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Today Fredericksburg, tomorrow the world: R. Bruce brings laughs to the 'Burg. |
BY HEATHER BRADY
R. Bruce has one band sticker on his guitar case. It's black, shaped like a crow and it accompanies the word "Fragile" stamped on the outside.
It's the sticker of the band Old Crow Medicine Show--a band the musician's son introduced him to a few years ago. Bruce says he was "in a musical rut" before discovering them, only opening his guitar case when he was getting paid for a gig.
Now, thanks to a little inspirational Old Crow medicine and a newly signed contract with entertainment company Green Room Presents, the local artist is going international with his new show. He aims to perform in Australia as well as the United Kingdom.
Before Bruce leaves town to begin his tour, though, he's doing his biannual Fredericksburg performance at Colonial Tavern this weekend.
"I'm doing a whole bunch of songs and stand-up," he said. "[It's] the traditional [full] comedy club act."
Bruce said this show will have a loose feel to it, unlike the new, more structured show he's working on for his international tour.
"[I'll do] whatever hits me at the moment," he said.
Bruce has already had some international success, at the 2008 Melbourne International Comedy Festival in Australia--and he's hoping to expand his audience with his new show.
He said the new material for the tour is woven together into something resembling an off-Broadway play, rather than a stand-up comedy and song routine.
According to Bruce's Green Room Presents manager, Calvin Wynter, the semi-autobiographical performance will show in at least two off-Broadway theaters.
"It's not only about the material, it's the person," Wynter said. The goal he has in mind for Bruce is to help him create a new one-person show, and then to tour that show.
Wynter said it's about Bruce's persona. "That's why we're working with him."
"I never thought of myself as a playwright," Bruce said. "I am a songwriter who writes funny songs."
The song "Too Much Butt (for One Pair of Jeans)" is the perfect example of this self-description. In the tune, Bruce sings, "I've had a whole lot of things but I tell you what, I ain't never had too much butt."
But Bruce has now threaded those funny songs together to create a play with the working title "R. Bruce: No Regrets," which he says resembles his usual song and stand-up comedy routine, but with more structure.
Recently, Bruce's songs have been played frequently.
"According to Cashbox Roadhouse Blues and Boogie Top 40, the song 'Too Much Butt for One Pair of Jeans' was No. 1 for half the year," he said. "I get daily airplay [on Sirius], every day since May."
Bruce is even getting air time on TV channels, satellite radio, NPR and airline radio stations. His "Morning Song" got 302 plays in the month of December.
"Royalties are just thrilling," he said. "I get a certain amount of cents from airlines that play my songs on their stations."
More airplay also means more income for Bruce, who said the slight increase in funds came as a surprise to him, given the country's current economic state.
"[My wife and I] had some people over for dinner one night, and as we were making the food, I started joking around," he said. "She told me, 'We don't need your little butt jokes.' I told her, 'My little butt jokes are probably what put this food on the table!'"
Bruce described his motivation for being a musician and comedian, saying that it relates directly to one's gifts.
"I do it because it's what I'm good at, regardless of the difficulty in making it a profession," he said. "The performing and writing are the easiest part of what entertainers do.
"Sometimes the most talented and creative are the ones that suck the most at the business side of things," he said. "That's why I'm looking forward to a long, healthy relationship with Green Room."
Wynter is encouraging the comedian to open up so he can "take that from pen to paper to a live audience, where he's vulnerable."
R. Bruce knows all about that.
"There is nothing more naked than being by yourself on a stage hoping to be funny," he said.
