Here's Where It Gets Interesting - Two Midwesterners Record a Podcast Episode with Charlie Berens

Episode Date: February 21, 2022

To kick off the week, Sharon sits down to chat with comedian and fellow Midwesterner, Charlie Berens. Charlie talks about how he doubled down on his Midwestern character after realizing just how different he sounded to people when he traveled outside of the Midwest. He channels his dad and his grandfather in his comedy, turning on that gruff but unfailingly polite Wisconsinite personality. Sharon and Charlie compare their Midwestern upbringings, laughing together about what it really means to say, “I’m fine” in the Midwest, how catchin’ fish is like going grocery shopping on the lake, and the rivalry–and striking similarities–between Minnesota and Wisconsin. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello. Thanks for being here today. I have a really fun guest. This is just a super fun, funny episode with comedian Charlie Barron. You have probably seen his videos on Facebook. He has written a book. He has like a in. You can hear how good it is. I'm Sharon McMahon, and welcome to the Sharon Says So podcast. Oh, Charlie, so excited to chat with you today. Thanks for doing this. I'm very excited to chat with you. Yeah. Thanks for having me on. Oh, absolutely. I have laughed at many of your videos as have millions and millions of Americans. But of course, as a Minnesotan, I supremely resonate with the vast majority of your content.

I would love to know more about like, well, how did you get started doing this? How did you decide, you know what I got to do? Is make some videos. Honestly, the way you just said, it just sounds like butter for my ears. Milk and butter, you know? Well, so how it started is I was in the news business and I was going around the country doing local news and all that sort of stuff. And then I started doing standup at night when I moved to LA and I was doing like red carpet

reporting and everything. But throughout my whole news career, I always had people saying, ah, you got to fix your accent. You know, when I was studying to do it, I had issues in broadcast class because I, you know, it was thicker. And so I got a voice coach and all that to change, but I would still say things that were very Wisconsin. Like I was in Texas. I said, make sure everybody finds a bubbler because it was a very hot day out at which a bubbler in Wisconsin, that's what you drink water in Texas. Yeah, right. Exactly. But in Texas, a bubbler is a device you use, you know, to smoke the devil's lettuce. So it's a whole different vibe. So just because you take yourself out of Wisconsin doesn't mean it leaves you. So anyway, after all these people tell me I did stuff wrong and all these weird things, I started doing stand up where I had this character who instead of taking all the things people say did wrong, just double down on them. And that's, that was the beginning of this show called the man to walk minute, which is, you know, what a lot of people first learned

about me through. And then, you know, it, it took off and I'd been trying for a long time to do anything on my own, but none of the videos were really taken off. And then once this took off and I did another, and that also did well, I was like, okay, I can do off. And then once this took off and I did another, and that also did well, I was like, okay, I can do this. I can make this happen. Yeah. You know what that's like. Yeah. And now you're like, who's doing it wrong now, buddy. I know. Right. It's not your cut out at fleet farm, is it? Yeah, no, it's kind of crazy, but it's, I think it's also media changed so much since once I was first out there, I graduated in 2009 and the ability to do your own stuff wasn't quite as

prevalent then. And now it's a whole new world. And in a lot of cases, it's great because you can have the opportunity to truly embrace who you are or what you want to push. And I feel like I'm preaching to the choir telling you this stuff, but yeah. It's so true though. Like obviously there's a lot of downsides of social media, many downsides, but one of the huge upsides is the ability to connect with an audience who loves your material in a way that is not funneled through a bunch of network executives who are like, oh, you got to look a certain way, dress a certain way, sound a certain way, just being more authentic to who you really are. Yeah. And that is the exciting thing about it because it's got its downsides, as you said,

because just as everyone has their own comedy, they like their own niche that they like, a lot of people also have their own truth that they like. But the upside is, is that you really can find a way to express yourself and find people that speak to you. Yes. I remember I have a friend who moved to Minnesota last year and I sent her one of your videos. It was about shoveling and like how you need to go around and check out the neighborhood situation. Like, Oh, you need help over here. Okay. And, um, I was like, this is basically what to expect. She was like, excuse me. Yeah. We recently moved to the country. We recently moved to the country. Oh, yeah. Dirt road country, super long driveway that we have to plow with a John Deere.

