User:Richardcason

Richard Cason

Comedian, writer and radio host Richard Cason was born in Reynolds County, Missouri on June 17, 1978. He is the youngest of four boys whose parents hailed from Arkansas and Tennessee, both of whom relocated to Indiana. His ancestors were of multi-ethnic Europeon stock who intermarried with the local Native American groups. While his three older brothers were born in hospitals near Indianapolis, Richard was born in a house that had once been a stagecoach stop sometime in the 1800s. He was delivered by his father. Cason graduated from Van Buren High School in 1996 and briefly attended Three Rivers Community College in Poplar Bluff, Missouri; he dropped out after a month.

Cason's style, both on the air and on stage, is blunt, unorthodox and unpandering. His stand-up is rooted in the observational style and at times is confrontational while commenting on current events, ordinary people and himself. His radio show is a clever satire of the classic "DJ shift", using music as a foundation for his commentary, phone calls and produced comedy bits. He is known for sparking controversy with his opinions, jokes and treatment of certain callers "who don't get it".

Some of his bits include "Dear Cason" an advice segment where, after reading a woman's letter, he invariably blames her for whatever the problem is and "advises" her to "cook him (her man) a nice dinner".

Another bit is "The Caller Nine Game"; this is not a proper title but rather him simply giving the phone numbers and announcing that he is taking caller nine. Upon getting his ninth caller there is most always an awkward pause followed by the winner asking what prize they have won; Cason then informs them that he said nothing of winning a prize, that he was simply looking for the ninth caller. Eventually, these particular listeners became known as the Prize Junkies. He is also known to heavily promote a secret prize all day long only to reveal it to be something of no consequence such as a candy cane, a $100 Grand (the candy bar), etc.

"Wrong Number" is him improvising with someone who has called his radio show by mistake. Cason takes the call and pretends to be the person that the caller thought they contacted, usually a salesman of some type. Telemarketers, unaware that they had called a radio show, have also fell victim to this popular routine. Other times he would make the phone calls, usually to a customer service line where he would complain about a certain product.

In addition to staging fake parades and once holding an all-day oil drive, where he solicited donations from listeners in the form of quarts of motor oil, his most famous stunt involved him locking himself in the studio and playing nothing but cuts from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers for three solid hours. To the average listener, Cason had lost his mind but it was later revealed to be yet another bit. The real reason for this was to have something on the air playing while music was being transferred to a new facility across town.

Early Career

Before quitting TRCC Cason landed a job with Zimmer Radio Group which owned KKLR, KWOC-AM and KJEZ. By the end of 1996 Richard was hosting the overnight shift (Mid-6a) where he first developed what would become his trademark smart-ass attitude. KKLR happened to have a Country format and Richard simply did not like Country. He proceeded to make fun of the music all night long and because of the hours of the show, no one complained. After his KKLR shift was finished he would go across the hall and play it straight with two hours of news on KWOC. After a year he was fired for insubordination.

Re-hired two months later, Richard moved up to evenings on KKLR and then in April, 1998 transferred to Classic Rock KJEZ to host middays where he had the number one midday show in town and a year later he won the Missouri Broadcasters Association's DJ of the Year Award. His boss, also up for the award, was reportedly infuriated when he had to accept Richard's award on his behalf. Richard did not attend the ceremony as he was told it that only management was invited. His winning the award was particularly special to him since he was hosting what was supposed to be a "listen-at-work" program and not a morning show. Three months after winning the award, Cason was terminated for a second time.

During the middle of this period in February, 1998 Cason began travelling to St. Louis to perform stand-up comedy; his debut was at the West Port Funny Bone Open Mic Night. On that first night he had planned about five minutes of material on the Macarena, the dance fad of 1996-97. Six comics before him all covered that topic and by the time he was introduced and took to the stage Cason found himself improvising and getting not only real laughs but real credit from the other comics. After a couple of strong showings, he bombed for the first time which taught him a valuable lesson in audience managament. Devestated by the experience, Richard walked away from stand-up for a year. He finally found his courage and began performing at the now-defunct Loony Bin in Memphis, Tennessee and between there and St. Louis, his act began to come together. He would often drive over a hundred miles for just five minutes of stage time with the only payoff being that someone might notice him.

