Half Way There

Cliff Cash begins this set in character as a stereotypical Southern redneck, playing into conservative anxieties for easy groans before dropping the act to reveal his actual voice: a progressive Southerner who is deeply exhausted by his neighbors. It is a transition that sets the stage for a smart, sharp-tongued set that dismantles the culture he grew up in. Cash finds humor in everything from his mother speaking in tongues to the bizarre local folklore surrounding Market Street in Wilmington.

Though released in 2021 through Stand Up! Records, Half Way There was recorded in 2016 at the Dead Crow Comedy Room in Wilmington, North Carolina. Distilled from four hours of uncut club footage down to a tight 52 minutes, the release arrived at a quiet moment in Cash’s touring career due to pandemic lockdowns, but quickly shot to the top of the iTunes comedy charts.

Much of the material targets the absurdity of local panics, with Cash translating hip-hop lyrics, pitching a Christian boy band designed to recruit Latino voters, and questioning why heaven supposedly needed Andy Griffith to be its sheriff. Throughout the set, Cash shows why he spent years touring the country in a modified station wagon, refining a style that balances the hyper-local eccentricities of North Carolina with a broader, cynical perspective on the modern American South.