This Political Cowboy has funny/insightful things to say about everything.
Chad Prather, conservative humorist, motivational speaker, Fox & Friends regular guest and YouTube star has achieved something that most celebrities can only dream of - receiving more than a billion views of his work across all media.
While he would love people to think that he is a hick just spouting off his ideas in the cab of his truck with his dog, in reality, he is well-educated, voracious news hound who has been described as being “supernaturally articulate” by Tucker Carlson. He has a vast fan base that crosses political lines, ideologies and geographic boundaries.
Prather was born in New Jersey. However, his stay there can be attributed to his father’s work and he returned to Georgia at only a few months of age with his family and that is where he grew up. So, yes, he is a real Southerner, by way of the Garden State.
He was active in speech and drama related activities and was on his high school’s academic decathlon team. He has a degree in Communications from the University of Georgia and a master's degree from Columbia International University.
He got his media start hosting a humorous travel show on Ride TV called It’s My Backyard in 2013.
His video, Unapologetically Southern went viral in 2015 and he has kept busy making YouTube videos, podcasts, appearing of TV shows, especially Fox & Friends and touring with his comedic storytelling event called the Star Spangled Banter Tour.
While wearing his cowboy (or baseball) hat, often with his disinterested dog Willie in the backseat, he muses on whatever interests him on is YouTube channel including but not limited to when to pass gas in front of your significant other, marriage and sleep, his addiction to Girl Scout Cookies, Facebook etiquette, visiting water parks, eating Tide Pods, surviving a juice cleanse, assaults to the English language, gender inequality and feet.
This, plus his political commentary has earned him earned him a huge following.
In 2017, he and comedian Steve McGrew (To whom we spoke with in fall 2017. See that fun interview here) released the satirical song "I've Got Friends in Safe Spaces," inspired by Garth Brooks' hit "Friends in Low Places.”
The friendly, charming, hard-working and super smart entertainer, husband and father Chad Prather spoke with Michelle Tompkins about his upbringing, how he came to adopt Texas as his true home state, how Unapologetically Southern came to be, who are his comedic influences, how he thinks political correctness is killing comedy, where he gets his news, his take on the creation "Friends in Safe Spaces," mused on being a foodie, his love of dogs and horses, how much he appreciates his fans, why he appreciates different points of view, what makes the Star Spangled Banter tour so special and much much more.
Michelle Tompkins: Okay. So I've got to tease you. So you were actually born in New Jersey? How long did you actually live there?
Chad Prather: Yeah. Three months. Three or four months.
Michelle Tompkins: Oh, that's it [laughter]?
Chad Prather: Yeah, that was it. My father was an engineer, so they moved him around the country and he had a project that was out of New York City with a big firm that he worked for. And my mother said, "No, we're not going to stay in New Jersey." He's from South Carolina. She's from Georgia. And so my dad quit that firm and moved back to their hometown, my mother's hometown, of Augusta, Georgia. And I'm glad she did [laughter]. I'm glad she twisted his arm because I'm so thankful I didn't have to grow up in New Jersey.
Michelle Tompkins: Well, a lot of people grew up in New Jersey and liked it.
Chad Prather: They do. They brag on it. And I make jokes. And I've done shows up there, and I've done shows in New York, and we joke about it. Folks love it. But I just, uh. And, I mean, if that's all you ever knew, I guess it would be fine, but [laughter]. So thankful I didn't.
Michelle Tompkins: Yeah. Well, tell me about your childhood, please.
Chad Prather: Well, I grew up in Augusta, Georgia. I played baseball, I was 100 percent into sports. I had opportunities as a kid. I was kind of, even as a child, the life of the party. I'd do imitations and I would do jokes. I would listen to these records that had funny stories on them, even as a little kid. My grandparents would have these get-togethers at the house. They'd invite me over to recite these stories for everybody and so I was kind of the entertainment. I was the childhood entertainment. Some of that stuff wound up putting me on TV when I was little, and they'd have me on to recite stories, and tell jokes, and things. I kind of always had this knack for running my mouth, and it kind of became my thing. That kind of landed me in the theater as a child and also as a teenager. I was an athlete and an actor, so I caught a lot of ribbing about that. Good-natured ribbing from the athletes. Now I rib them back because it pays the bills [laughter]. And none of them are still playing baseball. I just had a knack for being on stage, and being in front of people, and talking. When I hit high school, besides sports we'd do a lot of theater competitions. I was involved in that. And the high schools had their academic decathlon teams. They always wanted me on the teams, not because I was smart at chemistry, or math, or anything like that, but they wanted me…
Michelle Tompkins: For the speech competition.
