The liberal rednecks are back at it again in Northwest Arkansas as they bring their comedy tour, "wellRED: From Dixie With Love" to the Walton Arts Center on April 14. Trae Crowder, Drew Morgan and Corey Ryan Forrester gave three sold-out performances at Meteor Guitar Gallery in Bentonville this time last year (plus one at the end of 2016) following the release of their best-selling book "Liberal Redneck Manifesto: Draggin Dixie Outta the Dark." Now they're at a bigger venue with "roughly 80 percent new material," Crowder estimates, and the same love for the South. (Along with plenty of satire thrown in, he promises.)
"The act is always kind of shifting a little bit at a time," Crowder says from his home in Burbank, Calif., just a few days before heading back to the road. "A lot of times, comics do basically the same act for like a decade, but -- and I think I'm speaking for all three of us -- the act has evolved as it goes on because sometimes things happen [in the political climate] that we react to, but also things happen in our lives -- it's a more universal experience I'm talking about."
FAQ
wellRED Comedy Tour:
‘From Dixie With Love’
WHEN— 7 p.m. April 14
WHERE — Walton Arts Center in Fayetteville
COST — $35.50
INFO — 443-5600, waltonartscenter.org
And that material can be unexpected sometimes if people know Crowder from his YouTube videos (The Liberal Redneck) where he "rants and raves about this or that," usually socio-political issues he is impassioned over. With an average of a few hundred thousand views for most of his videos -- the top post, "Transgender Bathrooms," is sitting at just over a million views -- it may also surprise fans to know Crowder never set out to be a political comedian.
"I've had these large-scale aspirations in comedy for a long time, doing stand-up for years hoping to be able to eventually break into the industry," Crowder shares. "But having said that, the reason I did [the videos] in the first place is I really do care about all that. Those really are my opinions; I've really always run my mouth about them. That's all very real -- it comes from a very real place."
But Crowder's (as well as Morgan and Forrester's) stories about relationships, growing up in the South and love for football all also come from very real places.
"It's wild how different people react in different ways. We've had people who were a fan of my videos and they say things like, 'I expected this to be like an hour-long version of your videos -- but it turns out, you're an actual stand-up comedian,'" Crowder says. "But I think even those people [aren't] disappointed, because it is different, and we're very aware of that, because it is purposefully different.
"It's kind of worked out," Crowder goes on, "because I think some of the stuff we do that isn't at all political is unexpected but very welcomed by people. Because even though they came to my show that entails [that political aspect], I think everybody's feeling [political fatigue] to a certain extent. So when Cory does a five-minute rant about cheese, people like that stuff, too and I think that's why."
Fans of the videos, don't be discouraged, though. Crowder promises plenty of political commentary from all three men does make it into the show.
"If you like my videos, you'll like our comedy act."
NAN What's Up on 04/06/2018