Monday, Jul. 20, 2009

Grant Turner | Making the most of Mokel

For eight minutes each night at the Alabama Theatre's "One: The Show," Grant Turner, a middle-aged comedian originally from Decatur, Ga., amuses the crowd, wearing an Alabama Theatre tech crew shirt, jeans and a utility pouch, by sharing his boyish stage identity, Ricky Mokel.

The stage name was inspired by a childhood playmate of his ex-wife. "It's a valid name for that character; the K sound is funny, Mokel is obscure and funny," he said.

Turner said that in some ways, Mokel is his rejected self.

"I could've very easily been Ricky," he said. "As Ricky, I can access areas of my brain that ego won't let Grant access; I can improvise better as Ricky and free associate and do my job at a higher level."

This character, which has the ability to bring an audience to tears from their laughter, is somewhat of a "gifted idiot," Turner said.

"He sounds stupid, but he isn't," Turner said. "Once you get to know him, you realize he has many talents."

One of these skills is the ability to switch up between accents, something that is very rarely associated with Southern people, he said.

Ricky has a twisted innocence, Turner said. He can get away with a lot - like making laughable critiques of Rodney King, global warming or President Obama.

He focuses on social and political issues, but never jokes about bodily functions or sex.

"That's been done to death, so I'm not interested in that," Turner said.

All his merchandise and stand-up comedy is appropriate for everyone from Grandma to baby Jimmy.

"I don't like the G-rated thing - it sounds like little baby stuff," Turner said. "It's just funny to everyone."

Mokel was conceived around 1990, during a time when the majority of comedy about Southerners revolved around a very different stereotype, he said.

"Even in early '80s, I was tired of Southern redneck thing," Turner said. "I would make fun of upscale Southerners."

Two other characters he has played over the years are Claxton Bliss, an Escalade-driving developer who always has a positive spin on life's situations, and Ruth Ann Abercorn, a feisty flight attendant, based on Turner's belief that Southern women make the best flight attendants because they can control you without making you angry, he said.

"I put a positive spin on those people," he said. "These are fun characters, and they're not stupid."

The inspiration for Ricky's character came from an audition Turner had in Los Angeles for a soap opera.

He portrayed a wealthy Southerner who could go back and forth between having an accent and not having an accent.

The staff did not give Turner the part because they said everyone on the show was upscale, and even a Southerner with money could not fit in with that, he said.

Ever since then, Turner has had a goal beyond making people roll over with laughs.

"Hollywood has a narrow mindset about what Southerners are," he said.

"Ricky is that antibody that will eventually penetrate Hollywood and kill their misconception of Southerners."