Nashville: The Redneck Comedy Bus Tour

Nashville is loaded with great attractions, but one of the newest and funniest has to be the Redneck Comedy Bus Tour. It’s the ideal way to introduce yourself to Music City.

The Redneck Comedy Bus Tour is one of Nashville's newest and funniest attractions. Photo by Bob Vernon

Tater and Earlene want you to get in touch with your inner redneck, and they go to great comic lengths to ensure you do.

As the main act on Nashville’s newest “must do” attraction, Tater and Earlene take center stage (well, center aisle mostly) and provide a humorous and slightly off-kilter look at Music City’s top sites on the Redneck Comedy Bus Tour. They promise at the tour’s start to make sure everyone on the bus is “Redneck Certified” before the tour is over.

Get ‘Redneck Certified’

Certainly the bus qualifies. This old school bus has gone from its traditional yellow color to true redneck camo, and its overhead bookracks are festooned with boxer shorts and bras that look like they might have been sweaty castoffs from the Dolly Parton collection.

The hosts even give a lesson how to talk Redneck. “Who here can use the word ‘peench’ in a sentence?” Earlene hollers at our busload of delighted tourists. Tater points out that it’s 45 minutes before our bathroom break so, “if you gotta go, you better peench it ’til then.”

Howl at the hillbilly humor

Everyone gets a good howl from the hillbilly humor that’s definitely from out in the “schticks.” Throughout the rollicking 2-hour tour, which includes a refreshment stop at the Whiskey Bent Saloon, Tater and Earlene point out local points of interest, such as the Ryman Auditorium, Music Row, and the Country Music Hall of Fame, but they also are quick to inform the bus-riders of a few attractions of which the Nashville Chamber of Commerce probably wouldn’t approve. One such sight is the county courthouse, “where on any given day you can find a variety of country music stars paying their traffic tickets or pleading ‘not guilty’ to a DUI,” Earlene says.

And should you pass a policeman or armed guard on the street, be prepared for Earlene to bolt to the window and holler to the officer something like, “Wooohoo! I love a man who’s packin’, if you know what I mean!” Construction workers get a similar treatment.

It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that twang

The tour is three years old. Tater, whose real name is Brian Swinford, was working as a comedian in town when he was approached with the basic idea of doing a “redneck-themed” bus tour. He started working on the script and quickly realized he needed a woman partner to make it work. “Earlene was the closest thing to a woman I could find,” he said.

Earlene turns out to be Christy Eidson, who also had been working the local comedy clubs. Swinford, a former youth pastor from Kentucky, said he chose Eidson, a Tennesseean, not only because of her sharp comedic skills, but because “both of us have a solid white-trash background.”

Hit the highpoints with hysterical hillbilly hosts

Together, they make for hysterical hillbilly hosts. But rest assured, the tour covers the Nashville highpoints in solid fashion; it’s just that you won’t find as many laughs on a traditional Gray Line Tour.

“It’s a legit sightseeing tour,” Swinford said. “You see all of the important parts of Nashville, plus we give you our local opinion as to what you need to do or not do. We don’t just point out the Ryman and say, ‘Hey, there’s the Ryman.’ We want it to be fun.”

And that it is.

Be prepared to become part of the show

Tater and Earlene do a remarkable job of remembering the names and personal information of everyone on the bus, and they are equal-opportunity abusers in drawing everyone into their act. A gentleman from Ohio on our bus will probably have night sweats from a less-than-accidental close encounter of the redneck kind with Earlene’s ample bosom during one “I can’t believe I’m laughing” audience-participation gag. (And, Earlene, please know that I use the word “gag” with the utmost respect, bless your heart.)

The cost to ride The Redneck Comedy Bus is $32 for adults or $29 for “old timers and over the hill.” Kids 12 and under ride for $25 each, “but will likely be over-exposed to a level of tackiness that can forever warp their little minds,” according to the rack card. The Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau offers a terrific Total Access Pass, where you can get admission to four of Nashville’s top attractions for only $50. It’s certainly worth the price.

So, if you’re headed to Music City, the Redneck Comedy Bus Tour is an ideal way to familiarize yourself with the local attractions in a fun and memorable way. Stop by the Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau to score a Total Access Pass and some coupons so, as Tater would be proud to point out, “you can peench your pennies.”

1. 

   Jane says:

   July 16, 2011 at 9:47 pm

   What a hilarious tour! Thanks for the great tip.

   reply

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