Cattle rancher, stand-up comedian, struggling actor and natural storyteller are just a few things that describe funny man James Beard, who is currently on a national tour of his hilarious one-man show, “Mammas, Don’t Let Your Cowboys Grow Up to Be Actors.”
Born to a family of cowboys near Glennville, Beard strayed from the household business to pursue his love of acting. Starting at about 11 years old, Beard loved the world of pretend and perfected his craft by performing in local plays in Bakersfield.
He studied theater at Bakersfield College but didn’t finish when he received an offer to work with The Shakespeare Conservatory in New York.
Working all summer and paying over $800 dollars in admissions fees, Beard set out to pursue his dream. On the first day of class, all the students received an unbelievable shock when the president of the company told everyone the school had been shut down.
“I had never been on a plane before,” said Beard.
“I’d never left home, never been by myself, and now I’m in the middle of New York City with no idea why I’m here.”
Beard chose not to give up, and he stayed in the city. He got a series of odd jobs and auditioned time and again for any place that would give him a chance.
Beard starting taking a class doing stand-up comedy but was told that he should focus more on telling jokes than stories.
“I’m not so much for the quick punch line, but I’m for the development,” he said. “The reaction is better, and I can get people to double over than most people doing stand up.”
He wonderfully illustrated his story by working with nothing more than a chair, a small table and a cowboy get-up.
Acting out all the characters and keeping high energy, Beard repeatedly had the audience in stitches as he talked about everything from his family, to his work in acting which included an unforgettable recollection of a hotel stay where he shared a bed with a sexually perverse 13-year-old boy and an Oompa Loompa.
The show took around a year to fully map out and started as a one act and began to evolve.
After his contract at a Shakespeare Theater was up Beard decided to take his play on the road starting in Stanton, Va.
“I was friends with the people who ran the college theater in town,” Beard said. “They let me do it for free, and it’s really sweet when you get people who give you a break.”
Beard continued to use contacts and planned out a tour with stops in Bakersfield, Yale and Los Angeles. The play has received excellent reviews wherever it went and the feedback from viewers was extremely positive, which isn’t too bad for an actor’s first writing project.
“It’s the only thing that I truly love to do and the only thing that makes me the happiest,” said Beard. “I am so happy out there when I get to tell an audience the story of my life in my own edited version.”
Beard is currently on his way to Missouri to continue making people laugh and doesn’t plan on stopping for some time. After the run in Los Angeles, he said that it was in the hands of God and can only hope for the best.