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329 University — Northgate
Laugh business tough for Christian
Religion, comedy mix on stage
United Press International
HOUSTON — One of the
toughest jobs in the world, as
any stand-up comic can attest, is
to step out onto a stage all by
yourself and try to get a laugh
from a nightclub audience de
termined to make you earn it.
Depending on any number of
variables — many in liquid form,
measured by the jigger — the
mood can range from indiffer
ence to good humor to open
hostility.
But if that weren’t enough,
Mikel Williams makes it even
tougher on himself. He openly
acknowledges right off the top
that he, and his comedy, are
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Warm water running through your hair.
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Gentle suds rinsed out, leaving a soft,
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Now, the cut. Crisp. Precise. Fresh.
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Feel the luxury at . . .
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696-6933
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693-0607
Christian. No bathroom humor
to fall back on if things don’t
happen to be clicking tonight.
The material either stands on its
own, or it fizzles.
“It can be pretty tough,” says
the bearded Houston native. “I
get up there, and in about five
minutes I can tell if it’s going to
work. If it’s not working, I say
‘OK, pick up your Bibles, and
we’ll read from the preface all
the way through to Revela
tion.’ ”
Williams, 35, says he got into
Christian comedy about three
years ago after talking it over
with a close friend, the late com
edian Grady Nutt.
“We’d been friends about 15
years, and he told me, ‘If you’re
really serious about it, you’ll just
about starve to death in the first
year and a half, but then things
will start to get better once peo
ple know your name,’ ” Williams
said.
Nutt, who starred on the TV
series Hee-Haw, was killed in
the crash of a light plane in
November. Williams says the
tragedy made him resolve to
show his faith even more strong
ly than before through his com
edy and his everyday life.
As Nutt predicted, Williams
went through a couple of lean
years but now gets “between 12
and 19” bookings per month.
He also works part time at a
Houston religious book store.
Williams says he’s been a com
edian most of his life, but it was
of the impromptu variety: Clas
sroom antics and the like. It was
fun, but it didn’t put money in
his pockets.
To pay the bills, he spent 15
years as a minister of youth at
churches in Orlando, Fla., and
at White Oak Baptist Church in
Houston and South Avenue
Baptist in Pasadena.
He has a bachelor’s degree
“I get up there, and in
about five minutes I can
tell if it’s going to work.
If it’s not working, I say
‘OK, pick up your Bi
bles, and we’ll read from
the preface all the way
through to Revelation’ ”
— Mikel Williams,
Christian comedian
from Houston Baptist Universi
ty and a master’s in religious
education from Southwestern
Baptist Theological Seminary in
Fort Worth.
But after consulting with N utt
in 1980, he finally decided to
take the proverbial plunge and
find out if he could hack it pro
fessionally. Most of Williams’
bookings are at banquets or as
the opening act for Christian
concerts.
“I do anything but sing,” he
says. “I don’t even sing in the
shower, or I’d scare the lather
off the soap. I’ve got a friend
who says my singing is like
asthma set to music.”
Williams works all over the
United States and last year spent
a week providing comedy relief
during a revival in Nigeria.
Thanks to the language barrier
and the difference in cultures,
his humor may have suffered a
bit in the translation.
"It was a different experi
ence, to say the least. I learned a
lot,” he says. “Things that may
be funny here aren’t necessarily
funny over there. Like slapstick
humor: To us, a person falling
down may be funny, but to them
it’s serious.”
Much of Williams’ humor
could be tactfully described as
self-deprecating: He considers
himself less than handsome.
When he was a child, he says, his
mother pushed his face into the
dough to make “gorilla cookies."
He concedes that he still has hair
“wherever the Lord allows me to
grow it,” but compares it to a
Brillo pad.
Williams occasionally takes a
booking in clubs such as Hous
ton’s Comedy Workshop
Annex, but he has shied away
from most of these so far be
cause the audiences tend to want
something he isn’t offering.
“I just didn’t feel comfortable
in those surroundings. 1 was
probably the only sober person
in the house.”
But he adds that he does see a
special ministry in doing his
routines before such crowds. He
says he gradually wants to take
more bookings with audiences
that just want to see a funny
man, regardless of his belie
At the end of his show,he
his audience, “I want yoi
know that any ability 1 hav.
make you laugh comes fromi
Lord and Savior, Jesus Chris,
Williams says he recently«
his “religious propoganda”
TV talk show hostsJohnnyCj
son, David Lettermanandlffl
Douglas, hoping to inten
them in his type of hu®
There’s been no responsesof
ft was Douglas who gave Cu
Nutt his first major TV appe B
ance, he says.
While most peopledon'tasi
ciate religion with high-vob
grins, Williams believes com#
has its place in the churchy
cause he suspects thatjesush
self was a keen humorist.