Chad Prather: Right. They wanted me to do the speech competition. That's exactly right. I gold-medaled in all of those every year. I just really, really excelled at that and enjoyed doing it.
I went to school at the University of Georgia, I wanted to go into broadcast journalism. I did major in communications, but I didn't pursue the journalism side of things. That was right on the early cusp of things like CNN popping out there. Had I known the world of media was going to go the direction it has gone now, I would have stuck with that because it's a different world now with television journalism.
But communications, I wanted to be on stage, so I got out of school, starting working with non-profit organizations, and that might've meant ministries, churches, all these things. I was literally all over the world speaking and teaching and motivating and all of that good stuff. It built a really, really big following for me and I kind of made a name for myself. I've really enjoyed being on stage in front of people and just kind of made that my life goal.
Then I had some life events that happened that took me away from that when I was in my 30s. And I just kind of went and-- I call it hiding out in the cave, and I took about five years and just kind of disappeared from any public life and started working a corporate job and was miserable until I gave myself permission to go back to running my mouth again [laughter].
Michelle Tompkins: Which are some plays that you were in?
Chad Prather: Oh, I did all the stuff that kids do that are in theater from A Christmas Carol to things like that. We did a lot of what they called one-act play competitions. And so they would be independently written plays and stories that most people have never heard of. We would go out there, and we would compete against other schools and other drama teams and things like that. So we did everything from the major stuff, like I said, some of those bigger stories all the way down to some of those smaller dramas.
Michelle Tompkins: I think you and I are about the same age, so our schools did the same thing. And I was a theater geek too and on Academic Decathlon.
Chad Prather: Yeah, I loved it. I loved it. I've always had a knack for doing those things. And I'm extremely extroverted. I'm extremely comfortable on a stage. I have zero idea of what stage fright feels like [laughter], and it's a strange phenomenon. I just have always been comfortable in front of people, so I have a lot of fun doing it.
Michelle Tompkins: Do you have brothers and sisters?
Chad Prather: I have two older brothers, the closest one to me is ten years older than me, so it was almost like being an only child because, by the time I was 8, 9 years old, they were gone off to school. They're 10 years older than me and 20 years less mature [laughter]. No, I had a good relationship with them. I appreciate my brothers, but yeah, that's it. I got picked on a lot, so now I get to pick on them.
Chad Prather and sports
Michelle Tompkins: Oh, perfect [laughter]. My sister's 11 years older than I am, and our little joke is that we kind of flipped roles. She took care of me when I little. And now I take care of her [laughter].
Chad Prather: Yeah, yeah, that's the way it goes. I emulated my brothers a lot with the-- I wanted to play sports because they loved sports. They loved playing baseball, and so I played baseball. We were a baseball family, and I'll be honest with you. I got to a point where I started realizing that I was playing baseball because, for me, that was another stage. That was another opportunity to perform in front of people, and so I worked hard to excel at it. And looking back, now I'm 45 years old. I look back on that, and I see the psychology of what was going on with me.
Michelle Tompkins: Now, what are your sports teams?
Chad Prather: I like the Texas Rangers, in baseball. And I went to the University of Georgia, so, obviously, I'm a big Georgia Bulldogs football fan. And, of course, I like the Dallas Cowboys as well, although I'm frustrated with the NFL right now [laughter]. And Dallas had a terrible year, so I hear, but it doesn't matter that much to me, anyway. But I'm a baseball fan. I wear all these different hats - going, "Why are you wearing a Cleveland hat?" I like the hat. I like the game.
Michelle Tompkins: I saw you in a Dodger hat a couple days ago.
Chad Prather: Yeah, yeah. That's when I was out in LA, so I had to go out there and make them feel good about LA [laughter]. So yeah, I'm just a baseball fanatic. I really enjoy it now. I burned out on baseball to the degree of when I was in my early 20s I was just over it. I just kind of took a hiatus. I wouldn't even watch the game for years. I finally came back around. I can at least be a fan now.
Michelle Tompkins: Well, I'm glad you like all baseball.
Michelle Tompkins: Oh, that does. And it probably makes it easier to make friends by not saying, "I'm a Yankees fan."
Chad Prather: Yeah, exactly.
What is the Star Spangled Banter Tour?
Michelle Tompkins: Now, tell me about your Star Spangled Banter Tour?
