A man and his horse walk into a bar.
That’s not a setup for a joke. It really happened. And it’ll happen again. The man is Chaz Stephens: comedian, rapper, son of a local Black rodeo legend. The horse’s name is Cowboy, and Stephens—aka ThunderWof—takes him to gigs wherever he can. More on that later.
ThunderWof has been boots-on-the-ground when it comes to building the Tulsa comedy scene. Last spring, he filmed a comedy special called “The Horse and The Wof” at the Spotlight Theater, becoming the first Black artist ever to produce a sold-out show at the historic venue. This week brings another first: Circle Cinema, which has never screened a local comedy special before, will show “The Horse and The Wof” on June 12, followed by a Q&A with Stephens, director Ian Upton, and comedian Evan Hughes. A portion of the ticket sales will go to support the Union Speech and Debate Team that nurtured Stephens’ own talent.
I sat down with ThunderWof at his family's DNR Ranch to talk about the special, the horse, meeting Ethan Hawke, and making comedy history in Tulsa.
Ryan Anderson: Why do they call you ThunderWof?
ThunderWof: My junior year of high school, my friends and I used to rap together, and my nickname back then was Charlie The Kid, but that was such a basic rap name. I was like, “I can come up with something better.” My uncle's rodeo nickname used to be Apache Kid because they lived on Apache Street in north Tulsa, so I was like OK, I'll go by Apache The Kid. And then I was listening to Young Thug, the Black Portland mixtape, and in the song “Movin” he goes, "Thugger, Thugger"—I thought he said, "Thunder, Thunder." I was like, “that's tough,” so I went by Apache Thunder, and I was like, you gotta have something cooler to it, so then I made it Apache Thunder Wolf. Then it dropped from Apache Thunder Wolf to just Thunder Wolf, and then [my friends and I] took the “l” out of Thunder Wolf, so still pronounced Thunder Wolf, but we just didn't want to keep an extra “l” in the name for no reason.
Ryan Anderson: You wear a lot of hats, including a cowboy hat. Can you tell me about the culture of being a cowboy in Tulsa?
ThunderWof: Yeah, I like to say more that I just live on a ranch. I wouldn't say I'm a real real cowboy—I yee-haw the best I can, but I want to make sure I give respect to the real cowboys out there doing real cowboy stunts and all that shit. I just ride and all that good shit. But yeah, I love cowboy culture. It's what I grew up in: my dad and uncle are professional cowboys, we have this horse ranch out here in north Tulsa, in Turley. We've had plenty of horses, cows, celebrities, people, families come out here. We've shot music videos. Some documentaries have been shot out here. So it's just fun to be a part of this culture. I’m happy to be a part of this upbringing.