The WellRed Comedy tour is meant to defy expectations. Three stand-up comedians (Trae Crowder, Drew Morgan and Corey Ryan Forrester) are on a mission to prove that not all rednecks are conservatives, and not all rednecks are idiots. You might recognize Crowder from your Facebook feed where his series of web videos called “Liberal Redneck” have gone viral. Each clip is a topical, progressive rant by Crowder that is hilariously unsophisticated and reverently thoughtful at the same time. Drew Morgan is the small-town son of a preacher and has lived in Africa, Australia, Miami, Boston and New York City. And Corey Ryan Forrester is a North Georgia boy who started performing comedy at 16 and developed a witty form of Southern storytelling that is all his own. They chatted with us in advance of their Friday night performance at Zanzabar in Germantown.
Trae, did you think “Liberal Redneck” was going to be so well-received?
Trae Woodard: No, definitely not. The first one I did was about Tennessee trying to make the Bible their state book. I put that up on Facebook, and it got like 70,000 views, which I was thrilled with, so I decided to do more. The second one was on transgendered bathrooms, and that got 20 million views! And from there it snowballed. So no, I don’t think anybody expects what happened.
You haven’t done one on the Brexit yet.
TW: Brexit? I agree with what I’ve heard a lot of people say and how it parallels the Trump thing. Where a lot of people were just kind of joking, ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if we did some crazy shit like leave the E.U.?’ They took it for granted, because nobody really thought it would happen — and then it happened. And everyone started freaking out. Not to mention fear of immigration seemed to lead a lot of people to voting that way, which is another Trump parallel. Which is all based on a lot of old people voting for things that are going to affect those of us who are younger for much longer than it will affect them. So yeah, in typical American fashion I was thinking first about how it was going to affect me.
How did this tour come to be?
TW: We’ve all been friends and doing comedy for years. Two of us were based out of Knoxville, and the other was in Chattanooga, so we’ve known each other just through the Southern comedy circuit. We’re kind of similar, thematically, as comedians, so once all the YouTube stuff started happening, this tour just made sense. It came together pretty organically.
Do you feel like anomalies living in the conservative South and having liberal views on the world?
T: I mean, yeah, we’re in the minority. We’re not the norm, but it’s not as crazy-rare as people from outside of the South like to think it is. People have called me a unicorn before — it’s not that bad. I grew up in a tiny, little redneck town, and some of my best friends from growing up are liberal rednecks, frankly. They’re small-town country boys who are fairly open minded and liberal.
How did we end up with these lackluster candidates as our choices for president?
Drew Morgan: I think for better or worse our two-party system is designed to give us middle-of-the-road, safe candidates, which is what Hillary is. Hillary is the worst for a lot of people on the left because she’s not what they wanted, but they’ll elect her. Trump is the opposite: He terrifies the right almost as much as he terrifies the left.
Drew, having lived all over the world, how do you think other countries are viewing our election?
DM: It’s fun to pick on America, because we’re everyone’s big brother, which is funny because we’re one of the youngest of all the powers. I was abroad during the time Bush was re-elected, and the people in other countries just couldn’t understand. They couldn’t wrap their minds around how that happened. So I think there’s a little of that. Not that it’s good or even worth it, but I think the Brexit thing woke a lot of people in the world up and made them own up to the fact that there are a lot of ignorant people everywhere.
Trump and Hillary are probably bad for America, but are they good for comedy?
T: Yeah, obviously they are, but personally it’s not worth it to me. I would rather have a country that’s not on fire than have a new 5 or 6 minutes of material.
THE WELLRED COMEDY TOUR hits Zanzabar on Friday, July 15 for two shows (8 p.m. and 10 p.m.)
