By GINA KINSLOW
GLASGOW — Killer Beaz jokes about how he got his start in show business.
“I didn’t do my homework when I was growing up,” he said. “So it was either be funny for money or get a job.”
Beaz, who was born Truett S. Beasley Jr., has been doing stand-up comedy for 27 years. He’s bringing his show to the Plaza Theatre on Nov. 7.
“That has been my sole source of income. I considered going on the pageant circuit, but I’m just too lazy to learn a talent for the talent competition,” he said.
He got his start in show business playing blues guitar for a band in Jackson, Miss. His nickname has always been “Beaz,” short for Beasley. He was given the stage name “Killer Beaz” one night while performing a guitar solo. A man in the audience, after his performance was over, yelled “‘That was killer, Beaz.’”
And the name stuck.
He worked under the name Killer Beaz as a guitar player for several years before launching his stand-up comedy career in 1982, using the same stage name.
During his 27-year career, Killer Beaz has made more than 100 television performances and his comedy is broadcast on several nationally syndicated radio shows.
“I have always been compelled to make people laugh and smile,” he said. He attributes that to having grown up in an apartment located above a funeral home.
“My dad was an embalmer, as well as a police officer,” he said.
He thinks it was watching people coming to the funeral home, grieving for those they had lost, that made him want to bring them happiness and make them laugh.
The material he uses in his act comes from everyday life.
“It’s basically about family life. I’m a husband and a dad and I’m lucky enough to have the gift of gab,” he said. “I try to go with things that are universal, things that everyone deals with.”
Beaz is cautious about what he says in his act and says it is a family show with very few cuss words.
“I try not to get dirty and offensive,” he said. “There may be three cuss words in an hour. I would rather make people laugh and fall over hysterical rather than risk offending people.”
He admits he sometimes incorporates stories about his own children into his act. He and his wife have two boys, ages 18 and 14.
Beaz has released several comedy CDs. His latest project, he said, is “another hour’s worth of stand-up comedy.” He is planning to release a DVD in conjunction with the CD.
Beaz’s show begins at 7 p.m. “I’m kind of a storyteller and I’m real fast paced and I put a bunch of punch lines in there. I want to entertain the audience and I want to do it real hard and real fast and I want people to be drained when they leave.”
For ticket information, call the Plaza at (270) 361-2101 or visit the theater’s Web page at www.plaza.org.
