by Mark McDermott
Big Moe Cason’s passion was born in a backyard in Iowa when he was a kid. His grandmother, Margaret, had 17 children, and so when the family got together, they would throw down epic BBQs.
“All the holidays, we had big cookouts,” Cason said. “Our reunions are huge. They are in the hundreds. So we have always been a tight knit squad, and that’s how I got introduced to barbecuing, through my family. We always got down on the grill.”
Cason began grilling at 12, using whatever he could get his hands on — hotdogs, a humble local fish called a crappie, and even an occasional rabbit or squirrel. He loved it from the get-go, but had no idea the role BBQ would later play in his life.
As a young man, Cason joined the Navy, where he served aboard the USS Missouri — the famed battleship known as “Big Mo” — and fought in Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm. When he returned home to Des Moines, Iowa, he took a city job as an operator at a water treatment plant and started a family with his wife, Nena. They bought a little 800 sq. ft. house and had four daughters. Meanwhile, Cason took to barbequing again, teaching himself some of the finer points of the pitmaster’s art. He also became aware of the world of competitive barbequing, which was becoming increasingly popular on television.
Cason had no idea such a world existed, but he knew right away he wanted in. The problem was he didn’t have a real pit. He was just a backyard guy, and he and his wife lived paycheck to paycheck — she worked for the phone company — and didn’t have money to spare for his BBQ hobby.
“I needed to get some money up to get a smoker,” Cason said. “Like a real, real smoker.”
Cason is a self-described “grinder,” meaning he will do what it takes. His family had by now moved into a bigger house, and he went to work on the little old starter house he’d bought after the Navy. He took a year, tearing it down to its studs, getting materials from Habitat for Humanity and giving his every spare hour to the project. Then he put it on the market, and it sold in a week for $90,000, more than three times the $24,000 he’d paid for it a decade earlier.
“Then I was able to buy my first smoker trailer,” Cason said. “And the rest is history, man.”
He started out doing competitions in Iowa, then started branching out to Texas and across the South. Big Moe is a well named man, because he is not just significant in physical stature, but in personality. He cuts a big swath wherever he goes, and on the BBQ circuit, he not only competed well, but became a rising star. Television came calling. In 2010, Cason was invited to appear on “BBQ Pitmasters,” the hit TLC show. He won his episode, then lost in the final showdown episode.
“After that, the phone just kept on ringing,” Cason said.
His mark was made. He’d later appear on “BBQ Pit Wars,” “Smoked,” “The Kitchen” and “Chopped.” And then he got another big break. He’d started making his line of BBQ rubs, sauces, and spices. In 2016, he got a call from Academy Sports, a chain of 300 sports stores. They were interested in doing a test run of Big Moe products in 20 or 30 or their stores and wanted to have a meeting by phone or video. Instead, Cason got in his truck and drove down to corporate headquarters in Katy, Texas. He was in the boardroom telling the company’s leaders about his kind of BBQ, when one of them interrupted.
“Hey, man, we love everything about you,” the man said. “And we understand that just by your passion, we know that you stand behind your product. We’re going to put you in all the stores.”
Less than a year later, Cason was able to retire from the water treatment plant and become a fulltime BBQ man. Big Moe had become a legend, and a brand. Now he spends every day of his life doing exactly what he loves. And whether it’s for a festival of thousands or for his family back in Iowa, when he fires up the grill, the intent that drove him from the very beginning remains the same.
“When people eat your food, you know you did your part. You know you did your job,” Cason said. “I cook with passion. And when people are eating your brisket and their eyes are rolling to the back of their head, I mean — that’s what is satisfying. Because I understand flavor and textures and when you hit on all the cylinders, man, that is the end point of gratification, when they’re enjoying your food. Because food is just love. So feeding people is love, man.”
Which could be a thesis statement for the Gundo Comedy & BBQ Festival that takes place Thursday through Sunday at venues throughout El Segundo. This unusual festival, which combines star comedians and renowned pitmasters for a long weekend of delicious flavors and belly laughter, brings home the animating truth that those who do comedy and those who make BBQ are much alike.
“They both decided to do something for a living that, one, is not easy. And two, the main goal of their job is to make people happy,” said Dave Williamson, the Gundo fest founder, an El Segundo resident who both a professional, touring standup comedian and an increasingly pro pitmaster. “I mean, it’s a much easier path just to cook burgers or make sandwiches for someone, and there’s nothing wrong with those things. But BBQ, what sets it apart is people put a lot of time and energy into making something special for people. In most cases, comedy is the same way. Nobody gets into comedy to piss people off. The root of everyone who has decided to lean into comedy is to make people laugh and to make people happy.”
The festival features several nationally known comedians, including Jesus Trejo, Katherine Blanford, Brad Williams, Jeremiah Watkins, Caroline Rhea, Drew Dunn, Williamson, and up-and-coming star Jack Jr.
Pitmasters include Cason, Mel Chmilar (aka Dark Side of the Grill), Matthew Statham (Bear Down BBQ and 2024 World BBQ champion), Bartz Barbeque, and Chef Chris Binotto. Venues include Thursday’s kickoff at the Old Town Music Hall, Five Point Five Brewing, South Bay Customs, WWOO, Smoky Hollow Roasters, and Old Town Patio, culminating in a BBQ party featuring all the pitmasters at Library Park.
Williamson, aka Meat Dave, brought the BBQ and comedy worlds together for a festival for the first time last year. But those worlds had already collided in his own life. He fell in love with regional BBQ styles while out touring, and couldn’t find much like it when he’d return home to California, so he began teaching himself how to be a pitmaster. He eventually launched the Meat Dave podcast, and his own touring began mixing in BBQ festivals and venues. The natural evolution was to invite everybody to El Segundo.
“One of my greatest blessings in life is that I’ve just made great friends,” Williamson said. “And when I envisioned something like this, it’s all of that coming together, and it’s wanting to do something cool for the friends I’ve made in this awesome community of El Segundo. It’s my friends in the comedy world who say, ‘Hey, man, we’ll help you out. We’ll block a night off on our schedule.’ And they do it way more affordably than they should, and then it’s these pitmasters going, ‘Hey, we want to meet your comedy friends and see your town.’ And so for me, it’s just a culmination of some really great friendships I’ve made, and makes me feel very lucky.”
This is another common trait among comedians and pitmasters. They feel, for the most part, lucky just to be there, on the stage or in the pit. Life can be tough; laughter or a shared meal are among its chief comforts. It’s fundamentally about being together. A few years ago, Cason hosted a traveling BBQ show for National Geographic, and out of that project Nat Geo commissioned a cookbook, “Big Moe’s Big Book of BBQ.” And while the book was a hit, its significance went far beyond sales. His wife, Nena, passed away from cancer a year and a half ago. The book includes recipes from her, and from each of his daughters. Because BBQ, to Cason, is still about family.
“That’s our legacy, man,” Cason said. “It’s the Casons. Even though I am on the cover, it’s the whole family….I know my wife is looking down, and she’s laughing. She was charismatic, she was cool, and I know she’s proud of her four beautiful daughters. The TV shows and everything are icing on the cake. All these things benefit us, and tell a story. I am a humble and thankful man and I just feel I am living my best life.”
The Gundo Comedy & BBQ Festival runs June 5 through June 8. See GundoComedyBBQ.com for more information and tickets. ER
