BRISTOL, Tenn. — Alabaman Darren Knight leaned on his Southern heritage and modern streaming technology to make himself a star. In part as Southern Momma, Knight’s oft-ridiculous and typically hilarious routine earned him millions of views on You Tube and Tik Tok.
Now, he’s coming to Bristol. See Knight, best known as Southern Momma online, on Friday, Aug. 23, at Paramount Bristol in downtown Bristol, Tennessee.
Fellow comedians Red Squirrel, Gary Cargal, and DJ Slim McGraw open the show. “We’ll make you laugh,” said Darren Knight, by phone last week from his home in Alabama. “It’s a big and beautiful show.
Get your work week done. Send the kids to mamaw and papaw’s house. Load up the truck and come on down to Bristol.
” On a whim, Knight posted a video on YouTube. It took time. Knight’s act took root and became quite the rage.
“The tours started in 2016,” Knight said. “The videos started in late 2013 and early ’14. Southern Momma, her name is Darlene, it started like I was talking to the kids.
” Knight said he based his Southern Momma character on his own mother to some extent, and to large extent, his grandmother. “I always say that 30 to 40% of Southern Momma was my mother,” Knight said. “The other 60 to 70% came from my grandmother.
She was a pistol. My grandmother was kind of the boss. Me and grandma were best friends.
I smoked cigarettes for two years with grandma before mom ever knew I was smoking.” Naturally, he added generous dashes of exaggeration. “The Southern Momma character is all kinds of things,” he said.
“She’s the man at the ballpark and she’s the impatient man at the gas station. People up North don’t get it. The funniest things are things people can relate to.
” Like there are Southern Momma bits about parenting advice and taking the kids to school. There’s Southern Momma speaking of girlfriends in the South, going to church, makeovers and makeup. Hundreds of views turned to thousands.
Quite quickly, Knight’s tally of online views escalated into the millions. Consequently, life changed for the fast-talking man of the South. “I went from being a manager at Sears Roebuck, loss prevention, to telling jokes,” Knight said.
“It just took off like wildfire.” Variety magazine provided unanticipated fuel to his jet-powered rise to comedic stardom. In 2018, Variety selected Darren Knight Southern Momma as one of its 10 comics to watch.
“It was a very nice honor,” Knight said. “Very prestigious magazine and whatnot. But a lot of my fans didn’t know what the hell Variety was.
” As to Knight’s act, it’s no act. He said that not only does he draw from his own life and those of his family and friends, but that he does not make things up. “All of it.
All of it has happened,” he said. “I don’t get up there on stage and talk about things that didn’t happen. Real life experiences are the best.
” Like the story about his father. It involves Walmart and, well, something no one would want to experience. “Oh yeah,” Knight said, “my daddy pooped in Walmart.
” Not in the restroom, mind you. “Nope,” Knight said. “You know, down home everyone is a comic.
My cousin Bobby is the funniest man I know. In my town, there are like 50 Bobbys. Me? I’m a character all the time.
” Sometimes characters cuss. Hey, you can hear it in nighttime cartoons. But Knight said his show does not cross into vile and disgusting verbal terrain.
“It’s a PG-13 show,” Knight said. “We keep it as clean as possible — but sometimes we do have an extra glass of wine before the show.”.
