Last night FBC Columbia hosted a Tim Hawkins showe. As far as I can tell, the evening was a lot of fun for everyone who was there. While things are fresh in my mind, I want to put down a few thoughts about our experience of hosting the event.
Easy Preparation
It was surprisingly easy to put this event together from the very beginning. When I got the call from Tim’s team offering us the opportunity to host the event, I immediately shared the opportunity with our senior pastor. My thought process was a simple one. Our church family had been very busily working through the building process. Our people had worked hard, and it seemed like a fun idea to offer them an opportunity for an evening of laughter and fun.. Our pastor agreed, and we happily put things in motion.
The team at Rock Show Comedy made the process so simple. We had, of course, to put down a deposit. But that deposit would be returned to us so long as we sold a minimum number of tickets—a very easy task. The team at Rock Show took care of all the ticketing and ticket sales. All we had to do was to put the link on our web site and use the promotional materials that they provided us as needed. Each week, I received a report of how many tickets sold. Tickets sold like hot cakes, and we had a sold out show on our hands before we knew it.
A few weeks before the event, I talked with Chris, Tim’s road manager, to finalize details of the evening of the performance. Chris sent me a very clear email laying out the physical and technical requirements of the show. He was great to work with, flexible, and friendly. The guys did not ask for anything difficult, and it took very little to be prepared for the day.
Then all we had to come up with was setting up for the event. I’m very grateful to our church people for making this part so easy. I had volunteers to help in a variety of ways, and everybody did their part. We had a lot of chairs to set up, sound and lights to run, display tables to man, tickets to check, etc. Everything came off without a hitch.
A Great Event
Once the show started, Tim Hawkins and Daren Streblow kept our people in stitches for two full hours. The comedy was a solid combination of classic and very fresh material. People loved the new things they heard. I also noticed others singing along with silly songs that they knew from the past
Tim brought out Daren Streblow in the middle of his performance. Daren’s part of the show allowed for Tim to have a break while the audience got to enjoy a comedian that most had not heard before. Daren brought in a solid mix of impressions, silly stories, and clean comedy that would be worth seeing at any time. I very much liked his sweet story of how he met his wife.
Tim was exactly what any person who has seen him before either in person or on the Internet would expect. He’s goofy, there’s just no other way to put it, but it works for him. He has a great grasp on the way that our lives lend themselves to humor. He’s not uptight, and that rubs off on us all. Tim had us laughing at our relationships, our silly uses of the English language, our tendency to be uptight in church, and our own odd cultures.
Tim also surprised me with is musical skill. Over the years, he has become a very solid guitarist. He played both electric and acoustic, rock and country, and just about everything in between. He played impressive chord patterns and did some pretty tough solo work too. As a guy who has played for years, I have to say that I was very impressed, especially considering that this was not a show that I thought would feature that kind of talent.
Finally, I want to mention that Tim shared a very sweet and simple understanding of how the gospel of Christ has impacted his own life. At the end of the show, he shared, without being preachy, that his only hope is in the finished work of Christ. This is where we find joy and comfort and the ability to laugh. I was very glad to hear him share this, and he did it in such a way that I found compelling, not sappy or forced as is often the case at Christian performances.
Final Thoughts
I was very pleased with the show. I found everybody I dealt with on Tim’s team to be very kind and very easy to work with. I believe that our people laughed and had a sweet evening to just be together. And so, I’m grateful.
I would also recommend this group to any organization or church who might find it worthwhile. Of course, you should watch Tim’s videos on his web site or YouTube to be sure that his style of humor is something you and your people would enjoy. But, I will certainly say that, for me, the small amount of work we had to do to make this happen was totally worth it.
Pastor Travis Peterson 