Chad Prather: We were doing another tour and it ended rather abruptly. We just had a couple things that that happened. We said, "I think we're done with that run." And I was kind of left out in the cold of saying, "What do I want to do now? What do I want to do? Do I want to keep traveling? Keep touring? Do I want to do it—?" I had this idea to do a one-man show because I see myself more as a humorist than I do a comedian. And I'm a storyteller. I'm a Will Rogers callback to—I use humor that makes a point. I try to, anyway. So we sat back and we said, "What do we want to do?" My manager, who's out in LA, he said, "Let's do something that's a little more patriotic because you do so much political banter." He said, "Well, why don't we call it the Star Spangled Banter Tour?" And he said, "We'll just tour until people quit buying tickets." Unfortunately, they haven't yet. With that tour, we kicked that one off last year in the middle of the year. I want to say with that particular show we did about 40 cities with that show. And we'll do about 70 cities this year with it because we're going to run it through 2018. And we are working now to film it. We want to shoot it; turn it into a comedy special and maybe put it on Netflix or something like that. We're talking to several different avenues.
I'll tell you the fun thing about this tour is we're going into a lot of markets that I've never been in before. So we're playing a lot of new markets. Places where I've said, "Man, I don't even know if people will buy tickets to come to this show." We kicked off this year— January was light for us. We only planned one show for January. I was just in Modesto, California. That was a sold-out show, about 1,300 people. It was really packed. It was a great, great audience, and just a great room in Modesto, California, which again, new market.
Then we really get rolling in February. So February 14, Valentine's Day, I'll be in Portland, Oregon, which is another market I'm thinking, "Is anybody going to buy a ticket to come see me in Portland, Oregon?" In a place which is traditionally politically left, and here I am very conservative. And I'm like, "Oh man, that's going to be an interesting audience." But we've had that happen. We've been in places like that. Seattle, Washington, sold out last year and I didn't know if they would. Then we go to Medford, Oregon, on the 15th, and then we're in Paradise, California, on the 16th, February 16. The ball really starts rolling. So we've got a lot of fun cities coming. Talking about New Jersey, we've got a show in Newark [laughter], of all places. In Newark, and Ridgefield, Connecticut. So we're going to some places because people used to say, "Man, you're just going to these cities that kind of blue collar." I'm in Nebraska right now headed over to Grand Island. I don't know why anybody would name a place Grand Island in Nebraska [laughter].
I'm excited that I'm able now to go into these places like Minneapolis and Milwaukee and Green Bay. And we're in Atlanta, Georgia coming up. We've got Ponte Vedra, Florida, and Lakeland, Florida, Clearwater, Fort Lauderdale. So it's a lot of cool places we're getting to go to. Not the things that people would anticipate. I don't even know that we're doing many shows in my home state of Texas this year. We're kind of letting it incubate a little bit, so. Which is fine with me.
Michelle Tompkins: How did you come to adopt Texas?
Chad Prather: Well, I was conceived in Dallas [laughter]. So before I was born in New Jersey, I was conceived in Dallas. I jokingly say my parents did a dirty thing in a horrible place because Texans ever want to claim Dallas as part of Texas. But I used to come to Texas to visit family when I was a child, and then I came back out around 2003. I came out for a work convention, and I just fell in love with the culture, and I fell in love with just the big open sky and the attitude of the people. And I said, "You know, this is where I want to live." Six months later, I was living there, and I haven't looked back. I've really enjoyed coming in and making Texas my own. But, see, I grew up immersed in the horse world. We had Prather quarter horses out there in South Carolina which is my dad's hometown, Camden, South Carolina. And so I grew up with horses, grew up in that world, and so that was another part of my childhood aspect and just growing up that was always kind of the background noise was the equine world.
And so when I came out to Fort Worth, I was like, "Man, I've found my people out here. These folks, they're western culture, and they got it in spades." So for me, it was a great fit, and I just really love the culture of that part of Texas where I live.
A segue into foodie bliss
Michelle Tompkins: Are you a fan of Babe's Chicken?
Chad Prather: Yeah, we got a Babe's right around the corner from us, and some of these places we've kind of gotten so spoiled by them, we take them for granted at this point. But, yeah, I'm actually hungry right now, so thanks for bringing that up.
Michelle Tompkins: Oh, yeah [laughter]. One of my best friends lives there, so we get to try out all the great restaurants over there.
Chad Prather: Oh, man, they've got some good restaurants in Texas. They really do. Dallas/Fort Worth has some great places to eat. And I'm a foodie anyway. And actually I'm looking at new office space right now, and one of the places I'm looking at is a loft office that's over our Babe's restaurant, an old historic building. And I'm like, "I don't think I can work upstairs from Babe's and not gain 50 pounds."
Michelle Tompkins: Have you ever been to Boulevardier?
