- Sep 13, 2002
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And it's a fantastic read, too:
(Image via the “Manitowoc Minute” on YouTube)
When Charlie Berens tried to make a career in broadcast journalism, he was told to lose the accent—the Midwestern accent. Berens grew up one of 12 children in Wisconsin, New Berlin and Elm Grove, respectively, and attended UW Madison. His exaggerated “oh geez” and “cripes” is a staple of his comedy routine, which gently and not so gently mocks and celebrates what makes the Midwest so Midwesty.
But before the comedy, there was news. Berens worked for MTV during the 2008 election, was a reporter and host for a Dallas television station, where he won an Emmy, and worked as a host for entertainment and sports outlets in Los Angeles. But everywhere he went, he was told he was too Midwestern. He kept calling water fountains “bubblers,” and his vowels were too rounded for voice-over work.
Berens began making humorous internet videos mocking the things about him that others found to be a drawback—his Midwesterness. The videos were popular. In 2016, Berens made a video of him doing a voice-over for Jack Dawson in Titanic, reimagining Jack as Jack from the Chippewa Dawsons.
In 2017, he posted a video of a fake news show called the Manitowoc Minute, where he plays a newscaster who says “holy smokes” and tells Prairie Home Companion-ish jokes about the news.
It was a hit. And Berens made more. A lot more. The Manitowoc Minute spawned a stand-up tour and now a book, The Midwest Survival Guide: How We Talk, Love, Work, Drink, and Eat…Everything with Ranch, which was published last year.
But if Beren’s humor hones in on the bland wholesomeness of the Midwestern ethos, he also finds its edges. His stand-up comedy is a send up of this beautiful middle place of America where people will gladly share their snow blowers and their Covid with their neighbors. Where sometimes the niceness is nice and sometimes it's down right threatening. One of my favorite recent sketches of Berens likens the Midwestern goodbye to a hostage crisis.
Berens is on tour right now (and some shows still have tickets!). But he graciously took time to answer my questions about the Midwest and explain how bars are like churches and the secret Kwik Trip menu, and he even divulged a twist on a Wisconsin old-fashioned that could blow your mind. If you like, you can follow Charlie on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.
This interview was edited for length and clarity.
Lyz Lenz: Okay, what does it mean to be a Midwesterner?
Charlie Berens: If you try to leave a party, and two hours later, you are still trying to say goodbye, that party is most likely hosted by a Midwesterner.
LL: What makes us do that? Is that passive aggressiveness? Is it an inability to be direct?
CB: You know, I think you could say it’s passive aggressive, but I like to look at it as just a deep-seated fear of purgatory. There’s a lot of the Catholic roots going on. I grew up Catholic, but there’s a big population of Catholics in Wisconsin. And that seeps into it. But I think generally speaking in the Midwest, what I think drives this whole sensibility is sort of the seasons. And we have spring, summer, fall, but mostly it’s just winter. And I think when you survive a Midwest winter, you’ve got that communal sense of, “Ah, geez Louise, again? Negative 20.” Kind of a “we’re all in this together” sense. So there’s that underlying sort of sensibility of help first, ask questions later. Knowing it’ll come around, but even if it don’t, helping is still the right thing to do.
LL: It’s a sensibility really connected to the land. Even if you’re not a farmer, and very few people are, it’s a connection to the elements and survival that I think is not present in other places where there are tall buildings and you can escape the wind chill, right?
CB: Yeah, a lot of Midwesteners just love the brutal winters. They love it in the sense that even in the winter, a lot of people will see a dead, despairing frozen lake, but a Midwesterner just sees that as a, “Yeah, you know, I bet you there’s some walleyes underneath that ice.” And they find them.
LL: I remember moving to Minnesota and thinking that people did more outdoor activities in the winter than they did in the summer. And that’s messed up.
CB: I think you just notice it more in the winter because when you’re outside in the summer, it’s like, “Well, of course.” But in the winter you’re like, “Why in the heck would you do that?” So in a lot of ways, it’s an improv game. And if you look at where improv started, really, it was in Chicago with the Second City. And a big part of improv is, is you say, “Yes,” and then, “And.” And what that is, is if somebody gives you a prompt, you don’t deny it. You just say, “How can I add to this?”
