Local TV Anchor Tries Humorous Take On Small-Town Utah Life

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Local TV Anchor Tries Humorous Take On Small-Town Utah Life
Apr 30, 2008
by Rodger L. Hardy, Deseret News
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AMERICAN FORK -- Before KSL newscaster Bruce Lindsay started writing his Home Town Weekly good news stories he attempted to research them.

But then, he discovered, "I found you just make it up."

Lindsay performed his original stories in front of a live audience during a recent recording session at Covenant Communications Digital Source Studio which has scheduled a release of Lindsay's CD/book, "The Home Town Weekly" for September.

The humorous stories are based on a fictional small Mormon town in central Utah called Parley's Grove and its weekly paper.

The weekly stories are Lindsay's launching pad to light-hearted tales of what "really" happened.

Lindsay started writing quirky humor as a hobby.

Writing them allows Lindsay to be a Dr. Jekyll to his Mr. Hyde on television. They serve to cleanse his soul of the negativity of everyday journalism.

"Many people tell me they think the news is too negative and they always ask, 'Why don't you give us some good news for a change?' So, this is my chance to oblige with good news and nothing but good news," he said.

Lindsay grew up in small-town Utah. He delivered and wrote for "The Progress," a weekly paper in Beaver.

"These are my people," he said of his characters, "the people I love."

And while he humorously portrays rural Utah culture and the news that shows up in small town papers, he doesn't consider them provincial.

A Covenant spokeswoman said "The Progress" is like hundreds of small-town weekly papers around the country -- chronicling births, obituaries, out-of-town visits, along with trips to the doctor and high school proms.

"Mundane stories of neighbors and friends often shape our lives more than big national headlines, and they are the stories we care about and remember," Lindsay said.

Among his humorous episodes are reports on who bore testimony in sacrament meeting, including one who bore his in tongues.

Then he launched into a hilarious tale about Iola Hugely, an overweight, old maid teacher of a primary class of Sunbeams, who ended up in the hospital with hypertension.

When she told the doctor "it's the Sunbeams that cause her hypertension, particularly the noise." When she sensed the doctor evaluating her psychologically, she exclaimed, "Oh, you're not a member!"

Church callings are from heaven for fictional folks like Cloby Substead, Lindsay said, "because nobody else would have thought of it."

He also puns the church offices held by folks with regular jobs in the lay church. When fictional stake president Ardell Markham, also the county assessor, walks into a restaurant to speak with Cloby, one of the patrons pipes up, "Are you collecting taxes or tithing?"

Lindsay captures the LDS lingo juxtaposed with an "outsider's" understanding.

To sit in the audience:

Lindsay will record May 3 at 6:30 p.m. at 920 E. State.

RSVP to philr@covenant-lds.com today.

E-mail: rodger@desnews.com

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