Humorist Jeanne Robertson draws stories from her life
Jeanne Robertson received some good-natured ribbing from other humorists about a recent broken femur that caused her to reschedule 26 concerts.
“Everyone in the speaking world said that I’d do anything for a new story,” she said. “I don’t do it on purpose, but when it happens you might as well take advantage of it.”
Robertson is skilled at taking stories from her life, finding the humor in the story and then getting others to laugh at her recollections.
At 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, she’ll share plenty of stories during a stop at the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium in Asheville, N.C.
Some of the first stories she tells are based on the injury she suffered. She said there is plenty that happens in orthopedic rehabilitation and at the hospital that made its way into her show.
“I open with those stories,” the 73-year old humorist said. “We’ve renamed it 'The Rocking Chair Tour.' I can stand up and move around but I can’t stand up for the whole show so we have a rocking chair in the center of the stage. It’s turned out to be very funny.”
Robertson, who considers herself a “grandma gone viral,” has scored more than 37 million views on YouTube, written several books, released a couple of DVDs and has become a mainstay on Sirius XM’s comedy channels.
Robertson has been a speaker for more than 50 years. She learned she could make people laugh as she spoke during her Miss North Carolina reign (she won the crown in 1963 and was Miss Congeniality in the 1964 Miss America pageant).
After she helped crown the subsequent Miss North Carolina, she spoke at four conventions the following week and continued to speak. The Auburn University physical education graduate was a teacher and coach for several years before her speaking engagements at conventions became too much.
Her stories — many about her husband — are good, clean humor and are quite family-friendly.
Funnier than most, she doesn’t consider herself a comedian.
“A comedian’s goal is to make a large majority of the people in the audience laugh for their appointed time. They can use any attack mode to do that,” she said. “They can make a group of people in the audience feel uncomfortable. They can use any kind of language they want. It’s sort of in-your-face things. A humorist wants the audience to laugh just as hard but doesn’t want to offend people.
“I have a message in my shows, though sometimes it’s not much of a message. The comedian’s sole reason is to get people to laugh. My message might be as simple as look at the humor in things.”
That simplicity finds its mark and her humor doesn’t just enjoy success in the South. Her shows could easily be stories from her pageant days, but as she’s aged she’s added stories.
Bits like “Don’t Send a Man to the Grocery Store,” “Don’t Bungee Jump Naked” and “You Don’t Know Garth Brooks?” are personal stories that Robertson has found the humor in and that relate to audience members.
“I want to paint such a picture that people say ‘The same thing happened to us. She’s been a fly on the wall of our house,’” she said.
Who: Jeanne Robertson
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday
Where: Thomas Wolfe Auditorium, 87 Haywood St., Asheville, N.C.
Tickets: $25-$55
Info: 828-259-5736 or www.uscellularcenterasheville.com