“The Looney Lutherans” coming to the Colfax Municipal Building theater January 14

By LeAnn R. Ralph

COLFAX —  If you are Lutheran — or even if you are not — the words “hotdish,” “potluck” and “Jello” hold special meaning.

Those words hold special meaning for “The Looney Lutherans” too.

The Looney Lutherans will be coming to the Colfax Municipal Building theater on Sunday, January 14, and they want to help you “USE YOUR FOOD — a guide to healthy living inside and out, from our kitchen to yours, EAT LIKE A LUTHERAN.”

Of course, The Looney Lutherans would like you to know, “you don’t have to be Lutheran to love ‘em!”

On the main page of The Looney Lutherans website (www.
looneylutherans.com), visitors are greeted with the message that they should not mind the mess because “we’ve been cooking up a storm today, sharing some recipes and talking about our husbands.”

The idea for The Looney Lutherans came about in 2006 when the founding members were in the cast of the musical, “Church Basement Ladies,” according to the website.

The company of performers has since expanded to include other actresses, writers and singers.

The Looney Lutherans have appeared around the country at county fairs, festivals, mother-daughter banquets, fund raisers and customer appreciation events.

The website lists seven women as members of The Looney Lutherans cast and includes their biographies. Each of the women have extensive experience performing in a variety of venues all over the United states.

The Looney Lutheran are based in Minnesota, and their performances are described as family-friendly, interactive comedy.

The Looney Lutherans performance is being sponsored by the Colfax Municipal Building Restoration Group and is part of an effort to bring more entertainment to downtown Colfax, said Troy Knutson, president of CMBRG.

CMBRG members have spent years working on fund raising and renovating the auditorium, and it is now time to begin using the historic auditorium to greater advantage, he said.

Movies, performances and library events in the municipal building allow people who grew up attending events in the building to recapture some of those memories from years past, but holding events in the building also allows younger people in the community to start making some of their own memories involving the Colfax Municipal Building, Knutson said.

The Looney Lutherans performance will include a discussion of the Lutheran “food wheel” in which “all roads lead to hotdish,” as well as the Lutheran food rap, “Eat Like a Lutheran.”

The Looney Lutherans also provide beauty tips that show audience members how to use items from their own kitchens to “create a more beautiful you.”

(For example, did you know you can a large carving fork to fluff your hair?)

Audience members also will be invited to play the game show, “Potluck,” and winning contestants will receive a can of corn.

Tickets for The Looney Lutherans went on sale Friday, December 8, and are $15 each for general seating.

For those who are attending The Looney Lutherans, or any other events at the Colfax Municipal Building, Commercial Testing in Colfax has offered the company’s parking lot, Knutson said.

For those who are not familiar with the location, the Commercial Testing and CTL Foods parking lot is located on East River Street, about a block away from the Colfax Municipal Building.

Because of the seating capacity of the municipal building auditorium, the number of tickets available for The Looney Lutherans is limited, Knutson noted.

Tickets for The Looney Lutherans on Sunday, January 14, at 2 p.m. are available at the Colfax Public Library and from LeAnn Ralph at the Colfax Messenger office and Mark Johnson at the Colfax Arts & Antique Mall.

If there are any tickets left for The Looney Lutherans after Christmas, the restoration group will publish another ad in the Colfax Messenger, Knutson noted.

If there is no ad in the January 3 or January 10 edition of the Colfax Messenger, you can assume the tickets are sold out.

You can also check out the Colfax Municipal Building Restoration Group’s Facebook page for more information about The Looney Lutherans and other events.