From his early days imitating comedy legends to navigating the joys and challenges of a blended family with 25 grandchildren, Steven Brown’s life is a masterclass in resilience. In this candid conversation with Jen Gault, the entertainer and veteran shares how he balances humor, faith, and his passion for the arts, proving that no matter the stage, life is always better with a punchline.

 

Groups, Comedy Influences, and Family

Steven Brown:

Groups, and this is way before your time, the Marx Brothers, Abbott and Costello, and Bob Hope. Okay, who else? They made the road movies. Anyway.

My mom will tell you that even as a small child, in my earliest days when I could talk, I was trying to make her laugh. I could always find a punchline somewhere. Sometimes it’s in my head, and I think, “I shouldn’t say that out loud nowadays.” I’m a little more, a little more, what’s the word?

 

Jen Gault: 

Reserved?

 

Steven Brown:

Yeah, reserved. I don’t want to offend people, but sometimes it just comes out, especially if I’m around my wife. She just rolls her eyes. So, you know.

 

Jen Gault:

So, I was reading that there are nine children between the two of you, and you have 25 grandchildren. How does all that work? Do you work that into your comedy sometimes?

 

Steven Brown:

Yeah, there are a couple of jokes about that, but just the fact that you have 25 grandchildren, people react to that alone because it’s unusual.

 

Jen Gault:

Right.

 

Steven Brown:

It’s a blended family, but still, it’s yours, mine, and theirs, not yours, mine, and ours.

My wife had three boys before we met. I had four children and adopted two, so I had six total, and that’s the total of nine. They’re all grown and having babies.

My oldest boy, who lives up in Indiana, and his wife, they have six by themselves.

 

Jen Gault:

Yeah. Oh! Well, you got the family tree multiplying down. That’s amazing. Literally.

 

Steven Brown:

Yes!

 

Jen Gault:

A lot of people don’t. They’re like, “I’m two and done.” But that’s awesome. 

Well, take me back, because you said it started when you were a little kid, or when you were younger, you made your mom laugh. What were some of your favorite cartoons? And who would you say, comedian wise, really stood out to you as you got older?

 

Steven Brown:

Well, I don’t know. My favorite cartoons as a kid, of course, were Bugs Bunny and Road Runner, and all those. Those lasted for quite a while.

My earliest recollection of what you’d call a comedian, a stand up comedian, was Red Skelton. If you remember him, or if you’ve heard of him, look him up. He’s very funny, and I would imitate his style.

And Martin and Jerry Lewis, they had a lot of funny movies together. A lot of people don’t like Jerry Lewis, but I thought he was hilarious. 

Maybe. Not so much now, but he’s passed away. I mean, that shouldn’t be funny, but that’s funny.

Comedy tastes have changed a little bit toward the more sophisticated, but not so much sometimes.

I’m older now, and I have what’s called the “Here For” disease.

 

Jen Gault:

Here for?

 

Steven Brown:

Okay. Have you heard of that?

 

Jen Gault:

I have not.

 

Steven Brown:

I walk into a room, and I wonder, “What was I here for?”

 

Jen Gault:

Oh, no. That’s terrible! That’s so funny.

 

Steven Brown:

I know. Any room. Any room. It doesn’t even matter.

So, I like to buy shoes with memory foam insoles. I figured that might help with my memory, but…

 

Jen Gault:

Oh, I like it! Oh, you have a knack for this. I can tell.

 

Steven Brown:

Well, I used to tell dad jokes. But now I’m a grandpa, so I tell grandpa jokes. They’re basically the same thing, recycled dad jokes.

 

Jen Gault:

Okay. You have to give me a couple of grandpa jokes. I know a few grandpas.

 

Steven Brown:

Oh, yeah. Why do the seagulls fly over the sea?

 

Jen Gault:

Why?

 

Steven Brown:

If they flew over the bay, they’d be bagels.

 

Jen Gault:

Oh, my goodness! That’s funny. That’s cute. That’s funny.

 

Family Friendly Comedy

Jen Gault:

This is one thing I really want to ask you, because there are so many comedians out there, and it is hard to do clean, funny comedy.

Whenever I hear one, I might be on YouTube or something, and someone will pop up. It starts out safe, and then it just goes down the wrong road.

How do you come up with such good family friendly comedy?

 

Steven Brown:

I’ve got some that kind of push the envelope. I better not where I’m at, but if I’m, you know…

I’ve done comedy at church events and used the dance and stuff like that.

Actually, the biggest compliment from an audience member is to hear someone laugh so hard they snort. Have you heard that?

I know. I take it as a compliment. They’re not reserving themselves. They’re just laughing so hard.