“With all the things he tried!
teach the disciples duringth
s ears, he must have hadasea I
.... *’ lw. “Hok„4 I
T
H
of humor," he says. "Hehasii I
best of everything else, soni
shouldn’t he have thebe
of humor? I just can’t i
never laughing or neverharii
a smile on his face
One of the familiar bihh I WASHII 1
stories W illiams weaves inio jjts start p;
routine is the parable of'
Prodigal Son. One oftheli
refers to the main charadj
sinking so low that “hewasfeti
mg pigs, and that's
job in Arkansas.”
"I did that one at thel'mj
sitv of Arkansas (wherethen
cot is the Razorback hog),
the\ thought it was funny.Ill
t ame at me with chainsandc
later, but they thought in
funnv at the time.
(Tflallon gasol
spokesmen
jf gas durii
ejase the pa
_ Vic Rasl
lire 60,000
"healers of
rums, man
Would raise
He saic
Lest prol
15,000 oft I
lations ha
Ince 1974.
‘Rockabilly’ rolls big again
V lt f
Ic
II 8-
Rasheec
Irice wouh
lales. He sa
dropped al
ist year ai
eir drivir
United Press International
DALLAS — The twangy
sound of rockabilly gaining
popularity is music to Sic! King’s
ears. He was one of the first
musicians to record the style —
almost 30 years ago.
King was a teenage musician
Buddy Holly went to for advice
on how to become a star. Now
King is trying to remember all
that advice himself.
Nothing Else Feels Like Navy Flying
The thunderous roar
of jet engines rolls
across the carrier’s
flight deck.
Throttles are at
full power, and you’re
waiting for the signal
to launch.
making authority and
management respon
sibility you have as an
officer in the Navy.
On the ground, as
a Navy officer, you
work with and supervise
today’s most highly
By day a Dallas barbershop
owner named Sid Erwin, the
soft-spoken singer is also a re
cording artist with a new album
he hopes will hit the charts.
“Everything comes back
around,” he says. “What they
call rockabilly got real hot over
in England last year, and now
the Stray Cats are playing it and
doing well in the states. We use
to call it be-bop, but it’s the same
music.”
Erwin’s original band, Sid
King and the Five Strings, was
formed when he and his brother
Billy were in Denton High
School, with King doing vocals
and Billy playing lead guitar.
No stranger to controversy,
King’s first hit was banned on
some radio stations. “Who Put
the Turtle in Myrtle’s Girdle"
was a little spicy for 1953.
The group was recording for
Columbia by 1955 and toured
the nation in a brand-new Ford
Victoria station wagon with the
band’s name and Columbia
painted on the door.
“Buddy Holly used to come to
listen to us when we were in Lub
bock. We played a Wichita Falls
place one time and when Buddy
came and spent the night with us
in Denton later on we invited
him to get on the show with us
the next week," King said.
“It turned out the Wichita
Falls manager never sent us our
money, so we didn’t go back.
When Buddy showed up there,
the manager said he could play
in our place.
“But he made a mistake be
cause he said he wanted to make
the same thing Sid King had
made. The manager said he
could, and sure enough, he got
nothing, just like we did."
One of Holly’s guitarists and
co-writers on many of his hits
was Boh Montgomery, now a
Nashville producer and pub
lisher.
Montgomery himself played
in the band that rose to the top
of be-bop, hut he’s uncertain ab
out the strength of the current
rockabilly trend.
“It’s new to today’s kids, and
;(oii;« "They’n
lay,” Rash
they seem to be relating
said. "But there’s no way oftfl
iug what s going to happeni italiae the'
the recording industry.” Isfarasga:
King’s records are coital pnk any 1
items in London, whereoria pices) to I
ds hung up to muu. _
"It started as a cult thingoi| 1 1^
there," says King, ‘"and ttlifl
up to SI00
thev couldn’t get my recoii
somebody started bootleg
counterfeits. Columbia lint
released a collection oi onn,
hits, and it went to No.'ioma
rockabilly charts.
On King’s latest cuts, S
smooth baritone vocal tvilh
Texas twang is backed upk'
top studio group, includinglj
brother on lead guitarandt
eral members of the Juke Ji
pers, a popular Dallasrockal
group.
C )ut of the old Five Strii
only two are not on the i
album. The 12 cuts are a mil
old rhythm and bluesst
and new material King
written.
The re
lections li
lauseofeo
(omniissioi
Studem
leveloping
he ballots
igain.
The res
|y6 p.m. f
“The re;
auseoftln
jomputer,’
I Asel pr<
jothejudi
Now. The catapult fires. G forces
press you back into your seat. Suddenly,
you’re flying low and fast over the open
sea. Zero to 150 in 2.5 seconds.
Nothing else feels like Navy flying.
Nothing. And when you become a pilot or
flight officer you’re at the very heart of it.
Once you’ve earned your wings,
the Navy puts you in full control of a multi-
million-dollar supersophisticated
combination of jet aircraft and electronic
wizardry.
And Navy training makes sure
you’re up to the challenge. Rigorous flight
training gives you the ^
navigation, aerodynam
ics and other techni
cal know-how you need.
Leadership and
professional schooling
prepare you for the
i
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