose weight. It's basically a fat camp but you're helping people.''

Yes, Awesome has some very interesting views. Take a look at these recent tweets:

Oh, and as previously mentioned, Awesome is not his original name. (Nor was it Taylor Swift.) His parents named him Lenroy Thompson at birth, and he kept that name until 2013 when he decided to change to Cam F. Awesome (you can guess what the F stands for). The name is on his passport -- and an unofficial license plate mounted on the front of his car -- but not on his credit card because, well, he says he doesn't have a credit card and doesn't think anyone really needs one.

"I decided I wanted to change my name because I was excited about boxing again and I wanted to be re-born,'' he said. "[It was] a great decision. What could be a better name? I can't think of one. I came up with it immediately. Awesome is a word I use a lot. I used it to put 'Awesome' on my boxing trunks. I used to say 'Awesome, man.' I think it's catchy.''

Sitting and listening to Awesome can be as catchy and entertaining as watching Louis C.K., Dave Chappelle or Sarah Silverman do standup. You can listen to him while playing Monopoly (which he loves) or eating in a restaurant -- preferably Chipotle because he loves that food chain so much he filmed a video about being a Chipotle-holic -- or perhaps relaxing in a hot tub. Seriously, in a hot tub. He and coach Brown will sometimes do that for hours late at night in a local fitness center. "It's kind of weird,'' Awesome said. "A lot of people are out drinking and partying and I'm in a hot tub with a 70-year-old dude.''

Awesome also loves to sing at karaoke bars when he is on the road - -which is most of the time -- where he will croon anything from Salt-N-Pepa's "Shoop'' to George Michael's "Careless Whisper.'' He says he just loves it, even though his voice may not be gold medal quality. "I don't like it when people who can actually sing show up at karaoke bars and then choose songs to show their vocal range. It's not an 'American Idol' tryout! I want drunk, obnoxious people singing songs they shouldn't be singing.''

Yes, he is interesting.

"Cam is a very outgoing person. You can't really go wrong with Cam,'' Esparza said. "You'll either love him or hate him, but 90 percent of the time you'll love him. People kind of see him as a funny guy, but they don't see him as very deep. But he actually has one of the biggest hearts of anyone I've ever met, definitely in the top five. He's a very good guy who will give you the shirt off his back.''

Esparza and Awesome did not get along at first -- Awesome says part of it was because he used to be too arrogant -- but they eventually became close friends. So close that when Esparza failed to make this year's U.S. Olympic team, Awesome was the one who comforted her the most by simply sitting alongside and crying with her.

The question is whether Esparza will have to console Awesome if he fails to reach Rio due to the complicated international qualification process and thus winds up crying rather than laughing. Because such a thing would make Rio the second Olympics missed by him -- and the reason behind the first miss was definitely not funny.

Despite winning his heavyweight class at the U.S. trials in December, Awesome still must qualify for the Rio Olympics at an international tournament, as do virtually all Olympic boxing hopefuls. Awesome came close by winning two bouts at a tournament at Buenos Aries in March, only to lose his final two fights. He now must win his weight class at the qualifiers in Azerbaijan, which begin June 14. And if he doesn't win there, he must win at a final qualifier at a to-be-determined location and time.

Neither tournament will be easy, but if Awesome doesn't win one, then he will miss out on the Olympics. For the second time.

Still going by the name Lenroy Thompson at the time, Awesome won the super heavyweight division at the 2012 U.S. Olympic trials only to receive a one-year suspension in March of 2012. He had failed to properly inform the United States Anti-Doping Agency of his whereabouts for out-of-competition drug testing on three occasions in an 18-month span. Under the USADA guidelines, athletes must notify the agency of his or her whereabouts at all times in order to be available for random testing. Athletes can be informed of a test in as little as one hour beforehand.

Awesome says he was not trying to avoid the tests, but that he did not fully realize the importance of updating his whereabouts, let it slip his mind and did not always receive notifications from USADA. He says that once when he was in Dallas, USADA tried to leave him a voicemail but his mailbox was full. "So I never knew and never called them back," he said. "I never had the number.''

When he appealed his case, however, arbitrator Walter Gans determined that Awesome knew the requirements because he had received online education regarding testing rules and that USADA further notified him several times of the consequences for failing to update his whereabouts. He also said the facts surrounding the whereabouts filing failures were "virtually undisputed.'' Thus, he ruled against the boxer and suspended him for a year.