The Cape Girardeau and Southern Illinois Years

In May, 2000 Richard returned to radio hosting evenings on KGMO in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, the same station where years earlier Rush Limbaugh began his career. In no time he had the number one night show in Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois but these hours cut into his performing on stage. He began doing his act locally on the weekends wherever he could and a buzz about him started around town. At this time he was asked to write a piece for OFF, a Cape-based publication that covered the local scene. Impressed with his wit, the editors invited him to contribute a monthly column which he called "Cason Point". The column was heavily opinioned and did not exactly adhere to the highest journalistic merits, though, it was the most talked-about content in the magazine. After seven months and feeling that he said all that he had to say, Cason resigned from OFF. Despite his ratings and devoted following on KGMO, management released him on Halloween, 2001.

Two weeks later he popped up in Marion-Carbondale, Illinois working for Clear Channel on WDDD, replacing a very popular midday host and continued performing throughout the Midwest. Cason maintained number one ratings despite his distain for working once more on a Country radio station. One day, toward the end of his WDDD run, Richard was playing Toby Keith's "I Wanna Talk About Me"; in the middle of the song he cut it off and went into a tirade about how ridiculous the song was. The program director was so shocked that when she called him into her office to reprimand him she was speechless. Thankfully, a spot was created for him down the hall on Classic Rock WQUL where he anchored middays for the next year. After taking yet another show to number one he briefly moved to afternoons but this time the audience didn't follow him. In August, 2003 his employment with Clear Channel was over.

The Lost Weekend

The Lost Weekend actually refers to a three-year period between 2003 and 2006 where Cason simply withdrew in response to three events which occurred in rapid order. Within a two-week period he was dropped by his longtime girlfriend, his relationship was Clear Channel was severed and he found his friend's roommate dead from hanging. Richard went back home to Van Buren and settled into a deep depression. After a few months of bouncing from his mother's house to his brother's sleeping on a different couch every night, he moved in with his father in St. Louis and began rebuilding his career.

While nothing was happening on the radio front, he tapped into a well of material from recent events and began hitting both of the Funny Bones in St. Louis, the Comedy Forum in St. Charles and other places. He would lock himself in his room writing furiously, editing his demo tape and making telephone contacts. The hard work paid off when in April, 2004 he was asked to open for "Last Comic Standing" Winner John Heffron in Springfield, Illinois. He hit the road for his most consistent streak between 2004 and 2006.

Los Angeles

In August, 2005 with $500.00 to his name and a friend from Cape Girardeau, he took the bus to Los Angeles to seek fame and fortune. He would commute from Long Beach to Los Angeles looking for a straight job to be near Hollywood while at night he performed in Long Beach at different bars and coffeehouses; once more, a buzz began to develop about the new guy from the Midwest. But in two months it was over; when his money ran out, he called home for bus fare and returned once more to Van Buren still taking whatever road gigs he could.

Return to Cape Girardeau

Cason came to think of Cape as home and in April, 2006 he came off the road and moved back there. While performing locally he once more was writing for OFF but he didn't return to "Cason Point". Instead, he began covering events such as anti-war rallies, corn maze races, carnivals and even mixed martial arts competitions but with his classic anti-authority flair which owed more than a little to his literary hero Hunter S. Thompson. He further proved his writing chops by switching gears and contributed a piece to She, a sister publication of OFF, which caters to women's interests.

He also landed a gig at KWKZ as their production director where it was the same song, different dance. Two months after re-organizing their production department and making it functional his pay was cut and he was eventually let go altogether in order to make room for a relative of the station owner. He wrote a few more OFF pieces until that magazine folded in July, 2007. Clips from his radio show, stand-up and his writing can be found at www.richardcasononline.com[1].

Currently

For the time being, Cason is laying low in a straight job. Fed-up with traditional broadcasting, his shabby treatment for his work at KWKZ was the last straw. Richard has denounced radio as a repetitive and tedious medium filled with talentless hacks who have nothing to say and he has essentially turned his back on it. In September, 2007 he launched "As Seen on the Radio" on kmeat.com[2], a weekly one-hour show where the focus was more comedy oriented. But after just two shows he grew bored with it and he ended the program. Cason keeps his mind sharp by finishing screenplays that he started years earlier and as a life-long comic book fan he has also finished the rough draft for his first graphic novel.

To say that Richard Cason has approached his career haphazardly would be a gross understatement. But one thing is for certain: His antics are the stuff of local legend and love him or hate him, people's attraction to his bizarre body of work is undeniable. As of this writing he is plotting his return to stand-up comedy and is even entertaining the idea of doing yet another radio show, possibly on the Internet once more.