A Funny Thing Happened

Trace Crowe, a 17-year-old senior at Ohio County High School, likes to tell jokes but he doesn’t think he’s really that funny. Yet, it was his comedy that won him an award recently in the Kentucky Farm Bureau Federation sponsored District 3 Youth contests at the Hardin County Extension Office in Elizabethtown on Nov. 6.

Crowe won first place in the variety show at the Outstanding Farm Bureau Youth and Variety Show Contests with his comedy routine. It was the first time he had ever performed comedy for an audience.

“I’ve never tried to be funny. I don’t actually think I am that funny,” Crowe said last week.

He never planned to perform in the variety contest, but after giving a speech at the annual meeting of the Ohio County Kentucky Farm Bureau about his experience at the Institute for Future Agriculture Leaders, that’s exactly what he ended up doing.

“I like to crack jokes, but I didn’t know people found me funny. I thought they probably find me more annoying than anything.”

But, T.C. Sanderfur, of the Ohio County Farm Bureau, thought he was funny and asked him if he would do a stand-up comedy routine in the variety show.

Prior to taking part in the variety show competition, Crowe also took part in the Outstanding Farm Bureau Youth competition which consists of an interview and a speech.

“The interview went well, but the speech ... that didn’t go so well,” he said with a laugh. “I froze and it wasn’t very good. So, I used the fact that I bombed as the intro to my comedy routine.”

The night before doing his routine, that consisted of the advantages and disadvantages of being a farmer’s kid, he performed his routine for his father because he wanted to hear some of his jokes to see if he was funny.

“Afterwards, he thought I might be in trouble,” he said stating his father didn’t find him “funny at all.”

Regardless of what his dad thought, Crowe defeated four other competitors to earn the right to perform at the Kentucky Farm Bureau Annual meeting at the Galt House in Louisville on Dec. 1 before more than 2,000 people.

Asked if he was nervous about performing his comedy routine before that many people he said: “Is there really any difference in talking to 10 people or 1,000 people?”