Chad Prather: I haven't.
Michelle Tompkins: It's a fun, but not expensive brunch place. They have some amazing stuff. They also have kind of a funny take on duck eggs on the menu.
Chad Prather: Yeah. That's beautiful. That sounds great. Where are they? Where are they located?
Michelle Tompkins: I'm sure in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. I'm not sure of the exact location. But I know it was rated one of the top brunch spots in that area, So, if you're in the area sometime, you may want to look them up.
Chad Prather: I'll go. I'll go. That's one of the things that—unfortunately, we joke about Dallas and the rivalry between Fort Worth and Dallas. 35, 40 miles apart, but it's a million miles apart in culture. And so, we don't get to Dallas as much. Historically, we don't get over there as much, but I keep telling my wife, I would really need to go over there and eat because there are some fantastic restaurants in Dallas. Just forget it. But we're kind of blessed in Fort Worth as well.
Chad on his truck rants and such
Michelle Tompkins: Yeah, how did Unapologetically Southern come about?
Chad Prather: Randomly. Like everything I do, so much of it is just off the cuff. And at some point of time, I'm sitting there. I have a thought. I started to do a truck rant. I was talking in the truck. Three years ago, I was actually doing a television show. It's a travel television show for a new cable network and I was looking for ways to promote that show. I always use social media as an outlet for humor and just stirring the pot a little, so I would just sit in traffic and pop my camera up and just start talking to this about whatever is going on in my life and people started watching these things. All of sudden, they started going viral. Millions of people started watching this thing.
About five or six months into that, I had got a message, a private message from somebody on Facebook. And they said, "We can hear your accent. So we know where you're from, which we also know make you ignorant [laughter]." They said, "Because we don't have any respect for people from the South." And I said, "Okay. All right." That was in a point in time when the South really was really kind of catching it from all angles. You got a lot of controversy about the Confederate flag, and you get a lot of controversy over Southern politics and just culture. So I just pulled into my driveway there, pop the camera up, and did the video. And the video, it got a few million, not unusual for me on Facebook at that point. It was happening pretty regularly. And then, I put the thing on Youtube, and it just went nuts.
I really didn't even think about it until Fox News called one day -- because the thing has been out for a long time, a couple of months -- and Fox News had picked up on it, saw it. And they said, "Hey, we want to do a story on you and on this. Southern culture." That was my first experience with Fox News. And now, I'm just somewhat of a semi-regular contributor to Fox & Friends in the mornings. Unapologetically Southern wasn't the first video that got big, but it was definitely was an important one because it opened a lot of doors for me.
Michelle Tompkins: What are all the programs or podcasts you're doing right now?
Chad Prather: Well, I've got the Chad Prather Show, which is distributed by Podcast One. And that is a podcast— we're about two months into that now. We're working on about 40,000, 50,000 subscribers a week and that it's growing -- it's growing fast and it's growing early, which is nice. I'm still on TV. I'm not making the show anymore, but I've got a show called, Its My Backyard, that's my travel show on RIDE TV, which is cable, Dish network. We have a show coming out in the spring, it's going to eight episodes called Chad Prather's Comedy Shootout. I host it. We have eight comics come in to Las Vegas and they compete. It's a fan-voted competition, and so we had eight comics from around the country come in, and so we've got that coming out. And obviously the tour, the tour is a big thing right now with getting around the country, and of course, those tour dates are at watchchad.com. And then I have a lot of fun with my political blog, politicalcowboy.com, as well. And who knows?
I go out to LA this week, we're podcasting, we're doing about eight episodes in LA this week. And the podcast is great because I sit down with "celebrities," people of note, whether they're singers, politicians, actors, and so we have a great time with that. But while I'm out there, we're always pitching ideas. We've got a sitcom idea that's in the works that we're playing with, and we've got, we've got a meeting with a production company out there for another reality type show. And so, who knows what the future holds? I'm like a goof, man. I just wake up in a new world every day. Who knows where I'm going?
Michelle Tompkins: Who are some of your favorite comedians and humorists?
Chad Prather: I grew up listening to all the people that my mother told me not to, like George Carlin and Robin Williams, and those guys were a huge influence. But the biggest for me was Bill Cosby, and I ran the needles through the records of the old Bill Cosby vinyl albums. I had a stack of them. And then there were a lot of old Southern humorists, like Jerry Clower and Jay Harland McGee, and my grandfather had all of these records, and I just listened to them over and over again, and so hearing those stories so many times is what— I'd go to, my parents or my grandparents had these get-togethers, and they'd say, "Tell them that one, the story about the raccoon in the tree." I've been telling jokes my whole life it feels like, reading guys like Lewis Grizzard, who was a humorist in writing, and just a lot of those Southern culture humorists. So it was a pretty broad, pretty broad influence base.
