In LR return, McGrew’s set blends observational humor

LITTLE ROCK — Comedian Steve “Mudflap” McGrew says he’ll have a lot of new material since his last Little Rock shows in February 2012, “because now I have time on my hands.”

McGrew, once known as “The Redneck on Acid” and now billed as “The Father of Yall-ternative Comedy,” will headline shows today-Saturday at Little Rock’s Loony Bin Comedy Club.

He has been in and out of the Denver radio scene for a number of years. He had been working as half of a morning team at a top country station for about six years when the station decided to … well, to hear McGrew tell it: “I left radio back in June. It was one of those, ‘We’ve decided to go in a different direction’ situations. I believe that is the standard corporate HR person’s line.

“Now I’m an observational comic. Here’s what I do: I wake up and observe now. My girlfriend will ask me, ‘What are you going to do today?’ And I’ll say, ‘I’m going to go to the mall and get coffee and observe people.’”

He says observational comedians have a slightly different burden from political or whimsical comedians: “You have to go out and see things, or overhear part of a conversation, and then you make up your own story to go with it. For example, I heard two women the other day, and one said, ‘I don’t know why he’s so mad. He’s the one who wanted me to get a boob job.’ It just creates its own stuff.”

In the early ’80s, McGrew, a Tulsa native who grew up in the Houston area, was working as a cartoonist for the Houston Chronicle by day while spending his nights doing stand-up at Houston’s Comedy Workshop alongside eventual comedy legends Bill Hicks and Sam Kinison.

He was a Star Search finalist and for a number of years toured as an opening act for country and rock acts including Dolly Parton, Tanya Tucker, Wynonna Judd, Jerry Lee Lewis, the Doobie Brothers and the Beach Boys.

McGrew has been headlining at the Breckenridge Village club since at least the early ’90s, when it was still the Comedy House, and then Stanford’s Comedy House.

He says his act will have somewhat less of a political angle than it did last fall. “Therewill be something, but not nearly as much as there was around the [2012 presidential] election. I’ve chilled out; I’ve decided I’m no longer the ‘angry blogger.’”

By the time he gets here, he will have worked his first cruise-ship gig, and “I may come to town with a few cruise jokes.” Personally, he’s hoping for a less traumatic experience than the one the passengers had recently on the Carnival Triumph, a cruise ship name he agreed was perhaps overly optimistic. And, “I can’t believe the bus they were on [afterward] broke down, too.”

McGrew is also about to transition from club comic to club owner. “I just bought into the comedy club in Fort Worth, with Randy Butler, the guy that owns it, and Vinnie Paul, who used to be the drummer for [the ’80s band] Pantera. It’ll be like an entertainment complex. a comedy club, live music venue, karaoke bar and lounge.”

Steve “Mudfl ap” McGrew

7:30 p.m. today, 7:30

and 10 p.m. Friday-Sat

urday, Loony Bin Com

edy Club, Breckenridge

Village Shopping Center,

Interstate 430 and North

Rodney Parham Road,

Little Rock.

Tickets: $8 today, $12

Friday-Saturday

(501) 228-5555

loonybincomedy.com

Weekend, Pages 30 on 03/07/2013

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