It's funny, y'all: Southern Women Channel finds a huge fanbase

photo The Southern Women Channel on YouTube stars Julia Fowler, creator, writer and director of the series, Katherine Bailess, Sheila Hawkins and Delaine Yates. Logan Browning also makes guest appearances. All but Hawkins, a producer, are Southern-born and raised actresses living in Los Angeles.
photo Julia Fowler

FROM THE SOUTHERN WOMEN CHANNELA JokeQ: What's the Southern man's idea of loading the dishwasher?"A: Getting his wife drunk.The Dixie DictionaryWord: Barium (verb)Meaning: Dispose ofExample: Poor ole Preacher Johnson died last night, but they're not gonna barium till Saturday.Southern ShakespeareShakespeare: Give thy thought no tongue.Southern: Shut yer pie hole.Shakespeare: Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.Southern: It's hard being beautiful.Shakespeare: There is no darkness but ignorance.Southern: You can't fix stupid.Southern Women Say• "They got camouflaged panties down at the Walmart."• "Quit acting like your Daddy's people."• "I lost my virginity at Jesus fat camp."• "She's so skinny she's gonna fall through her butt and hang herself."• "This year, I'm only puttin' up six Christmas trees."• "Hey, can you carry me to Krispy Kreme?"• "Act like y'all got some sense."

Bless her heart.

Like thousands of others, Julia Fowler is living in Los Angeles, trying to find steady work as an actress with a resume that also lists writing, producing and directing skills.

But rather than sit around and wait for work to come to her, the South Carolina native decided almost three years ago to do something not only for fun, but as a way to honor her Southern heritage.

Fowler is the creator, writer, director, star and driving force behind the Southern Women Channel, which has grown in two years from what was supposed to be a one-off video of "(Stuff) Southern Women Say" (the actual word isn't "stuff," but an earthier word that's four letters and familiar). Now the channel has four episodes under that title, two episodes of "The Dixie Download" series and one episode of "Mama Made Me Do It."

"I did the first video just for fun," Fowler says. "People make fun of my accent and always think I'm from Texas."

If you understand exactly what "Raise that window down" or "Cut off that hose pipe" means, chances are good that you'll find the Southern Women Channel on YouTube familiar, if not downright funny. Fans, especially those in the South, including Chattanooga, appreciate the humor and the authenticity.

"I love those crazy gals, bless their hearts," says MaryEllen Matthews.

"It's entertaining and that petite girl [Logan Browning] is attractive in an admiring way," says Scott Louisell. "Let's face it, Southern accents are a rare commodity in most media."

Ben Byer says the channel takes him back to his family and provides him a good laugh.

"I really find it amusing," Byer says. "Laughter has always been important in my family. I became an rbk [right below knee amputee] and humor is how I deal with it! The SWC sayings, I use some I remember hearing as a child. Good memories."

Making the videos is also a way for Fowler to get a taste of home. A pretty redhead from Gaffney, S.C., with a thick, unapologetic drawl, the University of South Carolina graduate is that funny girl every sorority has. She grew up doing competitive dance and, even after moving to New York in 1996 to pursue a career on Broadway, she returned regularly to Gaffney to teach at the dance school she and her mother owned and to take students to competitive clogging competitions, including some in Chattanooga.

She landed several small roles on Broadway, (she was in the original cast of the revival of "Annie Get Your Gun" with Bernadette Peters and Tom Wopat) while living in New York, but her Southern ways always got in the way.

"They made fun of me in New York. It cost me a lot of jobs, but I feel like it's who I am," she says. "They made fun of the expressions I would say that just seem so natural to me, so I just one day thought I'd write them down. ... Everything I write is based on the South."

She moved to Los Angeles in 2001 hoping to change her fortunes, and it was there that she made her first self-produced video in "(Stuff) Southern Women Say."

"Unfortunately, I have to live out here to find work," she says. "When I started making the videos, it was because I missed the South so much. It was a way to get closer."

Her co-stars, who range in age from early 20s to early 50s, all volunteer their time, and are all long-time friends in the film and TV industry who share something else in common: They were all born and raised in the South and now live in Los Angeles.

Katherine Bailess is from Vicksburg, Miss.; Logan Browning was born in Lake Spivey, Ga. Sheila Hawkins is from Landrum, S.C., while Delaine Yates hails from Mandeville, La. All are actresses except Hawkins, who is a producer with no prior on-camera experience.

Being Southern born and raised is a prerequisite for anyone who works on the videos, Fowler says. "People who aren't from the South have these preconceived notions of what the South is, but real Southerners know the difference."

She wrote the first "(Stuff) Southern Women Say" one weekend just for herself. She liked it and thought her Southern friends, sorority sisters, family and former dance school students would enjoy it. It debuted on Halloween in 2012 and two days later had been seen more than 2 million times.

The videos now have almost 10 million views combined and the Southern Women Channel has 62,980 subscribers.

Fowler made the first video with her own money, but YouTube pays video providers who garner a lot of hits, and Fowler was garnering a lot of hits. So she put the YouTube money into buying lighting and camera equipment.

YouTube also has a studio in Los Angeles available to its successful video producers and Fowler now does her editing work there. Fowler says she films each segment in Los Angeles, usually over a weekend when her co-stars have time, then spends hours getting the sequencing and pacing just right in the editing process. She tries to shoot as much as she can at one time for the various segments.

Each video is "three to five minutes of fun mind candy" and filled with quick one-liners modeled not surprisingly after a popular show from Fowler's youth.

"My favorite show growing up was 'Hee-Haw.'"

The original series features the actresses repeating lines like "My hair won't do nothin"' and "How can I be out of hairspray?" With the "Dixie Downloads" series, she added some musical segments, a Dixie Dictionary and a segment featuring Southern versions of famous Shakespearean quotes.

"I branched out stuff because I wanted to open up my creativity. I love the one-liners."

Most of the bits are clean enough for momma'n'em, but some are a little off color in a PG-13 way because "that's how we talk," she says.

"Sometimes I'm a little edgy for the conservative South, but I think I'm being real. I was raised as religious as anyone. People say, 'Y'all use too many ugly words,' but the reality is we do use them and we say it in such a funny way."

For now, the Southern Women Channel "has taken over my life," Fowler says. She hopes to continue to grow the brand, and hopes ultimately to see the concept to television. She also continues to pursue other acting jobs and teaches Pilates.

For her, the videos are about autonomy and paying homage to her Southern roots. And the one thing each segment has is authenticity.

"That is my mission," Fowler says. "Everything I write and do is a love letter to the South. I'm never working from a position of being condescending because that would be making fun of myself. I've been the victim of being made fun of."

Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354.

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