Political Correctness vs Comedy
Michelle Tompkins: Is there anything too serious to joke about?
Chad Prather: Unfortunately in this world, it seems like it has become that way. I leave a lot of hotbed issues off the table. I don't need to do it. Now, I laugh. I have a crazy, dark sense of humor of the things that I laugh at, but I'm not going to use myself [laughter]. My shows are not political shows at all. They're comedy shows, they're funny shows. And every now and then, we'll poke fun at politics, do one-liners, but we don't get crazy with it. It's not one-sided. But I always tell people that I will show you the edge, I'm not going to push you over it. And I could, if I really let my brain go, I could do that. To me, I don't really get offended. But unfortunately, we live in a world where everybody does these days. We live in a world where Jerry Seinfeld says he won't even play college campuses anymore. If you're offended by Jerry Seinfeld, you've got a serious issue [laughter]. He's just not offensive.
Michelle Tompkins: Yeah, I've had the conversation with a lot of comics about how they refuse to do college campuses, and how political correctness is killing comedy.
Chad Prather: Killed it, killed it. I am 100 percent anti-political correctness. I will really poke it in the chest when I have the opportunity because I just think it has killed language, I think it's killed expression, it's killed description, it's killed humor in so many big ways. I called it feigned shock and outrage because people are getting mad because they've been told to get mad, and it feels good to let that emotion come out. And I say, "Suck it up." I mean, come on. Let's laugh a little bit. Let's make fun. There needs to be a butt of the joke, and the problem is, nobody nowadays is willing to allow anybody to be the butt of the joke and so they get offended.
I did Texas A&M, I did campus, I did that a couple of months ago. Big show, campus theater, it was very successful. I try to shy away from college campuses. One, I don't know that I communicate that well with people that age - they say I do, but I don't know - but I had a great show there, but I don't want to do it a whole lot, to be honest with you.
Michelle Tompkins: How do you choose the material?
Chad Prather: Well, for me, for me, it's about life experiences. I look at the things that I been through in my life -- and with a wife and five kids, there's some funny stuff that goes on in life. So I look at that, and my experience from that. And the other thing is, I hang around really funny people who make me think. And so I'm constantly jotting down notes in my phone or whatever, and keeping things together. And it is always funnier when I've had a few drinks, and then the next day, I'll look at it and I'll say, "That doesn't make any damn sense [laughter]." So sometimes, I probably have hours of great comedy material that I can never use now [laughter].
Michelle Tompkins: Well, I really liked your self-worth bit. I thought that was very interesting. And it was less funny than some of your others, but it was one of the poignant ones.
Chad Prather: Yeah. Well, that was obviously, not original to me, but I think it was an old Sunday school lesson, you know? I get so many messages from who deal with depression, or they're down, or they're going through something, because I've worked with so many veterans and all these different guys, and so I thought that was a pertinent message. That one's been viewed a lot. It's one of the larger videos I've ever done, that one, and just for the shares off of it. It's crazy.
Where does Chad Prather get his information?
Michelle Tompkins: Where do you get your news?
Chad Prather: All over. I read nonstop. I'm constantly looking at various news site organizations and things like that. A lot of them, people have heard of. But if I'm watching TV, I'm usually on Fox because I know those people and I'm always interested to see their take on things. But I will, I'll flip it over to CNN, and that's about as hardcore as I'll go. But most of my news is coming from news sources. I'm reading things all the time. I'm always trying to find those people who are maintaining a sense of journalistic objectivity, and that's getting harder and harder to find these days.
Michelle Tompkins: It is, indeed.
Chad Prather: Yeah. I mean, editorials and opinion pieces are one thing. That's great. But that's what they are. They're not news. And so it's getting harder and harder to find actual news.
Michelle Tompkins: I've been dying for a 30-minute show that's only the news. I've not found it yet.
Chad Prather: Yeah. My friend, Tom Mabe, who's a comedian out of Louisville, Kentucky, he and I, and our friend, Kimmet Cantwell, we came up with the idea called BSNBC, so we've been putting one or two episodes of that online. It's total spoof news, and we just have a fun, silly time making fun of headlines.
Chad Prather and Steve "Mudflap" McGrew
Michelle Tompkins: How did you meet Steve McGrew?
