Comedians reunite for East Ridge High

Despite their long friendship and relatively similar career paths, Les McCurdy, Ken Sons and Jim Brick have never performed together onstage. That will get rectified during the first weekend of August when the three team up to raise money for athletics at their alma mater, East Ridge High School.

The Reunion Weekend will feature a golf tournament at Brown Acres on Aug. 5 and then a barbecue dinner/auction that night at the Renaissance Center in Ringgold, Ga., emceed by the three comedians.

“It will be clean and a lot of fun,” McCurdy says.

On Saturday night, Aug. 6, at the Chattanooga Convention Center, Sons, McCurdy and Brick will perform.

“That will not be clean,” McCurdy laughs.

The evening will include hors d’oeuvres and musical entertainment. McCurdy and Brick will be joined by Kristen Key on The Comedy Catch stage on Sunday, Aug. 7, for a special show that is also part of the ERHS fundraising endeavors.

Proceeds will go toward rebuilding the football stadium and hopefully kick-start a campaign that will fund other ongoing needs in the athletic department, McCurdy says.

McCurdy and Sons are 1973 ERHS grads who grew up together. They met as 5-yearolds, belonged to the same Cub Scout troop and were classmates through high school. Jim Brick was a year younger at ERHS and met the two older guys when he was 13.

In 1985, McCurdy and Sons started The Comedy Catch at t he old Dr. Sage’s in the Golden Gateway area just below where BlueCross BlueShield is today, eventually moving it to Brainerd Road and later selling it to Michael Alfano and Cheryl Gorrian.

McCurdy left town and opened McCurdy’s Comedy Theatre in Sarasota, Fla., in 1988. He and Sons have remained friends and worked together on and off since. Sons also lives in the Sarasota area and runs a web- development/marketing business. Brick, who lives in Tampa, is still actively touring.

McCurdy says all of the events are open to supporters of ERHS as well as the city itself.

“You don’t have to be a graduate of the school,” he says.

Even McCurdy marvels at the idea that three guys so close in age could come out of one high school and make careers doing stand-up. Couple that with the fact that both The Comedy Catch and McCurdy’s, which he owns with his wife, are still vibrant clubs after more than 30 years.

“At that time, especially growing up in Chattanooga, it was inconceivable that three young men would go into the arts. I’m very proud of what Michael and Cheryl and Pam and I have done,” he says.

Barry Courter