About T. Bubba

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About T. Bubba Bechtol

For nearly two decades, MCA comedy recording artist and columnist T. Bubba Bechtol has been entertaining audiences with his insightful and hilarious view of the world. American’s favorite “Bubba” has appeared countless times on television and on stages across the nation from Las Vegas to the Grand Ole Opry.

T. Bubba has been called the “Southern Seinfeld,” but even that is too limiting. T. Bubba’s routines draw as much from the comedic insights of Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Cosby as from Minnie Pearl and Jerry Clower. He has a unique ability to meld a southern accent with humorous insights that make everyone laugh—regardless of where they call home. His humor is wholesome and universal.

And remember, T. Bubba loves to get questions from you to help him “ponder.” So please submit your question now… it’s easy! He may feature your question in an espisode of TBubbaTalks! or a blog posting… thanks a bunch.

The Long Bio (for those who love details…)

T. Bubba started out in life as James Terryl Bechtol, a baby boomer raised in the tiny fishing village of Fontainbleau in the heart of Mississippi ’s Cajun country. “We lived so far in the woods we had to walk towards town to hunt,” he quips. His mother, a Marine veteran of WW II, provided tough love, guidance and a sense of humor. His grandfather, a circuit-riding Southern Baptist minister, exposed Bechtol to oral tradition. At 12, Bechtol was preaching himself at tent revivals up and down the Gulf Coast . “I broke away from that once I got to High School and discovered Jack Daniels, and cheerleaders,” he says.

A star athlete in his high school years, Bechtol received a scholarship to play football and baseball at Perkinston Junior College in Wiggins, Mississippi . After an injury, he transferred to the University of Southern Mississippi his junior year. However, he says there was one course he was looking for that wasn’t in the curriculum catalog: “How to make money.” So, he left. He tells people “I didn’t graduate, but did “finish”! He “finished” USM in 1968! He was inducted into the Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College Hall of Fame in 2005.

Bechtol left formal education to pursue a career in direct sales. He found his natural sense of humor gave him the ability to talk to anybody about anything, whether it was selling home fire alarm systems or tanning beds. His career skyrocketed, enabling the young entrepreneur to sell his business and retire by his 40th birthday, and move to his beloved Pensacola Beach , Florida (aka Bubba’s Beach). Along the way, he built a national network of contacts that remembered his leadership skills as well as his laughs. In 1980, he was elected President of the United States Jaycees, the first Southerner to hold the job in decades. He is also past president of the Alabama Professional Speakers Association, the Freedom’s Foundation at Valley Forge, and served one term as a member of his city council.

The stint led to a brief career in politics. In the ‘80s, Bechtol moved to Washington D.C. to join the Ronald Reagan camp as a fundraising director. He worked for two years in the Reagan White House and then ran for office himself as a candidate for congressman in Florida ’s Congressional District 1, in 1982. He won the primary, but lost the general election. He then returned to Washington for two years, as a fund raiser for the GOP, before ending his political career.

Looking at the crossroads of his future, Bechtol heard his phone start to ring. People were calling to see if he would serve as a speaker at various functions. Soon, the one-time salesman turned-politician found himself in high demand as a motivational speaker at conferences, conventions, and industrial events. One quality made him stand out from most on the rubber chicken-dinner circuit: Bechtol was funny. Side-splittingly funny. He has been a proud member of the National Speakers Association for 37 years, and earned the highest Professional Speaking designation in the world, the CSP, Certified Speaking Professional. He did not come into stand up comedy from comedy clubs and night clubs, but took a different route as a Professional Speaker. T. Bubba says, “I did that, because that’s where the money was!!”

At this time, he began reflecting on a job he had as a teenager he calls “the greatest influence on my comedy career.” In those summers back on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, Bechtol worked as a driver for the brashly-outrageous standup comic “Brother” Dave Gardner. Gardner, whose regional shtick included jokes about RC Colas and Moon Pies, had gone from regional clubs to frequent appearances on “The Tonight Show.” Bechtol spent a great deal of time with the comedian, driving him around town during gigs in Biloxi. “Brother Dave influenced me greatly. He was just himself and was proud of what he was and other people loved to him tell about it.” He says, “That’s all I do today!”

“What makes people laugh has fascinated me my whole life,” he says. “I was buying comedy tapes when kids my age were buying rock music. Brother Dave made me realize I could do it as a profession.”

On the speaking circuit, Bechtol developed a friendship with another humorist, syndicated columnist Lewis Grizzard. Taken with Bechtol’s bluntly-transparent view of life, Grizzard began writing about “T. Bubba” in his books and columns in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. When Grizzard’s health problems became severe, he asked Bechtol to serve as a substitute for personal appearances he was not able to make. “He was also a huge influence on me,” Bechtol says of the late writer. “He gave us all permission to be Southern and taught us that we were as good as anybody else in the country.” His manager Steve Enoch, was my first manager in show business!!” “They gave me my start, and I’ll always be grateful to them for that!”

With a growing reputation as a standup comic, Bechtol was taken under the wing of Grizzard’s management company, which began booking him on comedy dates. He was spotted by former talk show hosts Charlie Chase and Lorianne Crook, who booked him on The Nashville Network’s “Music City Tonight.” In his first year on the program, Bechtol appeared more than two dozen times and became immensely popular with country music audiences. Impressed with his talents, Opryland Productions recruited Bechtol to host a musical review called “Boots, Boogie & Blues” at the Governor’s Theater in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. He made his first appearance on the Grand Ole Opry on Oct. 24, 1998, and has performed regularly there ever since.

In the summer of 2001, Bechtol became one of the few standup comics in the nation to receive a major recording contract when he was signed to MCA Nashville.

Though he still calls Pensacola home and loves living “30 yards from the Gulf of Mexico,” Television and personal appearances will keep him on the road much of the time.

What does he consider the key to his appeal? “I can be funny without having to use words or actions others resort to,” he says. “You can repeat my little stories and opinions at work on Monday in front of anyone, even at church. Besides, I’ve had to keep my comedy clean, because my momma’s still alive. If I didn’t, she’d give me an ass whipping this very day!”

He’s a funny man! Listen up!!