Chad Prather: Well, I met him in Vegas. I was walking through the MGM Grand, and I was walking behind two blonde women. And one of them turned around and it was Steve McGrew [laughter]. I was on one of those moving sidewalks and I was walking up. I had my face down, looking at my phone, and I just thought it was two women, two blonde-haired women in front of me. Nope. It was McGrew [laughter].
Michelle Tompkins: So tell me your take on Friends in Safe Spaces, how it came about.
Chad Prather: Came about in about 10 minutes, which is funny because whenever we were talking about doing some shows together I said, "What do you want to call it?" He said, "Let's do a spoof of a country song. Let's call it that and call it Tour That." And so I said, "Oh, yeah." We immediately came up with the idea Friends in Safe Spaces. And he said, "We gotta write a song." And I said, "Alright." So we wrote that sucker in about 10 minutes and I said, "I'm gonna be in Denver." He said, "Good, let's record it." So we just went in the thing and one take as silly as we could be and had a blast.
Michelle Tompkins: Well, Steve mentioned that something he'd always wanted to do would be a conservative-leaning SNL or a Daily Show. Is that something you'd want to do too?
Chad Prather: Yeah, I'd really love to do that and I would love to do a live version of something like that on stage with a group of people. That would be fun and we kind of had fun with our B.S.N.B.C spoof news online now. We're hoping to kind of grow that into something somewhere.
Michelle Tompkins: Have you always been a conservative?
Chad Prather: I've always been a conservative because I've always been a couple of things. I've always been pro-life and I've always believed in limited government. I believe in people's right to liberty and so it's always been a big passionate issue for me. I truly believe that a bird needs two healthy wings, one on each side, left and right, to be healthy. Things have become so polarized these days that it's frustrating. My passion is really to be more an agent of dialogue, which is hard to do on Twitter. At 140 characters, it's so hard to do [laughter]. And so you wind up poking the bear with the stick a little bit. But in person and on my podcasts and conversationally and on the shows that I'm on I really try to be more open-minded. I always have a thing, What happened to debate? Because nowadays it's more that everything's an argument.
Michelle Tompkins: How many views has your work had in total so far?
Chad Prather: I think those are past a billion now.
Michelle Tompkins: Wow.
Chad Prather: Yeah.
Michelle Tompkins: Now, your cute doggy's name is Willie, right?
Chad Prather: Yeah. We do canine protection training with dogs, and so dogs are a big part of our life. I grew up with the dogs and the horses. They were the only friends I had because I grew up down in the woods. And so those are still a big part of my life. Willy, I came home and I told my wife, I said, "Look. We're getting another dog." And she said, "Oh, no we're not." And I said, "Yeah. We are." I said, "I want one more." I said, "My buddy Butch [Cappel] with a Cappel Canine, he's got a new litter of what we call Western Shepherds." And I said, "We're getting one." We looked at the puppies and the rest was history. So that's Willie. People are able to watch Willie grow up in the back of the truck [laughter].
Michelle Tompkins: He's cute.
Chad Prather: I really get more interactive. I tell my wife, I'm like, "I made a mistake ever putting Willie back there." I really didn't, but it gets frustrating because I'm like, "Willie." He don't want to stare out the back window or whatever, and I'm like, "Man, I wish I could teach this dog to perform for the camera." [laughter]. But he just wants to lay there.
Michelle Tompkins: You can train him to attack, but not to be engaged on camera.
Chad Prather: Yeah, he's not interested. He just wants to go to sleep so he's traveled with me so much that for him getting in the truck is like getting into his crate at home. That's just where he wants to go to sleep [laughter].
Chad Prather's favorites...
Michelle Tompkins: What is your dream gig?
Chad Prather: You know, that's a good question. I don't know that I know the answer to that. I like doing it all. I love doing the live shows. I hope that I'm never in a situation where I can't do some live shows every year. And we're working hard to grow this tour show, and it is growing. We hope that in a few months, we hope that our regular theaters will be 2,000 seats, 2,500 seats. And we're doing 1,200 now, and that's not a far stretch for what we've done. We're proud of how it's grown.
Michelle Tompkins: You should be. What are some of your favorite movies and TV shows?
Chad Prather: Nowadays, I never watch TV anymore. I never have time to do it. If I'm in a hotel room, I don't even turn the TV on. I don't even think about it. I wind up watching more news than anything else if I am watching anything. And I'm getting real disappointed with the caliber of movies that are coming out these days. But I'll tell you something. That new movie that just came out with Hugh Jackman, The Greatest Showman, that's one of the best things I've seen in years. I've already seen it twice in the theater. It's just fantastic. I'm letting my metrosexual card come out. I really love that movie musical. It's incredible.
