photograph by bruce vanwyngarden
Buddy Jones serves a Duvel Strong Golden Ale.
Hey, have you heard the one about the bartender who became a comedian? It’s a funny story — and it belongs to Buddy Jones, who spends his days serving beers at the Flying Saucer downtown and his nights serving up jokes at local comedy venues. The story begins in Mississippi.
“I grew up in Horn Lake and when I was in college at Northwest Mississippi,” says Jones. “I started bartending to help pay the bills — just popping beer bottles and making call drinks at a little bar in Lake Cormorant, Mississippi. After a while, I decided I liked the work and went to Crescent City School of Bartending in Tunica. It was a three-month crash course. They teach you how to make the drinks but they don’t teach you what to do when your bar is nine-deep and guys are banging on it, saying, ‘Let’s GO!”
Jones quickly picked up those other skills via hands-on experience, using his wit and sense of humor to good advantage, and eventually bringing his bartending chops to Beale Street.
photograph by bruce vanwyngarden
“I worked for a good while at Jerry Lee Lewis’ place, and that was fun,” says Jones. “Jerry Lee used to do a New Year’s Eve concert at the club, so I got to meet him. I went over and shook his hand and said, ‘Nice to meet you, Mr. Lewis. I’ve heard a lot about you.’ And he looked at me and said, ‘Every bit of it’s true!’ He was a character.”
Jones, who’s now lived downtown for 15 years, parlayed his Beale Street gig into other part-time jobs in the area. “I worked at FedExForum for concerts, which was great,” he says. “I got to see a lot of artists, plus a lot of basketball games.”
Then four years ago, Jones moved a block north of Beale to the Flying Saucer. It’s been a good change, he says: “I was a customer at the Saucer for years. I even had a beer plate on the wall. After Covid happened and everybody in the service industry was looking for a place to work, I started over here. It’s been fun.”
The change of venue also brought a fortuitous change in working hours. Jones started doing day-shifts at the Saucer, which left his nights free to pursue his other dream: being a comic.
“I always wanted to do comedy,” he says, “Now I have nights free, and comedy is something you have to do night-in and night-out. There are open mics; you gotta write; and you gotta be out there.”
And Jones is out there. “There are some really good local comedians and there’s an open-mic almost every night of the week in Memphis,” he says. “I like doing stand-up. It’s a personality thing. I like being in front of people and cracking jokes and writing my own stuff.”
“What’s been your best comedy night?” I ask.
“Probably in a Memphis’s Top Comic show,” he says. “I got into the finals with my best comic friend, John Jolley. We both made it to the roast round.”
But even some of the best comics have a day job, and I’m sitting in the Flying Saucer to talk to Jones about that as well. “What are you going to serve me today?” I ask.
“We serve cocktails here, but really this place is all about the beer, so I’m going to pour you a Duvel Strong Golden Ale from Belgium,” says Jones. “Only 22 places in the U.S. have Duvel kegs and we’re one of them. We’re required to serve it in a glass that’s especially designed to allow you to smell the foam and be able to drink at the same time, because the beer comes out under the foam. You pour the beer to the middle of the ‘D” on the glass.”
Magically, such a glass appears on the bar before me. It tastes rich and smooth and smells like beer in heaven must smell. And it’s got a little punch.
“What’s the ABA on this stuff?” I ask, and Jones tells me it’s 8.5 percent, meaning this is a beer to savor like a fine wine. As I’m doing just that, a group of four or five people walks in the door and starts looking around. They are obviously tourists.
“Hey, where are you all from?” Jones asks.
“England,” says one of the visitors.
“Wow, that’s a long drive,” says Jones.
Heyooo! Try the veal. And go see Buddy Jones at the Flying Saucer. He’s a funny guy and he’ll be here all week.
Flying Saucer, 130 Peabody Place