Oh, nice. Yeah, it's good. Now, is that a job that you enjoy yourself? Well, I did it this morning. Did you do it this morning? Oh, yeah. That's great. Got a heated cab. Yep.

Oh, yeah. The heated cab. Yep. Oh yeah. The heated cab. I have a funny story to tell you and I wanted to get your opinion on this. So my mother is from Southern California, like Los Angeles, California. Okay. Palm trees and 70 degrees. Yeah. 75 and so on. Yeah. My dad is from Northern Minnesota and my mom and dad met one time before they got married. And she said, well, I don't know if I can move to Minnesota without ever having been there. And so she flew to Minnesota to visit it, to see like, could I live here? That was the first time she met him. I have so many follow-up questions. Her facial expressions are like small mind

explosions. So she's like, okay, well, I'm going to give it a try. And she's like, but where will we live? Where will we live? And he told her before she flew to Minnesota, he was like, oh yeah, I got a place. Don't worry about it. I got a place we can live. And she was like, oh, okay, great. And he described his house to her. And so when she flew to Minnesota, she discovered that had was a hunting shack. Wow. He had a hunting shack on 70 acres with dirt floors, an outhouse and no running water. Did he, so he failed to mention he just said he's got four walls yeah he's got a bedroom couple bedrooms which are closets with bunk beds in them that's right that's right it's just some studs and a piece of drywall that's all it is there's no need to finish that out and every year my cousins come and they live with us for a week it's called gear camp that's right

two weekends we'll need to clear out of here two weekends a year we'll have to clear out of here but otherwise it's all ours no he failed to mention that it was his hunting shack with literal dirt floors and she was like i don't know if this will work. And she's coming again from, you know, like, oh, I got a bike for Christmas. Let me go outside and ride my bike on Christmas day. You know, like she's coming from this Southern California princess mentality to like, I want you to live in my hunting shack. Would you bring a woman to live at your hunting shack? Yeah, I mean, conceptually, I don't have a problem. Frankly, I don't have a hunting shack right now. So, you know, I got to acquire one of those,

but if that was all I had, that's all you got. Yeah. So yeah. How much of your sort of Midwestern character is based on your dad? I could tell who he was talking to on the phone based on like how he was talking. If he started saying, yeah, so I says to him, I says, I know he's talking to like one of his brothers, you know, or someone back in Fond du Lac and really his dad, my grandpa, Bob was one of my biggest influences for the mentality and a lot of the, the weird phrasing of things. So quite a bit, I would say, and just family in general, like I got a big family. I'm one of 12. My dad's one seven mom, one of 11. I got like a hundred cousins or something. I first remember my dad saying it, you know, it would be at home. He's very authoritative. You know what I mean? And then

you see him at the fleet farm and someone, you know, is about to run into him and goes, oh, you know, and it's like, he would be like out of my way to like one of us, you know, and he goes, oh, you know, and it's like, oh, that's that politeness. But in his head, he's probably saying, get the hell out of my way. I used to be a wedding photographer. probably saying, get the hell out of my way. I used to be a wedding photographer. And of course, as a wedding photographer, you do a lot of like weaving in and out of guests, trying to get all the different shots and like, you know, trying to like not bump into people, trying to get in between tables, you know, where you're just like trying to squeeze in.

I cannot tell you like average wedding. I probably say like, Oh, it's going to sneak by you here. Uh, 25 times. Yeah. Oh, totally. Sneak right by you. I gotta sneak by. It's, it's an amazing word because everything we put after it says sort of what the word means is like, you know, I'm sorry for acquiring oxygen on this planet, right? It's like, you don't belong anywhere by saying it, but it's like such a, a coy kind of thing to do, but it at the heart of it is just trying to be polite. That's right. Oh, just going to sneak by. Yeah. That's like, that is that it just reflexively comes out of my mouth. I don't think to myself like, oh, I better say that it is. No, that is the phrase