And I don’t think it’s a mistake that that sort of system developed in the Midwest because, it’s like, “Yes, it’s freezing out. Yes, it’s cold, and we’re going to go sit in a little hut and look for deers for the next eight hours.”
I mean, it’s the hand-warmer capital of the world for a reason. We don’t let the elements get in the way, and we find a lot of enjoyment in the “Yes,” to the situations God presents, and then we give it the “And.”
LL: I think of the Midwest as a place that doesn’t really insist on itself. New Yorkers cannot shut up about New York. Texans can’t shut up about Texas. So, it’s possible that we’re often misunderstood. So what do you think people just don’t really understand about the Midwest?
CB: Well, I think a lot of people see it as a bunch of flyover states. Largely white, just as homogenous as a Monsanto cornfield. But the truth of it is, there’s a lot of diversity in the Midwest. There are obviously the Indigenous people and cultures that are native to this land. You’ve got the largest population of Hmong immigrants in the Midwest, in Minneapolis. And if you look at the story, the Hmong people, how they fought with the U.S. side by side in the Vietnam war and then were promised asylum, and then that promise was sort of broken. But still Hmong people found their way here.
There is a chef, Chef Yia Vang out of Minneapolis. He’s got an amazing story about his dad leading their whole village after the war, after they were sort of left there, deserted. Leading their whole village down the mountain, through the river, and over to the refugee camp to safety, and then eventually find their way to the Midwest. And it’s just, there’s no better Midwest story than his.
But also, you’ve also got the Great Migration, where if you look at Chicago Blues, it’s rooted in Delta Blues. And the trains brought musicians up and from the Delta to Chicago, and that’s where you get the Chicago Blues. And without the Chicago Blues, there would be no Beatles, there’d be no Rolling Stones. And you look at Motown in Detroit. So there’s just that ton of diversity. I think it’s convenient for people to skip over that and say, “Oh, it’s just a bunch of white people doing redneck things on the ice or whatever.” But it’s a very interesting place, and I can go on and on about it.
The Religious Experience of a Small Town Bar
Comedian Charlie Berens on what makes the Midwest worth joking about
(Image via the “Manitowoc Minute” on YouTube)When Charlie Berens tried to make a career in broadcast journalism, he was told to lose the accent—the Midwestern accent. Berens grew up one of 12 children in Wisconsin, New Berlin and Elm Grove, respectively, and attended UW Madison. His exaggerated “oh geez” and “cripes” is a staple of his comedy routine, which gently and not so gently mocks and celebrates what makes the Midwest so Midwesty.
But before the comedy, there was news. Berens worked for MTV during the 2008 election, was a reporter and host for a Dallas television station, where he won an Emmy, and worked as a host for entertainment and sports outlets in Los Angeles. But everywhere he went, he was told he was too Midwestern. He kept calling water fountains “bubblers,” and his vowels were too rounded for voice-over work.
Berens began making humorous internet videos mocking the things about him that others found to be a drawback—his Midwesterness. The videos were popular. In 2016, Berens made a video of him doing a voice-over for Jack Dawson in Titanic, reimagining Jack as Jack from the Chippewa Dawsons.
In 2017, he posted a video of a fake news show called the Manitowoc Minute, where he plays a newscaster who says “holy smokes” and tells Prairie Home Companion-ish jokes about the news.
It was a hit. And Berens made more. A lot more. The Manitowoc Minute spawned a stand-up tour and now a book, The Midwest Survival Guide: How We Talk, Love, Work, Drink, and Eat…Everything with Ranch, which was published last year.
But if Beren’s humor hones in on the bland wholesomeness of the Midwestern ethos, he also finds its edges. His stand-up comedy is a send up of this beautiful middle place of America where people will gladly share their snow blowers and their Covid with their neighbors. Where sometimes the niceness is nice and sometimes it's down right threatening. One of my favorite recent sketches of Berens likens the Midwestern goodbye to a hostage crisis.
Berens is on tour right now (and some shows still have tickets!). But he graciously took time to answer my questions about the Midwest and explain how bars are like churches and the secret Kwik Trip menu, and he even divulged a twist on a Wisconsin old-fashioned that could blow your mind. If you like, you can follow Charlie on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.
