Rafe Williams, a member of The Rizzuto Show on 105.7 The Point, an actor and a comedian in the St. Louis area, visited EHS April 22.
Williams grew up in Quinton, Illinois, and attended SIUE. During graduate school, he began to realize that comedy could be a possible career route.
“Growing up in a small town, I never really thought that comedy could be a career,” Williams said.
Williams started his career performing in clubs around St. Louis. Nowadays he performs in comedy clubs and festivals around the world. He recently performed in the biggest comedy festival in North America, South by Southwest, in Austin, Texas.
Williams also runs his own yearly comedy festival, Flyover STL, which he co-founded with Zach Gzehoviak. Janelle James, Sheng Wang, Shane Torres and Jeff Ross will headline this year’s show.
English teacher Cara Lane met Williams almost 20 years ago, when he was a server at a restaurant in the St. Louis area and got the idea to bring Williams into her public speaking class. However, because of Williams’ morning show schedule on the radio, after school would be the only option for a visit.
“The after-school model meant that anyone who was interested could join us, and that made this more of a school-wide event,” Ms. Lane said. “We were also not constrained by the timeframe of a 54-minute class, so that gave us extra time to start and conclude organically.”
A crowd of students and teachers gathered in Lane’s room two weeks ago to listen to a 40-minute interview. The interview was conducted by seniors Jozie Beedie and Tennyson Rose.
“It was my first time doing an interview, and he was a great pick for my first time,” Rose said. “He had lots of great knowledge and was very easy to talk to.”
After the interview, audience members were then able to ask questions.
“He answered all of the questions very easily,” junior Mason Lewis said. “I just thought it was really cool to see a St. Louis comedian thriving.”