that is my brain just pings to my mouth. Yeah. Or sneak right by squeeze right past you. And what that does is squeeze right past your sneak right by it. It's like, I'm doing all the work here. You know, let me do the work. Let me just mind. I won't, I won't bother you. I'm just going to squeeze or just sneak, you know, you're fine. You're fine. You don't need to move. You don't got to move. You're fine. No, stay right there. Can I get you a beer? Yeah. You're fine. Yeah. You're fine. You're fine. Yeah. That's a whole bit that you're fine. You're fine. We did a Midwest therapist bit where the therapist says, how are you? And the husband and the wife, and I played both the characters. That is a weird one, but we both say at the exact same time, we're fine. You know, because in the Midwest, when someone says they're fine, it's like, oh,

geez, I don't know. Usually you're saying we're fine. It's like, I need to talk to someone. It's all in the inflection. You're right. You're right. All of the inflection. Cause sometimes in the grocery store saying, Oh no, you're fine. It really is. Yeah. You're good. You're fine right there. Yeah. But if someone says, so how are you today? Oh, I'm fine. Call someone. Yeah. Bring this woman a hot dish. Also hot dish. Did you grow up eating it? Uh, yeah. Oh yeah. Hot dish. Well, casserole is what we called it in my household. My grandma called it hot dish. My dad, every time we go up North, he didn't stop working because his work went from his actual work to catching fish. Because if you can catch enough fish for a fish fry for the

family, I mean, that's, you're saving yourself. That's like a lot of money, 200 bucks off the top, you know, that's groceries in the lake there. Do you fish yourself? Well, I mean, to the extent that my dad used to take me fishing and my dad had no sons only daughters and so I often uh was relegated to the role of things one would do with one's son that's like ice fishing oh yeah which I absolutely hated that because that there is nothing more boring for a nine-year-old girl than staring at a hole in the ice yeah well that's true you can't pass the time the way everybody else does by having a few beers nope nope and I don't care about what you're talking about that's not interesting I don't want to hear about any of that. I'm not here to play any board games. One day I remember he took me ice fishing and I was like, can I just

go back to the truck? And he was like, well, what are you going to do in there? And I'm like, I don't know. Just it's has to be warmer in there. So this is what I got to the truck. I dug out all the snacks. Of course he stopped by the quick trip and got me the candy bars before we went, of course, the candy bars. Yeah. We're staying, the snacks were in the truck. So I was out there eating the snacks and I was done with that. And then I was like, there's still nothing left to do. So I invented a game that involved honking the horn in a specific pattern. It's like this went on for approximately 20 minutes, you know, and honk the horn approximately a hundred times at that point, he came back to the truck. He's like, what's going on over here?

You honking, what are you honking the horn for? That was a no-go. You can't just goking. What are you honking the horn for? That was a no go. You can't just go out on the lake and honk the horn. I'm Jenna Fisher. And I'm Angela Kinsey. We are best friends. And together we have the podcast Office Ladies, where we rewatched every single episode of The Office with insane behind the scenes stories, hilarious guests, and lots of laughs. Guess who's sitting next to me? Steve!

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podcasts. We had a restaurant in Superior, Wisconsin, which is across the bridge from where I grew up. Who's we now? Me, I mean, like not we, my family, but there was one. Oh yeah. It was a restaurant there and it was called the elbow room and it's had italian food i think i've been there is it not there is it there still or no no okay all right i've been to an italian restaurant superior i don't know what it was yeah all right but my dad always said oh yeah they got good italian food i italian did your family say italian my grandpa would have done that that's exactly and it's just it's it'd be the weirdest words like why i know you've heard that pronounced the right way yeah not Yeah, no, that's great. But my grandpa absolutely. Oh,

they got good Italian food. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. That's great. Oh, do you want to know something funny? This is, this is something that I had like a little light bulb moment. My husband and I went to Finland and Sweden on a trip one year, and we walked into a bank to change money. And the people there spoke English extremely well. And they could tell that we were probably a little lost, like looking around and they just spoke to us in English. And this is what they said. Oh, Hey, did you need to change any money? And I was like, use that accent. Yes. And I was like, excuse me. And they're like, do you need any help? And I was like, this is where it came from. It is Northern Europeans speaking English. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. So that is an interesting thing too, is because it's, it's got this blend and I,