This interview was edited for length and clarity.
Lyz Lenz: Okay, what does it mean to be a Midwesterner?
Charlie Berens: If you try to leave a party, and two hours later, you are still trying to say goodbye, that party is most likely hosted by a Midwesterner.
LL: What makes us do that? Is that passive aggressiveness? Is it an inability to be direct?
CB: You know, I think you could say it’s passive aggressive, but I like to look at it as just a deep-seated fear of purgatory. There’s a lot of the Catholic roots going on. I grew up Catholic, but there’s a big population of Catholics in Wisconsin. And that seeps into it. But I think generally speaking in the Midwest, what I think drives this whole sensibility is sort of the seasons. And we have spring, summer, fall, but mostly it’s just winter. And I think when you survive a Midwest winter, you’ve got that communal sense of, “Ah, geez Louise, again? Negative 20.” Kind of a “we’re all in this together” sense. So there’s that underlying sort of sensibility of help first, ask questions later. Knowing it’ll come around, but even if it don’t, helping is still the right thing to do.
LL: It’s a sensibility really connected to the land. Even if you’re not a farmer, and very few people are, it’s a connection to the elements and survival that I think is not present in other places where there are tall buildings and you can escape the wind chill, right?
CB: Yeah, a lot of Midwesteners just love the brutal winters. They love it in the sense that even in the winter, a lot of people will see a dead, despairing frozen lake, but a Midwesterner just sees that as a, “Yeah, you know, I bet you there’s some walleyes underneath that ice.” And they find them.
LL: I remember moving to Minnesota and thinking that people did more outdoor activities in the winter than they did in the summer. And that’s messed up.
CB: I think you just notice it more in the winter because when you’re outside in the summer, it’s like, “Well, of course.” But in the winter you’re like, “Why in the heck would you do that?” So in a lot of ways, it’s an improv game. And if you look at where improv started, really, it was in Chicago with the Second City. And a big part of improv is, is you say, “Yes,” and then, “And.” And what that is, is if somebody gives you a prompt, you don’t deny it. You just say, “How can I add to this?”
And I don’t think it’s a mistake that that sort of system developed in the Midwest because, it’s like, “Yes, it’s freezing out. Yes, it’s cold, and we’re going to go sit in a little hut and look for deers for the next eight hours.”
I mean, it’s the hand-warmer capital of the world for a reason. We don’t let the elements get in the way, and we find a lot of enjoyment in the “Yes,” to the situations God presents, and then we give it the “And.”
LL: I think of the Midwest as a place that doesn’t really insist on itself. New Yorkers cannot shut up about New York. Texans can’t shut up about Texas. So, it’s possible that we’re often misunderstood. So what do you think people just don’t really understand about the Midwest?
CB: Well, I think a lot of people see it as a bunch of flyover states. Largely white, just as homogenous as a Monsanto cornfield. But the truth of it is, there’s a lot of diversity in the Midwest. There are obviously the Indigenous people and cultures that are native to this land. You’ve got the largest population of Hmong immigrants in the Midwest, in Minneapolis. And if you look at the story, the Hmong people, how they fought with the U.S. side by side in the Vietnam war and then were promised asylum, and then that promise was sort of broken. But still Hmong people found their way here.
There is a chef, Chef Yia Vang out of Minneapolis. He’s got an amazing story about his dad leading their whole village after the war, after they were sort of left there, deserted. Leading their whole village down the mountain, through the river, and over to the refugee camp to safety, and then eventually find their way to the Midwest. And it’s just, there’s no better Midwest story than his.
But also, you’ve also got the Great Migration, where if you look at Chicago Blues, it’s rooted in Delta Blues. And the trains brought musicians up and from the Delta to Chicago, and that’s where you get the Chicago Blues. And without the Chicago Blues, there would be no Beatles, there’d be no Rolling Stones. And you look at Motown in Detroit. So there’s just that ton of diversity. I think it’s convenient for people to skip over that and say, “Oh, it’s just a bunch of white people doing redneck things on the ice or whatever.” But it’s a very interesting place, and I can go on and on about it.
