Published: April 20, 2007 12:18 am            

Bob & Tom All-Stars Comedy Tour: Comedian comes to Terre Haute looking for extinct tractor

TERRE HAUTE — Drew Hastings wants a Massey-Ferguson 150.

The strange aspect of that desire isn’t the fact that Massey-Ferguson stopped making those tractors in 1975.

Nor is it that Hastings might look a bit odd atop a 150, dressed in his usual black, West Coast-hip attire.

Nope. The weird part is that Hastings is a comedian by trade and a farmer by, some would say, mistake.

“He lives on a farm that he doesn’t know how to run,” said Tom Griswold, co-host of the “Bob & Tom Show,” a nationally syndicated radio program which often features Hastings.

Tonight at the Indiana Theatre, Hastings will likely try to explain why he moved from Los Angeles to a small Ohio farm near Cincinnati.

He and fellow comics Henry Phillips, Tim Bedore, Tracy Smith, and Donnie Baker and the Pork Pistols will perform a 7:30 p.m. show as part of the Bob & Tom Comedy All-Stars Tour. The Indianapolis-based radio show’s news anchor, Kristi Lee, will serve as guest host.

Hastings figures some crowd members will appreciate him agriculturally, and maybe even know where he can get a Massey-Ferguson 150.

Yet, Hastings doesn’t argue with Griswold’s bleak assessment of his farming abilities.

In fact, he compares himself to “Green Acres” TV show character Oliver Douglas, a successful-lawyer-turned-unsuccessful-farmer, right down to the black suit.

“People here think I’m either a cult leader or a homosexual,” Hastings quipped by telephone from Ohio.

He’s done his best to fit in. Hastings keeps his Jaguar parked inside the garage, and instead drives a Ford F-150 around the rural community.

Actually, Hastings feels quite at home. The 53-year-old grew up in Ohio, raised by a British mom, before pursuing a diverse assortment of careers in New York, San Francisco, Cincinnati and Los Angeles. Finally, he had to leave L.A. because it became “corrosive.”

“I’ve always been an urban person, but I’m big on experience,” Hastings said. “As a creative person, one doesn’t create without experiencing.”

On Wednesday, he was experiencing the frustration of trying to print labels on the computer at his farmhouse. His back-to-the-basics world view ran full bore.

“That’s why we’re better off with typewriters,” Hastings said, disgusted that he could not center the words on the labels.

Part of that computerized mission was to complete a list of life goals for his new manager. “I haven’t had anyone ask me that for years,” Hastings said.

He’d come up with at least one — to make a return appearance on the “Tonight Show.” He did that four years ago and got a standing ovation, a rarity for comedians on the show.

“I went on there and got a standing ovation and never came back,” Hastings explained. “People kept asking me, ‘Why don’t you go back?’ Well, I could never top that.”

He’s relented and intends to try the “Tonight Show” again. Hastings isn’t averse to TV appearances, having acted in numerous guest appearances on Fox, NBC and HBO shows and pilots. He particularly appreciated Midwestern, farm-oriented comedy, mentioning “Green Acres” — an absurdity-filled 1960s comedy — and “A Prairie Home Companion” — a Minnesota-based radio show hosted by Garrison Keillor.

“I thought [“A Prairie Home Companion”] always sounded like Lawrence Welk for liberals,” Hastings said.

His Midwestern background has its contradictions. Hastings stands 6-foot-6, but he never took up basketball or any other sports. Except polo (apparently on stolen horses in Washington, D.C., and Cincinnati).

“I was fascinated,” he said. “It was like hockey on horses. It’s really dangerous and it’s fast, and it kind of did for me what stand-up [comedy] would do later — it’s adrenaline.”

His English mom isn’t crazy about his job, which he took up at age 31. “She’d rather me do one-man shows in theaters,” he said.

During his turn on stage tonight in Terre Haute, that’s essentially what he’ll be doing.

Comedy is safer than his second job. Hastings said farming is one of America’s most dangerous professions — primarily because of machinery … such as tractors. “They don’t come with air bags,” he said.

Nonetheless, he’ll welcome any tips on available Massey-Ferguson 150s.

Mark Bennett can be reached at mark.bennett@tribstar.com or (812) 231-4377.

        

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