oh, that's funny. Yeah. Cause the Irish have a little bit, there are hints of the Irish in it and depends where you go, but yeah, it's that very sweet Norwegian kind of deal. And then, yeah, it's just bizarre. It's mixed with, you know, like all of the other people who settled in like settled the upper Midwest, you know, it's evolved over time, but it was really noticeable that in when I just like have that very vivid memory of walking into the bank and then speaking perfect English in what sounded like if you lived in Europe, if you were speaking with a Minnesota accent. Oh, that's so funny. Oh my God. I loved it. I was like, Oh, Hey, Hey, yeah, I do need to change the money. Yeah. It's either, it's either that, or they learned how to speak English by watching like, uh, I'd be honored. That's right. That's

right. Do you, um, feel as a native Wisconsin, do you Wisconsinite, do you feel the rivalry between Minnesota and Wisconsin? Did you grow up feeling that? Well, I will say where I'm located in Wisconsin, Southeastern portion. So the rivalry with Illinois is more prevalent down here, but in touring around, especially doing shows up in the twin cities and Eau Claire, Menominee doing stuff in Hudson, you know, you just, you really feel that, that rivalry even more. Of course the Vikings. Yeah. That's always very complicated. And when the Vikings beat the Packers, it was always, you know, and they've been closer to the Packers on a skill level. I think more so than like, like there's not as much rivalry with Michigan,

although Michigan, there's another rivalry, which state looks more like a mitten. So there's, there's friendly rivalries all the way around, but I would say Minnesota wasn't as strong for me. It's almost become stronger as I've become more educated on our differences. Yeah. on our differences. Yeah. Minnesota and Wisconsin are actually, the history of the states is super interesting and how demographically similar they are. Have you read these articles that were studies done by political scientists who have studied, you know, the sort of twin paths of Minnesota and Wisconsin settled by the same Europeans have the same natural resources in many ways, very, very a hundred years ago, almost exactly similar to one another, but they have their paths have diverged over the last 75 years. Some of that is related to politics. Some of that is related to industry. Some of that is related to industry, you know, et cetera. And so you can really begin to see the differences between the states,

even though they're, they had the same, almost the same origins. Well, and that is interesting, especially seeing, you know, Minnesota is politically speaking has gone more blue. Wisconsin has gone more red historically. And I'm not sure what drives that because you have probably the same number of city centers in both states. They're still very demographically similar, very similar population, similar education levels, similar racial makeups, you know, like it's just, it's fascinating. That's part of like, as a political scientist, some of those things are very interesting to look at. No, I'm very interested. What do you think happened then?

Well, I don't think it's one thing, but some of it does have to do with Wisconsin's decentralized power between Madison and Milwaukee, you know, like they're kind of being that two different, you know, sort of larger population centers, whereas Minnesota really has one population center. It's the twin cities. Much like Illinois. Yes. And so all of the industry, you know, all the, like the targets and the, you know, the general mills and all of that, that is located in Minnesota located in one place.

So that's just one of many many things but some of it has to do with like the two different power center powers of centers of power within Wisconsin and they are not they sometimes have competing interests the industries of Milwaukee you know how Madison has a reputation of like, all those liberals lived down there in Madison. Yeah. No, I think you're, you're right. Very right. Because if you also look at the industry in Wisconsin, I mean, versus Minnesota, we have the paper mills, you know, we, and there aren't as many paper mills in Minnesota. And then we just have more manufacturing, I think. And historically, that used to be more of a Democrat thing. But then the whole union situation. And that's really when Wisconsin, the whole Walker thing, it kind of went more red and a little bit. We got a bunch of complicated politicians, I'll say in this state. Yes, yes, yes. And it became difficult. And again, this is not about anybody's specific political views, but it just became, like you're saying, complicated.

Like, I don't know if I want to support that person, but does that mean I'm changing my party? You know, like a lot of people having those kinds of question marks over their status. their status? There's a lot of people who just want just some common sense policies. Yeah. And there's, I mean, I think that's honestly everybody, but there are a few politicians that have been adequately bribed, we'll say via lobbying. Some people call it lobbying. I think it's just more closer to bribery, but it's true. And these are the, you know, guys still holding the levers of power. And it just makes things frustrating, especially like gerrymandering, you know, when it's like you're cheating in plain sight. And both Democrats and Republicans do it. How that practice is, is, is constitutional and we agree it's okay. I mean, I think that is, well, you know, this, or maybe I'll ask you since like, how,

