Texas comedian Chad Prather to share his ‘Star Spangled Banter’
Published 1:30 am Thursday, August 24, 2017
EVERETT — He’s been featured on Fox News and “Fox and Friends.”
Texan comedian Chad Prather has a reputation as an armchair philosopher of the conservative kind. Most of his popular videos are filmed with him wearing a cowboy hat and speaking to the camera from the driver’s seat of his truck.
Prather is perhaps best known for his YouTube video “Unapologetically Southern.” In it he talks about holding doors for the ladies, speaking to elders with the polite terms ma’am and sir, and defending his Southern accent.
He brings his “Star Spangled Banter Tour” to the stage Friday evening at the Historic Everett Theatre.
Georgia-reared and now living in the Forth Worth area, Prather enjoyed theater in his younger years and graduated from the University of Georgia with a degree in communications. Prather was doing a humor travel show called “It’s My Backyard” for Ride TV when he figured out his cowboy YouTube videos were doing well.
“These short videos started taking off on social media, and they far out-paced what I was doing on TV,” Prather said in a phone interview with The Herald. “A couple of years ago, we developed a comedy tour. I told my wife that I all I had to do was go on stage and be myself, and she asked what was the street value of my personality. Well, so far, it’s been a hit.”
The Banter tour is a one-man, 90-minute show that will appeal to most Americans, Prather said.
“This is not a political show, not at all,” Prather said. “I use common sense when it comes to politics, and I make political commentary only online.
“I like to tell family stories from an adult perspective. Stories that all blue collar Americans living in the suburbs and raising their kids can relate to. The mundane things of life. Like not wanting to go the water park in the summer with your kids because you know that everybody is peeing in the pool.”
The only political thing Prather likes to talk about in his shows is that it’s OK to disagree with each other.
“I tend to remind people that we are all Americans,” he said. “Life doesn’t have to be a social media battle — an online civil war or violence in the streets. I think people should be able to express their opinions and then have a beer and a laugh and get along. We need to get away from the rhetoric because it’s detrimental to us all in the long run.”
His mostly conservative audiences often are surprised when Prather espouses what some might call a liberal idea.
“The cowboy hat might fool you,” he said. “I grew up listening to George Carlin. I didn’t always agree with him, but he made laugh and made me think.
“I listen to local progressive radio and the local patriot stations. I hate the term ‘fake news,’ and I hope that people really explore issues from both sides, and that they know the difference between news and opinion.”
Prather, when not poking fun at social discourse, loves to talk about family matters.
“I have a wife, several pets, five kids and a vasectomy, which was the best $25 co-pay I ever spent,” he said. “My oldest is 19 and our youngest is 10. My wife is a nurse, and we are one big, busy family. If you can’t read the news and find comedy, it’s easy to go home and find lots of humor.”
Audiences are sure to have fun at his show, Prather said.
“It’s not a political rally, not a church service,” he said. “On Friday we are all going to drop our guard.”