"The horrible thing that happened to him in 2012, some of it was my fault,'' Brown said. "I should have been more involved in that process in making sure that when the testing people were around that he responded to them. And they made an example of him. They wanted a scalp.''

When Awesome learned that he was suspended and could not box in the Olympics, he says he drove to a liquor store before deciding that drinking was not the route he wanted to take. But then he went to his hotel and wound up drinking anyway and getting "totally hammered.'' He says he gained back a lot of weight during the suspension. He also lost his medical insurance.

"In 2012 I had everything lined up to go the Olympics and my life was going to be made,'' Awesome said, "and then it was all gone.''

Awesome says now he knows it is his responsibility to keep USADA informed of his whereabouts but he still thinks it is ridiculous "to ask a human being to tell them where you're going to be within an hour, every day for the next four years. I told them, 'I have nothing to hide. Track my phone, put an ankle bracelet on me, anything you need to do.''

Still, he acknowledges, he must follow the rules. And his phone contains a long list of texts he keeps sending USADA to constantly update his location.

Even so, Awesome almost missed a random drug test in late April. He was promoting a charity comedy event at a Kansas City TV news studio when a USADA agent showed up at his training gym for a test. It was inconvenient and awkward timing but fortunately, Awesome was informed of the pending test and contacted the drug tester who then drove to the TV studio to perform it.

So that did not affect his eligibility but Awesome still needs to qualify internationally. Top boxers who have already qualified will not fight in Azerbaijan, which should lessen the opposition. Awesome says he is confident he can win, that he is growing and improving as a boxer, and that he can make up for 2012. (Although it's unlikely he will prepare for his fights by performing at a comedy club in Azerbaijan.)

"Basically, my life got pushed back four years. I got put on hold for four years,'' he said of the suspension. "I'm picking up where I left off. Those four years that were lost, are coming back right now.''

While Awesome might not be the Taylor Swift of boxing, a Kansas City social club recently renamed a vegan burrito for him -- "Cam's karma-rito'' -- with avocado, sweet potato fries, yellow rice and black beans. "It's his favorite burrito,'' a worker said.

Awesome went vegan in the summer of 2012 to lose weight and to help prevent animal cruelty. He says the first month was very difficult but he kept at it and now enjoys the diet. He also is very lean, with an estimated 6 percent body fat.

Before Awesome went vegan, coach Brown said, "He never had anything in his life other than cheeseburgers and mac and cheese. I tried to get him to eat salmon and he didn't even know what it was. I took him out to eat ribs and he ate two slabs of ribs in about a minute and a half. He was a carnivorous guy. And then to be able to change to a dedicated vegan? It takes a mental toughness.''

That toughness, Brown says, helps Awesome overcome some weaknesses.

"I'm not trying to be negative -- I'm just an honest guy -- but he doesn't have that great a jab. Because he's left-handed, his right hook is pretty much non-existent,'' Brown said. "But he wins. He's got speed and he's got stubbornness. He can just outsmart everyone.

"I've trained 10,000 boxers at least and he has the biggest warrior mentality of all of them.''

Will that get him to Rio and win a medal? American boxers have a record 110 Olympic medals, including 50 golds, but U.S. men have not fared well recently, winning just one gold and two bronze medals in the past three Games. So Awesome faces an awesome challenge to first qualify and then medal. In the meantime, he says he would love to make his name bigger, pick up some endorsement deals -- he doesn't earn much in boxing -- and eventually have a career, perhaps hosting a TV show, that spreads his name so he can both live more comfortably and encourage people to help others through charitable works.

"I would like to change the way we look at the world,'' he said. "The news just paints the world in so much shit. All this sadness and gloom overshadows all the potential happiness in life. People should be happier.''

In addition to all that and the Olympics, he says he would also like to have his own holiday.

Wait. A holiday? Yes. It would be called Awesome Day. But it would come after he dies -- " If I ever die'' -- and would take place late into the night at his funeral, where there would be a room filled with people drinking and playing board games, followed by, well, let Awesome describe it.

"The next morning, everyone pays $50 or whatever and you have to run a 5K, hungover,'' he said. "At about five in the morning. And then you have to go to work. And that would be Awesome Day. I want everyone to hate me that day [because of the run]. People better pray I die in the summer. And then I want that money donated to a charity every year. And hopefully that would grow in Kansas City and eventually spread all over the world. And I would have my own day. Awesome Day.''

He paused.

"I think a lot of things.''

That he does. And it will be both interesting and fun to see where this uniquely thinking boxer walks next.