You can take Joe Nance out of Chickamauga, Ga., but you can’t take Chickamauga, Ga., out of Joe Nance.
The North Georgia native, who is to open for comedian Kyle Cease in a comedy charity show at Memorial Auditorium on Feb. 27, is on the circuit in Los Angeles.
Nance said you won’t catch him putting on Left Coast airs or dressing to fit an image of what someone might expect of him in California.
“All my friends from Texas … they move to L.A. and try to dress all trendy,” he said. “I’m like, ‘Guys, be yourself. Let people know you’re from somewhere else, and be proud of that.'”
Nance, a graduate of Gordon Lee High School, said his small-town Southern roots, the L.A. lifestyle, observations about people, television commercials and well-told stories are fodder for his comedy, almost all of which he writes himself. He’s not above making himself the butt of the joke.