Funnyman and MC alumnus Drew Morgan continues to carve out a national comedy career
Feb. 20, 2023
Driving through North Hollywood, comedian Drew Morgan ’06 feels almost as comfortable in one of the country’s largest metropolitan areas as he does on the campus of his alma mater.
However, the familiarity with which he navigates Southern California stems from the pop culture zeitgeist more so than any personal intimacy.
“It’s the weirdest thing, because everything seems so familiar, and then you realize that you’re a ’90s kid, and the b-roll for every music video on MTV was shot out here, so you’ll see something and realize, ‘Oh, that was on TRL for three years straight!’” Morgan says. “I remember when I first moved out here, I saw this high school, and I just got really nostalgic even though I never went there, and then I realized it’s because it’s been in, like, nine movies because it’s so architecturally distinctive!”
The campus of Maryville College is a place that evokes a similar sense of belonging, and for good reason: The seeds of everything he does today were planted in the shadow of Thaw Hall’s pillars, of Copeland Hall’s archways, of the sound of bats connecting with baseballs on Scotland Yard in the spring and the cheer of pals filling the Lloyd L. Thornton Stadium in the fall.
Morgan — whose comedy special “To My Future Kids, I’m Sorry” recently debuted on Amazon Prime — doesn’t get a chance to return as often as he’d like, but the MC approach encouraging students to study everything in order to prepare for anything holds true, 17 years after he received his degree in Political Science.
“Maryville provided me with a core group of people that I rely on still, separate from my hometown, who helped me in law school and in Hollywood,” he says. “When I’m remembering who to trust, a lot of them are Maryville College people, and that alone was worth the price tag, the work, the effort. I don’t know if you get something like that at a giant school. Maryville College was and is such a tight-knit community, and I needed that.”
A Southern distinctive
It’s not a stretch to say that his small-town roots and his MC experiences have kept Morgan grounded as he navigates the trappings of quasi-celebrityhood that took him West with his wife, Andi Morrow ’09. (“Like a big ol’ cornball,” he points out, he proposed to her outside of Copeland Hall on Homecoming weekend 2009.)
A native of Morgan County, Tennessee, Morgan grew up watching Comedy Central, and when Morrow pushed him to try his hand at stand-up, he fell in with a group of East Tennessee comedians after completing law school. A few years later, he moved to New York, where he worked on his craft, and then in 2016, friend and comedy partner Trae Crowder — a.k.a. “The Liberal Redneck” — became something of a viral sensation. Suddenly, the two men — along with fellow Southern comedian Corey Ryan Forrester — found doors opening that allowed them to make a definitive statement:
“That hillbillies, country people, rednecks, rural folks, woodchucks, whatever word you want to throw at us — that we’re not just an important part of the country because we grow the food. We’ve also shaped the culture from the very beginning,” Morgan says. “We’re awesome, and we’re really funny, especially when we jump off high stuff and blow things up.”
Rather than fall back on standard Southern comic tropes — the affable bumbling of Larry the Cable Guy or the goofy innocence of Gomer Pyle — Morgan drew inspiration from Southern musicians like the Drive-By Truckers and Sturgill Simpson. With Crowder and Forrester, he realized that a large fanbase will tune in to comedy that showcases both Southern authenticity and intelligence, and they set out to meet those expectations without changing themselves or their material.
They wrote a book — “The Liberal Redneck Manifesto: Draggin’ Dixie Out of the Dark” — and hit the road together, a package performance known as the WellRED Comedy Tour that continues to offer all three men a platform to share their Southern anecdotes, observations and witticisms to nationwide audiences. (The trio will perform at 8 p.m. Saturday, May 20, at The Bijou Theatre in downtown Knoxville.)
Now, they’re getting top billing in an Amazon Prime comedy special that took some work to bring to life, but serves as a good introduction for those who may be unfamiliar with the WellRED way, Morgan says.
“Things were going really well for us — we got a lot done, toured all over the U.S. and Canada doing sold-out shows, and we sold a bunch of ideas for TV shows and podcasts and other things that were pretty big deals at the time, even if they didn’t get greenlit,” he says. “For me personally, I became the stand-up comic I wanted to become. I love standup more than anything else, and I want to focus on that, but then the pandemic comes along and really kills my momentum.
“It started to kill my spirit, too, and so I moved to Nashville for a month as soon as it was over to get some stage time at Zanies (Comedy Club). Well, a company we had worked with before offered to do three 30-minute specials for each of us, so we shot those in December 2020 at Zanies, and we expected them to come out in April 2021.
“That didn’t happen, so now it’s coming out a year and a half later, which is kind of frustrating because we talk about the pandemic a lot, even though I think the jokes are timeless,” he adds. “The good thing is, folks can watch the special, and if they like it, they can come see me on the road, and everything in the show is new material.”
Building a fanbase
When he’s not on the road, he’s pursuing individual goals — a monthly gig at The Comedy Store in L.A. in which he uses both his comedy and law chops for a bit known as “Culture Court,” for example — and knocking on doors that he hopes will pay dividends in the form of additional comedy specials or opportunities.
And then there’s the overarching goal of what he, Crowder and Forrester still hope to accomplish as the WellRED team.
“WellRED had and has something very specific to say, and as soon as Hollywood gives us a chance to say that, whether in a scripted sitcom show, a late-night show, or something else on a big platform, it’ll be like we did it,” he says. “Personal goals exist alongside that, but to say the thing we’ve been trying to say for years on a platform big enough for that, that’s the goal. And for me, I want to be a standup comic with a fanbase of a big chunk of people who have been with me since day one, mixed with new people who are excited about where we’re going, and with WellRED nation, I’ve got that.
“My fanbase has challenged me for years to think about things differently. For example, I have a huge trans following, and I’m happy about that. I really want that to keep happening, because they make me think about the world. That’s what I want: A career that has a fanbase that challenges me to think.
“Well, and a fanbase that spends money!” he (sort of) jokes.