Grizzard Imitator Fills Theater To Capacity
review by Wylie Cox
 

Bill Oberst, Jr. as Lewis Grizzard drew the largest (and perhaps loudest) crowd this season to his sold-out performance Saturday night at Theatre on the Green. Oberst delivered ten-fold. Wearing oversized glasses and a shaggy moustache, Grizzard (Oberst)  tromps on stage and jumps right into much debated Southern issues - like Yankees. And while Grizzard runs the gamut from enemas to chili dogs to women…he always comes back to his roots in the red earth of Georgia.
A joke, a tale, a myth about the South is never far from the spotlight.

After as short intermission, Oberst’s performance continues, but the humor is more sedated as he sits in a rocking chair, reciting portions of Grizzard’s columns. He is not out of character; he is still Grizzard, but a different Grizzard from the first half of the show. This is the Grizzard who had three failed marriages, who spurned an alcoholic father, and who survived a near-death experience with heart surgery.

Grizzard gives a passionate, almost vehement, explanation of why he is proud of his “red neck” roots which were planted under a hot summer sun in Georgia’s red clay. This was from a column about his grandfather. He wrote a book about his father.

Entitled, My Daddy Was A Pistol and I’m a Son-of-a-Gun, the book contains a humorous excerpt about the seven different levels of a man’s inebriation, but it also exposes Grizzard’s vulnerable underside. Grizzard admits, “I pined for my Daddy.” There is no more humor at this point as Grizzard tells of his father’s passing - and how “death is a sneaking son-of-a-bitch.”

Before the very real show of sorrow becomes too uncomfortable for the audience, Oberst switches gears. The mood is now lighter as he talks of his own brush with death. The show ends with Grizzard’s list of things he intends to do: “Goof off more; ride more trains; see Rock City.” Grizzard died in 1994.
 
“A Tribute To Lewis Grizzard” is produced by Bad Boot Productions and was created by Lewis’ widow, Dedra and his manager, Steve Enoch, who together control his intellectual property.

Oberst is an actor and mimic whose specialty is portraying historic figures in their own words. He says,  “like so many Lewis Grizzard readers I had a favorite column in my wallet for years. It was about the old Southern custom of pulling over for funeral processions. The title was, It’s Called Respect. Every time I go onstage, that is my goal, to respect him. He spoke for the South. He spoke for us.”

Whether the audience came to see Oberst or Grizzard, they got a good dose.