Michelle Tompkins: I saw Hugh Jackman's one-man show a few years ago in New York, and he's so fun to watch on stage.
Chad Prather: He's talented, he really is. Historically, I love smart comedy like O Brother, Where Art Thou? and I like good action like Gladiator. I thought that was a great movie with a message and had just enough blood and guts to make me happy [laughter], and we just always had a great time with it.
Michelle Tompkins: And busy people don't always get to watch TV, which is a shame sometimes with all the good options out now.
Chad Prather: No. No. No, I really don't ever get to see TV.
Michelle Tompkins: Is there anything you want to add about your family?
Chad Prather: I got the best family in the world, and I could not do what I do without them because they make it possible. We got a big family. We have a lot to juggle. We have to be real strategic and protective of our time. But we make it work, and it's very successful the way we do it. And I've got great kids who are responsible, and talented, and they're artists in their own right. It's awesome. And my wife is just my best friend.
Michelle Tompkins: Has your daughter beat you in chess yet?
Chad Prather: Nope. Nope. That one hasn't [laughter].
Michelle Tompkins: Did you and your wife get separate beds yet [laughter]?
Chad Prather: Depends on how much I've had to drink.
Michelle Tompkins: That's really funny. That was a really good bit.
Chad Prather: That's a funny deal. We spend so much time apart and in hotels that we do okay. We do okay, but boy, it sure is funny.
Michelle Tompkins: What do you like to do for fun?
Chad Prather: It sounds corny to say it but I love to travel, and fortunately, I get to do that for a living.We head out to LA. We're going out there to work, I am. I've got a slammed schedule in LA, but for us, it's like another little mini vacation just to go out. I'll come home and I'll say, "Let's go somewhere," and she's like, "Where you want to go? You just got home off the road." And I say, "Well, I like to travel." So we have a great time with that, and I mentioned being a foodie, so we’re always looking for good new restaurants.
Michelle Tompkins: Where's somewhere you haven't been that you always wanted to visit?
Chad Prather: We were just talking about this the other day. And I was just sitting there thinking, "I want to go to someplace like Tahiti." I've been to all these countries around the world. And in most cases, seen the worst parts of them because of the work I was doing historically and the people I was working with. But I'd love to go to someplace that's exotic like that. And I've been places, but not on the other side of the world like that. I'd love to go to a place like Tahiti or Fiji or something like that. I don't know that I want endure the plane ride to get there, but I want to do that. Now, I don't know, now that North Korea's launching missiles everywhere, maybe I don't want to go. Who knows?
Michelle Tompkins: Now, how does your conservative brand of comedy play over in different countries?
Chad Prather: Well, we were just talking about that this morning as well. We got some guys in London and Ireland who are wanting to have a series of shows over there. And I get great responses from people in Europe who'll send me messages, and we'll become friends, and follow my stuff and enjoy it. It's like everywhere else. You have those pockets of conservatives in every play. And they're excited that somebody's willing to come and got to be their voice and be their humor. I'll tell you, I've had such a good following with military members overseas that it plays well in those places as well. I always get wherever I go. I get a lot of their support. I've done things with the USO. Some cultures, you go into humor, you're right. Humor does not translate no matter where you lean. But I've done it enough now that I've gotten reasonably good at it. So, we have fun.
Michelle Tompkins: Is there any charity work you'd like to mention?
Chad Prather: We got a couple of things that we do. I was on the board of directors for Cowboys Who Care, who is, Bill Martin organization that gives cowboy hats to kids with cancer and other life-threatening illnesses. They've given away about 7,000 hats. I've been so busy going crazy. I had to step off of the board, but I still support them. A friend of mine, he had an organization called Boots for Troops, which prepares customized care packages for military members overseas, and also, sends them a new pair of boots. And so, we worked with him. We're developing some more things along that line. But when it comes to kids and military members, I've got a pretty soft heart. We try to do as much as we can for them.
Michelle Tompkins: Now, what are something you'd really like people to know about you?
Well [laughter], I'll tell you what my wife wants people to know. What my wife wants people to know is that I'm very highly educated when it comes to formal education and degrees. What I'd like people to think is that I'm a bumpkin that sits in his truck with a cowboy hat and rambles stuff off.
Michelle Tompkins: You have a master's degree from Columbia College. Columbia College, right?
Chad Prather: Columbia International University, yeah, which is a small school there in Columbia, South Carolina.
Michelle Tompkins: Now how do you like your fans to connect with you?
