Tuskegee Lee Association director of missions finds creative outlet in Baptist humor

It was kind of a fluke.

Seven years ago in Southaven, Miss., the ladies in charge of Gracewood Baptist Church’s annual Valentine’s banquet came running to Pastor Bill King with a problem.

There wasn’t going to be a speaker. Something had come up and he had to cancel.

"They came to me and said, ‘We don’t know what we’re going to do. Would you just come and do, you know, something?’" King said. Being the pastor, he had to oblige, had to act, had to do something.

And so Brother Billy Bob "The Baptist" Bohannon — the comical alter ego of King, director of missions (DOM) for Tuskegee Lee Baptist Association since April 2007 — was born of necessity.

And he was wrapped in an ugly plaid 1970s sports coat left over from King’s college days at Samford University in Birmingham and lying in the back of his closet.

"For some reason, I’d kept it all those years," King said.

Now he knows why. Brother Billy needed it and for just the one time — or so King thought.

"I hadn’t planned on doing anything like that beyond that banquet," he said.

But word-of-mouth about his impromptu creation following that first mostly ad-libbed performance, which featured just a few jokes done in character and some "lighthearted" songs, slowly established King not as a last-minute fill-in but as the book-in-advance, go-to guy for quality Christian comedy.

He’s even considering cutting an album.

Inspired early on by legendary Baptist humorist Grady Nutt, who was perhaps best known for playing "The Preacher" on TV’s "Hee Haw," King describes Brother Billy as "kind of a country bumpkin."

"I have billed him before as ‘the redneck evangelist,’" King said of his character. "He tells stories and he has something I call his ‘unusual Bible knowledge.’"

Have you heard the one about Shadrach, Meshach and a billy goat?

"When you’re doing something like this, that’s poking fun at preachers, using religion and Bible stories in a warped kind of way, sometimes you’re afraid that you might have some negative feedback," King said. "But I haven’t had any of that."

Quite the opposite, in fact. Though vowing to take a break during his first year with Tuskegee Lee Association, the demand was such that he broke that vow "six or seven times."

"He was great; our folks really enjoyed him," Larry Felkins, DOM for Chilton Baptist Association, said of King who performed for the association’s annual deacons, pastors and wives banquet at First Baptist Church, Thorsby, March 7.

"His get-up was pretty interesting," Felkins said with a laugh. "He was wearing a leisure suit my former pastor used to wear — I had a flashback. Yeah he reminded me of a couple of pastors I’ve known."

For more information, contact King at bkpreach@yahoo.com or 334-745-0588.