Rob Cantrell: The Buena Vista Bad Boy of Stand-Up Comedy
I recently attended the first annual Roanoke Comedy Fest on Oct. 10 and the last thing I expected was for the final event to be headlined by a Buena Vista native.
Rob Cantrell got on stage and mentioned that he grew up in the middle of nowhere, Virginia. As soon as he said that he was from Buena Vista, my table full of Southern Virginia University students started clapping and cheering. He was surprised at our reaction, thinking no one would know of Buena Vista. He went on with his comedy skit and absolutely killed it! I would give him a 10/10 rating! After the show I was able to interview Rob and ask him about his life growing up in Buena Vista, and how he got into comedy.
Rob enjoyed growing up in Buena Vista and recalled all the fond memories he had made and of all the activities he participated in. Some of these activities were cheering on his classmates at the Parry McCluer football games, break dancing in his basement, and sneaking into the Buena Vista City Pool late at night. He also was able to enjoy many activities that the Southern Virginia University students indulged in. He loved cliff jumping at Panther Falls and at the James River Footbridge, and looked forward to sledding down the hill at the base of Main Hall every time it snowed.
Not only did Rob enjoy the same activities as Southern Virginia students, he was also no stranger to the Historic Buildings at the University. His father worked for Southern Seminary Junior College, and he grew up in a house that was once located in the parking lot in between the Walnut Apartments and the Stoddard Center.
Even though Rob loved Buena Vista, he needed to leave in order to pursue his passion. He has always been interested in comedy, and when he was 25 he rolled the dice, moved to San Francisco, and started performing at open mic nights at comedy clubs. He stated “[if you want to get into comedy] there is nothing to it but to do it.”
When I asked him what advice he would give to aspiring comics, he replied, “If you have a desire, that is 90% of it…[the desire] will push you forward.”
It is clear that Rob loves what he does and his desire to make people laugh has pushed him to awesome places!
Rob has done a lot of cool things in his career! He has acted on TV shows such as HBO’s “Flight of the Conchords” (2007), Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report” (2014) and “The Last OG” on Netflix (2020).
You can find out more about Rob and his future live performances on his personal website linked here.