how is gerrymandering still okay? You know, like question, question, like, why are we still doing that? Yeah. It's like, why are we still rigging the system? Literally because I, I am of the opinion that competition in the political space is better for citizens. Yeah. Yeah. It's better for citizens. If I have multiple quality candidates to choose from versus just being told, well, here's who your Senator is because you have no choice. And that's a lot of what gerrymandering does is it creates a power vacuum where it's so difficult for anybody else to gain traction in that district. And certainly there is some elements of lobbying slash bribing that happens, but the answer is it's technically

not legal. It's not legal to engage in gerrymandering, but people, people do it and say, they're not, you know what I mean? Like they're like, Oh no, we didn't do that. That is not, no, we were trying to draw the boundary around that new development over there in, you know, in Manitowoc. So no, we were not, we were not gerrymandering. It's hard to prove intent, right? Like that's the, that's the challenge. It's difficult to prove the intent of the people who are drawing the maps. So the answer is not, but it still happens. It still happens. It does. They call it redistricting, But it still happens. It still happens. It does. They call it redistricting. But Iowa seems and for those, you know, who might think, oh, he's just a liberal or some Iowa has done it. And that's not a liberal bastion by any means. And also the redistricting. I don't believe in Iowa favored Democrats as much. I mean, I don't think anyway, maybe it did. Just today, there was a, you know, a story that broke about how Ohio has gone through the redistricting process. And a judge looked at

the map that was created and was like, are you kidding me? Absolutely not. This is totally gerrymandered, like, right back to the drawing board. So some states have better checks and balances to catch those kinds of things because every state makes their own rules about how the districts will be drawn. Well, what's complicated about those checks and balances is as we become more politically polarized, the judges have become a liberal judge or a conservative. That's not how that's supposed to be. That's where, then it's just, you might as well be a politician with a rope. And now you got these, these, these radio hosts. We got them in Milwaukee who are like getting mad at these judges by their rulings or they're, they're pushing a certain judge saying it'll, it'll do X, Y. That's not the point of judges. And you guys know that. And you intentionally manipulate a large number of people listening to the radio. And that drives me crazy. Yes.

Being intentionally misleading about what could happen, what will happen, what somebody has the power to do. And then people take actions based on the information they have been misled to believe. Yeah, I know. It's amazing. It's frustrating, Charlie. It's frustrating. It's it's not good it's not fine it's not fine you know if you say if you that's to have that it's not okay honestly that is not okay with me i don't like it i don't approve of it it's not okay it's not okay so why like it. I don't approve of it. It's not okay.

It's not okay. So why is it still going on then? That's right. That's what I want to know. Yeah. Someone's really screwing the pooch. I tell you that right now. Somebody needs to clamp that down and fix it.

Pump the brakes on that one right there. We got to do a video. We got to do a video. I would love that. I would love that. Your accent's too good. Thank you so much for doing this. Oh, a lot of fun so fun you have a fantastic comedy tour people thank you is it like how do people get tickets to that first oh yeah you can go to charliebarrons.com got all the tour dates listed up there and merch the book anything you want to get in addition to that you can get it up

there and it's all on a nice website that I did not design did you make that yourself well actually my friend my friend made it for me yeah it's real nice of her yeah oh so for yeah for for crape sake honest to pete yeah I do need I going to need some merch that says Ove on it. Because I definitely would. I say that all the time. The people listening to this are going to be like, my ears are bleeding. They'll get over it. Just put some cotton in there.

Put on your earmuffs. Totally fine. Thank you, Charlie. This was super fun. Yeah on your earmuffs. Totally fine. Thank you, Charlie. This was super fun. Yeah. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you so much for listening to the Sharon Says So podcast. I am truly grateful for you. And I'm wondering if you could do me a quick favor. Would you be willing to follow or subscribe to this podcast or maybe leave me a rating or a review? Or if you're feeling extra generous, would you share this episode on your Instagram stories

or with a friend? All of those things help podcasters out so much. This podcast was written and researched by Sharon McMahon and Heather Jackson. It was produced by Heather Jackson, edited and mixed by our audio producer, Jenny Snyder, and hosted by me, Sharon McMahon. I'll see you next time.