Andrews – A madcap quartet hailing from east Tennessee graced The Blue Stage with varying comedic delights like an itinerant band of merrymakers from days of yore on Aug. 16.
In its third time hosting comedians, the venue held its own as a fine purveyor of local sense and sensibilities of the mountain varieties.
Bringing their own emcee in the person of Chris Travis, the foursome came in hot with a steady hand as he’s also the co-host of the podcast “Waking Up In A Brewery” with headliner Alex Stokes, both hailing from Knoxville, Tenn.
Travis, who is also Stokes’ manager, acts as the ever-confident straight man, from hauling in gear to reining in stray comedians from casinos, breaking up the sets with anecdotes about his experiences both on-air and off-road with this unlikely gang of lollygaggers amid all the guffaws, ensuring his role is never boring with this testosterone-fueled troupe.
As the warm-up act, James Osborne shone as a seasoned opener on Knoxville’s burgeoning comedy circuit cutting his chops performing at and hosting plenty of open mics and gigs around the university town. He looked the part in his matching black ball-cap and seriously buttoned shirt, which he joked makes him look like a member of law enforcement, giving many imbibing in clubs take second looks.
Osborne’s understated wit proved the right blend of insouciance and pathos regarding how we should regard national “heroes” such as O.J. Simpson, riffing on many a meme and 1990s throwback joke about car chases, ill-fitting gloves and silent dogs given the Heisman Trophy winner’s passing earlier this year.
His 10-minute set also included several references to current events, including a candidate’s recent ear-grazing incident to how a now-former presumed nominee hasn’t been able to make a flight of stairs but somehow was able to “step down” from a nomination, to including the very viral “catch-phrase” that indeed could get caught like a bone in the throat.
Osborne’s mix of both the profane and the thematically sublime also complemented his confessional style as he touched on more personal topics from raising his daughter to familial cycles of substance abuse and addiction with resounding applause for battling and overcoming all things, including this “crazy world.”
As the featured comedian and a veteran of several shows around the Gatlinburg area including private and corporate events, Paul “PG” Cohen took the stage with the signature swagger of a club DJ coupled with an instant dichotomy via a wildly colored cowboy hat reminiscent of a Kinky Friedman prop amidst his own self-described “Jewish Wanna-Be Redneck” brand. Sporting a hooded sweatshirt bearing the name of the cleaning sponge Scrub Daddy, made popular by many a TikTok video, giving a subtle nod to both a notorious nickname from a 1990s TLC song and the impact digital culture has made on everyone from Generations X to Alpha.
Cohen’s comedy relies on a virtual Socratic method; he leads the audience, to whom he refers as “gang,” to the punch, then leaves them strung upon the line, as many a mountain trout would be slung home after a day ripe with catching.
After explaining his breaking into stand-up at Stokes’ prodding and support, he detailed his many jobs including whitewater rafting guide, which made everyone local or transplant identify with the idea of the “captive audience” since he inevitably began his routine work guiding crowds down rivers.
His satirical pastiche of internet slang and timely take on the culture also touched on seemingly taboo subjects such as politics, supporting a thin blue line and a certain “subscriber-only” website upon which almost everyone and their mother, sometimes literally, has an account and how the dating scene has been inexorably and forever promiscuously changed by apps and sites and how those profiles are typically misleading by many a degree.
In another edgy and understatedly sarcastic segment Cohen brought up the recent difficulties in the Middle East, explaining his own mixed heritage as a man of Irish and Jewish descent, and how Facebook posts from baristas are able to somehow completely provide solutions to a thousands of years old problem and change even his mind regarding any kind of side-taking opinions.
Cohen’s comedy is also reminiscent of something long lost in an awakened culture in the style of Sam Kinison, traversing the rocky road of ethnicity and gender differences in the vein of fluidity and in following a cue from Osborne, he also invoked another icon in Kobe Bryant by comparing parenting styles, noting that he would’ve been better off not being a certain kind of closely hovering parent.
In closing out his 20-minute set he lamented the aging process when doctor visits become a necessity with some incredibly punny punchlines verging on the Dad Joke realm including how both relationships with co-workers and caregivers require “patients.”
Stokes, known as “The Beer Comedian” for his performing exclusively in breweries for the past five years, is also an author of four books and teacher of the only comedy class of its kind in the nation at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Stokes blazed onto the stage to a warm round of applause immediately launching into a deconstruction of his own appearance and persona vis a vis his resemblance to pop to football phenom Tim Tebow to the animated Aquaman of the 1970s rather than the more recent incarnation in Jason Momoa, to becoming the doppelgänger for country music’s Rascal Flatts’ frontman thus ending his evolution as one of the first metrosexual comics a hearty 15 years ago proving his theory that “facial hair can be detrimental to your age and appearance and make people tell you look like the leader of a biker gang.”
Stokes also conveyed both the loving and the loathing of living and working in a tourist town, his beloved hometown of Gatlinburg, Tenn., with its myriad bears strolling downtown’s main drag which also prompted his authoring his first children’s book, “The City Bear in the Smokies,” which stemmed from an overnight stay due to inclement weather and many questions surrounding “what time are the bears let out” to roam downtown.
Leading into discussing his books, which include two volumes of Messing With Tourists, Stokes details how there are actually several stupid questions, particularly when asked rudely, and his art of the sarcastic reply.
Riffing on both the differences between being married and divorced while raising blended families and figuring out the difficulties of smart TVs, which take on smutty minds of their own when picking screensavers, Stokes’ sensibilities range far from the average middle-aged husband and father tropes to allow the male gaze to linger in a more observant and nonchalant way, asserting the wholeness of 21st-century men who can adapt to both technology and sensitivity to present a harmonious front of masculinity in an ever-changing world.
Ending the hour-long set, Stokes reminded the audience of his ability to attract even the most unlikely of students in his comedy class with the story of a retired Baptist preacher who enrolled in his class and upon performing in breweries under Stokes’ performance moniker “The Beer Comedian” proceeded to both tell “off-color and only slightly dirty” jokes while smuggling in his own canned beer.
Owner David Howell said more comedy features are planned for the future.
Details: Visit thebluestage.com.