Listen to some Jerry Clower

LEXINGTON, Ky. (BP)--Listening to Jerry Clower will make you a better sermon-listener. Of course, many of you about now are asking yourself, "Who is Jerry Clower?"

If you grew up and lived in the Deep South in the 1970s through the 1990s you know all about Clower. A comedian, Clower was born and raised in South Mississippi and looked every bit the part -- heavy-set, thick gray hair, huge smile and deep southern drawl. His down-home humor and comedic routines about southern culture were downright hysterical. He was the clean comedian of my parent's generation, and I never heard of an audience he did not have rolling in the aisles with laughter.

But what made him so funny and effective as a comedian was not his material. You or I could have taken his material and received blank stares. What made him so effective was his ability to tell a story.

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