Charlie Berens is ‘Just a Midwest Guy’

×

Expand

Photo via Charlie Berens - charlieberens.com

Charlie Berens

Charlie Berens

The live stand-up comedy experience creates instant, if temporary, community with laughter. But the same shtick can also provide reminders of the communities from which we have come, may want to be reminded of and desire reconnection with. Or so believes Milwaukee’s Charlie Berens of the Midwest-centric brand of humor that has made him a funny cultural force representing the U.S. heartland.

“The thing about Midwesterners is that if they leave, many long to come back home,’ Berens observes. “And what I’ve found touring across the country is that, while people come for the comedy, they are also coming for the community.” And that sense of community can have a therapeutic effect for those finding it through Berens’ work. “They want to be around other Midwesterners. It helps them if they’re homesick. It helps them find new friends in a new city from a familiar home. 

“I’m just one Midwest guy with one Midwest perspective, so I’m always cautious to view myself as representing all the Midwest,” he offers humbly, adding “but I do enjoy sharing my perspective on a place I love and people I love.” 

Berens is set to share his perspective during four shows at The Riverside Theater at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. on Friday March 29 and Saturday March 30 as part of his Good Old Fashioned Tour. His current spate of performance dates may be named not only for many of the values Berens’ comedy embodies, but also the mixed drink mentioned by an audience member from Manitowoc at one of the comic's early sand-up shows while he was an entertainment journalist in California. 

Badger-Made Brandy

Berens’ name now emblazons the label of an ingredient for an old fashioned of the sort his Grandpa Bob and other discriminating imbibers should enjoy. Made in Wisconsin, Berens Old Fashioned Brandy is a 90-proof spirit declared to be a good fit with cheese, fishing, weddings and deer camp, “We went with Dancing Goat. Love working with those guys too. Very down to earth, very Wisconsin and they got a pretty cool distillery over in Cambridge.”

Berens Brandy isn't he only alcoholic beverage to which he has lent his notoriety. In 2018, he partnered with Madison’s Ale Asylum brewery to introduce a beer, Keep 'er Movin’. Though that light lager, named for one of the comedian's taglines from his Manitowoc Minute video skits, is no longer available, Berrens offers much other merch that his 7.5 million social media followers need not be adults to buy. On such mementos as a cribbage board, fishing tackle, a bottle opener and his Midwest Survival Guide book, he offers, “As far as the products we end up releasing, we just try to have fun with it. I think of products that I would want, and we try to make as much as possible in the U.S., printed in Wisconsin or partnering with Midwest print shops and suppliers. It’s mostly for fun and sometimes we hit a homerun on the business side of it, too.”

Alhough Berens’ name may now be nationally renowned, he keeps he keeps comedically connected to his home turf not only through headlining dates at The Riverside. He exemplified his commitment to the city at a lower key level co-hosting The Berens Brothers Comedy Hour with his sibling and fellow funny man/comedy show promoter John Berens. The monthly residency showcased Midwestern comedians of many types at The Laughing Tap last year. He’d like them to return as the duo's schedules allow. “I think we will do them again," he speculates. “I gotta talk to (John) and find the days on the calendar, but those are super fun nights and very important for working out new material.”

Charity with a Light Touch

Also important to Berens is a cause that may not elicit chuckles, though he offers it his customary light touch to raise awareness of it. Regarding his association with the hunger charity Feeding America he recalls, “We connected about a year ago leading up to the holiday season. That’s a great organization that’s very wholistic in how they see hunger and food systems. They are doing fantastic work from an environmental perspective and creating jobs. I’d love to continue working with them and I think we may be looking at something longer term. To be clear though, the Feeding America team are the real heroes on that. Their tireless dedication is so impressive. I am just honored to amplify their work.”

The sensibility informing Berens’ commendation of Feeding America transfers back to his summation on what—and who—has contributed to the Midwestern aesthetic his comedy embodies. 

“The Midwest is so much more diverse than a lot of people assume,” Berens says. “All of the Midwest can trace cultural nuances to Indigenous peoples who first called the Midwest home. Then, of course, European settlers came into the mix, which is where the strong Norwegian, German, French, Irish and Italian influences come from. Obviously, the great migration brought incredible cultural staples like Motown and Chicago blues, but also political and business leaders that have defined our economies and governments. 

“The focus on family and community you see in Middle Eastern culture in, say, Dearborn, has so many similarities to Norwegian culture in western Wisconsin,” he continues. “There's a strong Somali influence in Minnesota. Hmong folks helped the U.S. in Vietnam and many refugees have called the Midwest home ever since. In The Midwest Survival Guide I included an interview with Chef Yia Vang on this topic I strongly encourage people to check out. 

Berens admits he could go on and on. “I think so much of our culture borrows from the world, which makes Midwest culture both specific, but also very universal,” he shares. Perhaps with that kind of anthropological unity-in-diversity in mind, he wants his comedy to be a unifying force.   

“People are very divided,” he concludes. “I think this is intentionally done by some politicians to win elections. I think it's done by various social media algorithms that have figured out people are more likely to engage with negative content. I just think people need another option. And I want to keep providing positive alternatives to this stuff online. As far as geographic differences go, there's a lot of comedy in our differences, but the heart of each sketch is really to show our underlying similarities.”

Here Berens remembers when he realized that Wisconsinites have accents, getting in quips regarding Brian Williams, NPR and at least one U.S. president, who remains unnamed, in the process,...

In Memoriam

Contrasting with the unifying force of Charlie Berens’ thoughtful comedic musings rooted in Midwesterns tropes, Mojo Nixon was a North Carolina-born, motor-mouthed  polymath whose Southernness defined much of his essence as an entertainer with little apparent concern for whom he offended. But the dude was often a hoot.   

The man born Nel McMillan, Jr. came to national, if subcultural, prominence with musical partner Skid Rope (born Richard Bake) in the mid-1980s as college and alt rock radio’s go-to duo for novelty ditties such as “Elvis Is Everywhere” and a lustful ode to a certain MTV VJ, “Stuffin’ Matha’s Muffin.”

Perhaps improbably, Nixon briefly became a spokesman for the onetime cable TV outlet for music videos, filming a series of promo clips showcasing his preacher/car salesman/auctioneer palaver. He racked up an acting resume, a profanity-laden stint as master of ceremonies at indie country singer Dale Watson's Ameripollitan Music awards events honoring acts in under-recognized genres of roots music, and, lately, an announcer position at Sirius XM satellite radio's Outlaw Country channel. 

It was while on an Outlaw Country cruise while making stop in San Juan, Puerto Rico in February of this year that Nixon died suddenly at 66.