Growing up on a farm in Louisburg, Kansas without formal creative outlets, Reed created his own venues for self-expression—performing impromptu drag performances for visiting seed salesmen, dancing for the hay crew after a long day’s work, rehearsing Shakespeare in abandoned grain silos…
Finding the wheat among the chaff, Reed presents Jolly Rancher, a one-man show based on a collection of stories culled from his own rural upbringing. In Jolly Rancher, Reed plows through a collection of humorous and poignant short stories rife with hilarious characters and universal truths unveiled from his life in the Land of Oz.
Excerpt:
Years later and I’ve just come out of the closet to my father. We’re standing on a frozen pond, with pick-axes in hand chopping holes in the ice so that the cattle can drink. Literally standing on thin ice, my Dad says “You hear the one about the queer bear? He laid his paw (pa) on the table.” I think he was just trying to break the, uh, proverbial ice before he continued.
“So you’re gay, huh? You become a vegetarian, too, while you were at it?”
No, Dad.
“Well, good, cause you best be supporting beef because beef supported you.”