Chad Prather: Visiting the website watchchad.com. Of course, you can message me there. Facebook has gotten harder and harder to actually get the messages because I get so many that I miss a lot of them. So the easiest way if somebody that really wants to get in touch with me is through watchchad.com, or you can go to chadprather.com. They both go to the same place. And, of course, that's got all of my tour dates on it, as well.
Michelle Tompkins: Now, what are all of your social media handles?
Chad Prather: @watchchad is the big one. So Twitter and Instagram is @watchchad. And then you can go to YouTube, it's youtube.com/chadprather and the numeral 1. And you can get me on Facebook-- the easiest way to get me on Facebook is just write "Chad Prather" and all kind of crap will pop up.
Michelle Tompkins: Now kind of an odd question for you is, how often do you change your mind or opinion about something?
Chad Prather: Oh, I don't know. Like I said, I'm always open to discussion. And I value myself as someone who listens reasonably well, which is unusual for a man, so I'm always open to fresh ideas and new ideas. My core convictions stayed pretty solid. They stayed pretty solid. But I'm always open to people's opinions, and I love hearing their way of expressing things. I was watching some videos this morning by Trae Crowder, and you know Trae is The Liberal Redneck, and he and I are probably polar opposites politically, but I'll listen, and I'll listen to the ideas and hear what other people have to say. I enjoy that.
Michelle Tompkins: I think getting other people's opinions is great. Being able to listen is an important skill.
Chad Prather: Yeah, sure. Hard to do these days.
Michelle Tompkins: It is. It is. People like to scream at each other rather than listen. Now, what's next for you?
Chad Prather: Well. Well, the touring's going to kick off again more in February. We're pitching TV stuff out in LA, and so who knows? My manager, he's like, "Man, just think about it. Pretty soon you'll be living in LA," and I'm like, "There's no way I'm moving to LA, That's your dream, not mine, buddy." I'm a Texas guy, so, Texas is in my blood now and I have to spend enough time out there as it is. So I'm happy to visit, but I don't want to be living out there.
Michelle Tompkins: What a great track record. Well, thank you so much for your time. This has been amazing. On another note, have you seen A Millennial Job Interview?
Chad Prather: Yeah.
Michelle Tompkins: There are two things that were really big with my family over Christmas: your videos and then A Millennial Job Interview.
Chad Prather: I love it. I saw it for the first time yesterday. I love it.
Michelle Tompkins: And recently I interviewed the entire team. I interviewed the writer, director and the two actors. But the best thing is the comments. The positive comments are great but the negative comments are even better. Because these people are as funny by trying to be serious as this video was itself.
Chad Prather: Isn't that funny. People have the hardest time with humor these days. I do a lot of satire stuff. I write a lot of satire stuff and people just don't get it. We've put out the same, we say, "If you're looking for real fake news, you have a choice. Thank you for watching BSNBC." And people are watching and people are like, "That's all fake." And we're like, "No joke [laughter]. No kidding."
Michelle Tompkins: Fair enough. Now, is there anything you'd like to add?
Chad Prather: Come see me on the road! That's the big thing for me right now. Growing those shows has become a very big priority for us. We're working very, very hard. I've got the best team that you can imagine, and it's all been a godsend because these guys that work with me, my agent and my manager and the others that work with me, they found me. And I was lost to the ball and high weeds, I didn't know where I was going, I didn't know what I was doing. And these guys have really helped me navigate the path, but we've worked hard and I encourage people to come out to the show. It's a fun show, I can tell you that. It's a funny, funny show.
Michelle Tompkins: What makes the show so special?
Chad Prather: It's real, it's real life. And I think the thing for me is it gives people an opportunity to see another angle of me. They're surprised by it. Because people say, "Is it a political show?" No, it's not a political show. And I know a lot of people come out wanting it to be more political. But again, it's a comedy show. It's not two hours of me ranting like I do in the truck. I'm telling you stories and we're laughing all the way through them. And so I love that fact that people get another angle. It's just another facet of who I am. I'm very physical with my comedy and so people see an angle that they don't see with me sitting in the cab of the truck.
Michelle Tompkins: I can't wait to see it myself. I was looking at the dates and looking for you to be in a city that I would be near. But you're not going to be near New York or Sacramento anytime soon. But I hope to catch it sometime soon.
Chad Prather: Yeah, we've got some that we're going to announce here pretty soon. We've got some more coming. I'm realistic about where my fan base is, and some of these cities we go out and try. And for the most part, I can tell you, in all of 2017, we didn't have a single bad show. So I'm humbled and thankful for that.
Chad Prather can be seen live on his Star Spangled Banter tour and you can catch him often on Fox News and subscribe to his YouTube. Learn more about him here.