Anyway, this young girl laughed at something so hard. Some people don’t get my humor, but…

See, I was born in Texas and grew up in Arkansas. But I left Arkansas as soon as I found out I could.

But, to be fair, I lived in a bad part of Arkansas called Arkansas.

 

Jen Gault:

I keep trying to stop myself from laughing!

 

 

Acting, Music, and Moving Back Home

Steven Brown: 

I haven’t done stand up in a while, and I’m mostly focusing on music and acting. I filmed my 60th acting role down in Tallahassee.
We just moved back from Florida to Missouri. We were down there for about four and a half years, and we decided to come back here. It’s more like home.
More family and friends here. No punchline there. That’s all. Just real.

 

Jen Gault:

That’s good. So, you moved from Florida back to Missouri. You said there’s more family there. You said you’ve been doing more singing and things like that.

 

Steven Brown:

A lot. In Florida, I did a lot, and then I lost my voice. You can tell it’s not 100% right now. I can still sing, but not at the volume or the range that I had before.

So, I have to be very selective on the vocal parts of the songs I do. I’ve been doing more instrumentals.

 

Jen Gault:

Oh, nice.

 

Steven Brown:

Playing guitar, and then interspersing my vocals sparingly so as not to wear out my voice.

 

Jen Gault:

Right. So, how did you lose your voice? Was it too much laughing? A heckler? Something?

 

Steven Brown:

No. It was just crazy.

One afternoon, I was singing at a nursing home, actually, and I was really pushing it. I had a sore throat already. It was cold that day. I went outside, and I was loading and unloading, got hot and sweaty, and I pushed my voice. It got to the point where I could barely talk.

So, I went back and forth between different doctors and finally got a specialist. They found, first of all, calluses on my vocal cords. And they found a polyp.

Those went away without any surgery, but it’s still not 100%.
I don’t know if I have to live with this the rest of my life or what, but I’ve been trying to pivot and do other things.

 

 

Jen Gault:

Right.

 

Steven Brown:

Do more videography, photography, video and audio recording, editing, that kind of thing.

When life hands you lemons, take those lemons and make something out of them. That’s kind of what happened.

 

 

Jen Gault:

I was looking for lemonade, or Lemonheads, but…

 

Steven Brown:

Yeah, no.

 

Jen Gault:

So, wait a minute. You said the calluses and the polyp just disappeared? 

 

Steven Brown:

It took a while. It took a while. They kept doing the rhinoscope thing down in there to take a look at it.

 

Jen Gault:

Okay.

 

Steven Brown:

They got small.

 

Jen Gault:

So, it finally went away, but it still…

 

Steven Brown:

Yeah. But not 100%.

 

Music, Family Influences, and Character Voices

Jen Gault:

Well, your voice still sounds very good. And your birthday grams, I’m just gonna say, I look forward to it every year.

 

Steven Brown: 

That newest version had someone else singing because my voice wasn’t up to it.
I had someone cover it for me because I wanted a better recording.
I had several versions of that same song before, with me playing live and then me doing the recording on my computer. It just didn’t match what I wanted it to be. So, eventually, I paid for someone else to record it.
And it came out pretty good. Although, it came out a little more country sounding than I anticipated. Someone the other day said, “You know, I don’t really like country music, but I like your voice.” I didn’t correct him to say it wasn’t my voice, but I said, “Okay. Whatever.”

 

Jen Gault: 

All right. Well, Country is still, like, number one in the country. For real. So, a lot of people like it.

 

Steven Brown: 

As I grew up in Texas and Arkansas, I heard a lot of country growing up. So, I got kind of burned out on it, I guess.

My dad was a musician and singer, and he had a band. Back then, in the ’70s and ’80s, you might call it progressive country. They did some rock and roll stuff, like Elvis and Creedence Clearwater Revival.
But their mainstay was the old country favorites because they played all the big places around Craighead County, Arkansas. The Moose Lodge, the Elks Lodge, the VFW.

 

Jen Gault: 

Oh, those big places.

Steven Brown:

Yeah. It was called Wilbur Brown and the Castaways, now. If that’s not a country band, I don’t know what is.

 

Jen Gault:

It’s very country.

 

Steven Brown:

Yeah. No. When you heard him talk, you would think he was very country, and he was. Of course, he talked like he was right here in the area.

He sounded a little bit like Carl or Slim from a movie. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen it.

 

This is only the beginning of our conversation. Join us for Part 2 on Friday, October 16th, when we go beyond the laughs to explore the quiet strength, faith, and life lessons that have shaped Steven Brown’s journey.