Stand-up comic's Barney Fife act has origins in Tennessee


              In this undated photo, historian Tom Perry shows off the new book he co-authored with David Browning, "My Life as The Mayberry Deputy: We Have Extra Security Tonight!" at a recent festival in Wytheville, Va. The book is Browning's autobiography, but not long ago, Perry released his own memoir, "Beyond Mayberry." That book is a tribute to the late Andy Griffith, an actor who grew up in Mount Airy, a city which served as the real-life inspiration for the TV show's Mayberry. (Joe Tennis/The Bristol Herald-Courier via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT
In this undated photo, historian Tom Perry shows off the new book he co-authored with David Browning, "My Life as The Mayberry Deputy: We Have Extra Security Tonight!" at a recent festival in Wytheville, Va. The book is Browning's autobiography, but not long ago, Perry released his own memoir, "Beyond Mayberry." That book is a tribute to the late Andy Griffith, an actor who grew up in Mount Airy, a city which served as the real-life inspiration for the TV show's Mayberry. (Joe Tennis/The Bristol Herald-Courier via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT

BRISTOL, Va. (AP) - David Browning sniffs and grins. He talks about "Check Point Chicky" and things that are "big, big, really big." He sounds like Barney Fife. He looks and acts like Barney Fife, too.

But Browning, a versatile actor from Bristol, Virginia, doesn't specifically claim to be "Barney Fife."

He's known instead as "The Mayberry Deputy," a title he wears as proudly as the beige, police uniform he's been donning for a quarter-century.

Browning performs stand-up shows and works crowds at festivals like Clinch River Days in St. Paul, Virginia, and the Lee County Tobacco Festival at nearby Pennington Gap.

A 1967 graduate of Bristol Virginia High School, Browning travels frequently to Alabama, Illinois, Indiana and North Carolina. There, and locally, he remains in demand as an event emcee or as a dinner speaker.

Folks long to hear "The Mayberry Deputy" - Browning's act based on the fictional Barney Fife, an unforgettable character portrayed by the late Don Knotts on "The Andy Griffith Show" from 1960 to 1965.

For years, Browning has also been a big, big, really big draw at "Mayberry Days," a festival at Mount Airy, North Carolina.

Yet he also itched to share his story.

"After 10 years of doing what I do, I started thinking about doing a book," Browning said. "I think everybody's life is sort of a book."

That's why Browning recently capped his pen on a 344-page autobiography, "My Life as The Mayberry Deputy: We Have Extra Security Tonight!" (Laurel Hill Publishing, $19.99), that he co-authored with historian Thomas D. Perry of Mount Airy.

For Perry, the project appeared to be a perfect fit. Not long ago, he had released his own memoir, "Beyond Mayberry." That book is a tribute to the late Andy Griffith, an actor who grew up in Mount Airy, a city which served as the real-life inspiration for the TV show's Mayberry.

"David is always there for 'Mayberry Days,'" Perry said. "We had gotten to know each other, and he needed some help."

You see, Browning stays busy.

He has performed as "The Mayberry Deputy" as much as 140 times a year. He can entertain crowds at a Walmart opening or stand on stage where folks come dressed in suits.

But, candidly, he admitted to struggling when it came to compiling this book.

"I worked on it for a long, long time," Browning said. "There have been a lot of people who wanted to know about my background before I started doing Mayberry."

Over the years, Browning has performed shows as Abraham Lincoln and Ebenezer Scrooge. For a while, he served as the director at the "Trail of the Lonesome Pine" outdoor drama in Big Stone Gap, Virginia.

In 1989, Browning originated "The Mayberry Deputy" character at Sullivan East High School in Bluff City, Tennessee, when he was asked by Tim White, of Blountville, Tennessee, to perform as an emcee.

Initially, for that, Browning put together his deputy costume with donations from the police forces of Bristol, Virginia, and Sullivan County, Tennessee. He also borrowed a starter pistol from the Bristol Virginia Parks and Recreation Department.

And, from there, he just kept going - from show to show to show.

"I've sort of created my own persona with 'The Mayberry Deputy,'" Browning said. "Even in my stand-up act, I don't just do what I do, sort of, as Barney Fife. I go into Floyd the Barber. I do a little bit of Ernest T. Bass's voice. I do a little bit of Goober and Otis. So it's 'The Mayberry Deputy' as a vehicle to kind of bring the show to life again for people."

In 1991, Browning met Don Knotts. "And he invited me to be his opening act," Browning said. "I started opening for him in '94."

Browning worked with Knotts for 11 years. "And I still work with his daughter, Karen," he added. "I do a takeoff on the character that he created. And that, then, is a vehicle for me."

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Information from: Bristol Herald Courier, http://www.bristolnews.com

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