MADISON, Wis. — Comedian Charlie Berens is set to bring his uniquely Midwestern humor to the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s winter commencement this weekend.
News 3 Now’s Brady Mallory and Charlotte Deleste caught up with Berens this week to preview his commencement address.
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This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Brady Mallory: Oh jeez Louse! It’s Charlie Berens! How are ya?
Charlie Berens: Oh I’m doing just fine, how are you doing?
Brady Mallory: Oh, you know. Real good here.
Charlie Berens: Oh, you know. No I don’t, tell me, ya know, or no?
Brady Mallory: We could go on and on with this.
Charlotte Deleste: Yeah, there’s a couple, two, tree things we gotta talk about here, ya know. So you’re going to be coming back here. How does it feel to be coming back to your alma mater?
Charlie Berens: Honestly it’s just a crazy honor to do that. You know, you look at all the notable people that have graduated from UW and you’re like, ‘Wow, you know, I better not screw the pooch on this one,’ I’ll tell ya that right now.
Brady Mallory: One thing I love about you is, I mean, you’ve really embraced being from Wisconsin, being a Midwesterner. You know, a lot of people try to escape their roots, but you’ve made a whole career out of it. What would your advice be to students who — as they enter the workforce — what would your advice be to them about embracing who they are and not running away from who they are?
Charlie Berens: I think it is a lot of diving down and finding out, you know, really kind of what lights you up, what makes you you, and that could be where you’re from or whatever it is. For me, that’s what it was. I love Wisconsin, I love comedy. That lit me up and I kind of just embraced it, and when I did, you know, everything happened from that point. And that was after spending a lot of years — like 10 years — trying to be really something I wasn’t, and you can find success doing something you’re not passionate about and you can find success doing something you’re passionate about, so, you know, you might as well do the thing you’re passionate about or at least give it a go.
Charlotte Deleste: Charlie, what kind of pearls of wisdom do you plan to share with the graduates?
Charlie Berens: Oh jeez Louise, you know, I wrote this speech, I’m feeling good about it, but really it’s a lot about taking chances, you know, and I think when I first graduated I was very concerned about what my peers thought about me, you know, and that was in an age when we weren’t even posting as much stuff on social media but we were starting to. And I think sort of a trap people can get in is that they care so much about what people think and they want to post it or show it, and so you’re trying to be something you’re not almost off the top, and I think nobody really cares what you’re doing so you might as well sort of do what you love and see where that takes you, you know, and not worry if you’re not making a lot of money right out the gate. I certainly wasn’t. I was doing odd jobs… weird jobs — nothing too weird, okay? Life is fun and I think it’s about finding that fun and finding your true self, and sometimes we can lose our way, especially early on.
@channel3000_wisc Oh Jeez Louise! @CharlieBerens stopped by Live at Four to preview his address for @uwmadison’s winter commencement this weekend. Watch the whole interview on Channel3000.com. #fyp #CharlieBerens #UWMadison #Midwest #comedy #journalism #ope ♬ original sound – Channel3000/News 3 Now
Brady Mallory: And while you’re here, I believe you’re signing your book and it’s all kind of a survival guide about being from the Midwest. You’re kind of an ambassador of the Midwest now. How do you feel about that title?
Charlie Berens: Well look, I mean truthfully what my comedy is is — I’m not inventing this stuff. When I say ‘Watch out for deer,’ I didn’t invent that, you know, my grandpa used to say that to me, and I know what it means, it means ‘I love you’ in a lot of ways, or like, ‘Tell your folks I says hi,’ I didn’t invent that, you know, that’s just what I heard growing up, so I actually borrowed a lot from journalism, which I majored at UW for my comedy, and in journalism, you shine a light on something and that’s kind of I think what I’ve done with certain aspects of the Midwest, but if people like my stuff, they’re really not liking it for me, they’re liking it because they like where they came from, and that is what I like about my comedy is that I don’t see it as being really about me but I see it as being about the Midwest and I love the Midwest.
Charlotte Deleste: Charlie, last question. What is the number one thing, if you can pick it, that you love about Wisconsin?
Charlie Berens: Oh jeez, you know, it’s either the people or the walleyes, and I’m going to have to get back to you on that.
Charlotte Deleste: I’m not going to make you choose. You know, that’s too hard.
Brady Mallory: Well we are being told to wrap up, should we do a Midwest goodbye?
Brady Mallory and Charlie Berens, in unison: Well, you know, I suppose.
Charlie Berens: It’s about that time. But if you guys need any meat, I did just win the meat raffle so I got some. I’ve also got some freezer-burned perch if you’re interested, okay?
Brady Mallory: We’ll get some coffee and bars ready for ya.
Charlie Berens: Oh that’d be great. Dream bars or what do you got going? Snickerdoodle? What’s going on?
Charlotte Deleste: Snickerdoodles, we love the snickerdoodles. I mean how can you not? Okay Charlie, thank you very much.
Charlie Berens: Ope! Yup, well I suppose. Alright, take care now.
Charlotte Deleste: Take good care there.
Charlie Berens: Buh-bye now. Okay, real good.
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