Q&A: Gary Mule Deer

Comedian-musician performs this Saturday at The Mint

Gary Mule Deer is a comedian and a musician from Spearfish, S.D., but prefers the label “funny musician.” In his 65th year in the entertainment business, Mule Deer brings his dry wit and prop humor, pompadour hairstyle, Gibson J-200 guitar and a repertoire of country and rockabilly classics this Saturday to The Mint Gaming Hall Kentucky Downs.

Born Gary Miller, Mule Deer has performed with, opened for or been associated with a multitude of legends, including former roommate Steve Martin, the Smothers Brothers, Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, Willie Nelson, Vince Gill and Brooks and Dunn. He was a regular with late-night television stalwarts Johnny Carson and David Letterman and was on tour with Johnny Mathis for 30 years until the pop megastar’s recent retirement. Mule Deer’s mentor is the late comedian and professional violin player Jack Benny. While he never officially met Johnny Cash, the country icon had a profound impact on Mule Deer.

Mule Deer became a member of the Grand Ole Opry, where he has long been a staple, in 2023 along with Henry Cho – the Opry’s first comedians so honored in 49 years. He received the 2024 Sedona International Film Festival’s lifetime achievement award for comedy, was part of Hee Haw’s cast for two years and is a proud member of the Comedy Hall of Fame as well as the South Dakota Halls of Fame for country western music and rock ’n’ roll. Mule Deer surely is the only person to perform at Carnegie Hall, London’s Royal Albert Hall and the High Plains Western Heritage Center in Spearfish.

VIA Productions of Memphis’ 2023 documentary about Mule Deer’s life titled Show Business is My Life, But I Can’t Prove It is out on major streaming platforms.

Jennie Rees, publicity director for Kentucky Downs and The Mint properties, chatted with Mule Deer Monday for the following Q&A, which has been slightly edited for space and clarity:

Which came first, comedy or music?

“I made a mistake in this first song I played in this bar in Deadwood, S.D., so I just threw in a joke real quick. And all eight people in the audience, who had been ignoring me to that point, turned and looked at me and laughed. So I kind of mixed it up the rest of the night.

“… When Steve Martin and I were roommates in 1966 and ’67, that’s when I started writing jokes. He got a job writing on the Smothers Brothers Show, and I just went out and started working with country acts on the road. I didn’t really want to be in the office. Steve was more disciplined than me, as you can see. Whatever happened to him?”

What made you want to perform in the first place?

“I tried every other job in the world. I tried I think 30 different jobs. I think what it came down to is that I noticed the guy with the guitar got just as many girls as the quarterback and didn’t get beat up for it.”

Did you teach yourself to play the guitar?

“I took one guitar lesson. I should have taken more. I wasn’t really prepared when I started playing. That’s why I did more comedy than music. I still haven’t been above the fifth fret. Guitar has kind of been my motivation to do comedy. I always figure, if you wear a guitar every time you walk out on stage and don’t play it really well, you better be funny.”

How did you learn how to be funny?

“I think it was just something that came along, something I felt comfortable doing. I made people laugh when I was on stage. I never was a class clown or anything like that. I was never a stand-up comedian. I pretty much look at myself as a funny musician. And I get to play with some of the greatest musicians in the world, which has been wonderful, either opening for them or playing along with them.

“When they come and see me at The Mint, they’re going to hear some of the really great musicians — just not see them. All of the Opry band make incredible music tracks for me. Danny Parks doing the guitars. Larry Paxton on bass. Willie Weeks, who is Aretha Franklin’s bass player. I got Eddie Bayers on drums — the first drummer ever to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Randy Hart, who produces it all and is the assistant music director on the Opry, I got him on keyboards. So I’ve got all these great players, plus Steve Wariner and Dan Tyminski. You going to hear great musicians, you just won’t see ’em. I call them my Duck and Cover Band.”

You’ve been called the oldest active comedian-musician in America. What keeps you going? You perform a lot.

“I just keep breathing.”

How do you create humor?

“I just pretty much figure out things I want to do, and I can tell if something is funny or not. Young comedians will come up to me and ask, ‘What can you tell me? Give me tips. What should I do?’ I always say, ‘Don’t do anything unless it’s funny.’ That’s the way I work. I’m just really blessed to be able to do what I’m doing.”

You were in Annie Hall and some other movies.

“I played in some movies. If you blink, you won’t see me. All my stuff was cut out.”

Your role in “Annie Hall” was described in the credits as “man in health food store.”

“I did. ‘Man in health food restaurant,’ yes. I found out later that the reason they cut my lines is because I said something funnier than Woody Allen before he said his stuff. I heard if you say something funnier than him, your lines get cut. Which he wrote (Mule Deer’s lines), by the way. I was sitting with a girl in a health food restaurant called The Source in Hollywood. I just said to her, ‘The concert was incredible. He blew up a grand piano and electrocuted a dog. Are you going to finish those sprouts?’ That was my line. In Cheech and Chong’s Up in Smoke, I’m ‘freak with basketball.’”

What did you think you were going to be growing up?

“I didn’t really know. I was a seven-year freshman (at Black Hills Teachers College, now Black Hills State University) – I have the record there. I had 30 incompletes and one A in archery. That’s why I shoot rubber-tipped arrows off my guitar and hit a cigarette in a rubber chicken’s mouth. That’s one of the things I do.”

How did you get to where you sound so much like Johnny Cash?

“Never thought about it. I never do an impression of Johnny Cash. I just learned to sing with his records; that’s why my voice is kind of like his. But I’m not an impressionist. In my show, I do a tribute to Johnny Cash that I wrote that has 56 of his song titles in it. I’ll be performing that. It takes about four minutes.”

Did I read that you write things on your guitar?

“I’ve got everything on the top of my guitar. Plus the guitar I’m bringing along has almost 70 signatures on it right now. Everyone from Sheryl Crow to Alice Cooper has signed my guitar.”

Mule Deer calls his wife, Nita, “my rock.”

“You can always tell she’s with me when I’m stage because my hair always looks the best. When I do it, I just have to use a lot of hairspray and just pray it’s going to work.”

How and why did it happen that you changed your last name to Mule Deer?

“I was in a rock-and-roll band in 1967 called the New Society on RCA Victor Records. We had a Checker limousine, like the Checker cabs only a limousine with a Chrysler V8 engine in it. I was the only one old enough to drive. And we also had a big bus. Sometimes everybody would wake up and I’d be in the middle of Utah and they’d wonder why the bus was stopped. I’d be spotting mule deer with the spotlight of the bus. The bass player, Sherman Hayes, who later became Waylon Jennings’ bass player, started calling me Mule Deer. Then everybody started calling me Mule Deer. And I used to hunt mule deer in South Dakota, before I quit hunting. So I just had it changed. Chemically enhanced, I went down to a courthouse in Santa Monica, I think in 1970, and had it changed to Mule Deer.”

What are you most proud of in your career?

“I think I’m most proud of being a member of the Grand Ole Opry, being part of the Johnny Mathis and the Orchestra for 30 years. I’m pretty proud of being a member of the Comedy Hall of Fame and being in the South Dakota Hall of Fame. And I’m really, really proud of being able to say I married way above my station.”