With its staging of comedian Ben Price on Friday night, the Millicent Baptist Church now shares a bond with such leading companies as Telstra, AMP, Commonwealth Bank, JB HIFI, Mobil, Foxtel, McDonald’s, NAB, Sony Ericsson, Microsoft and Cadbury.
The firms have seen his worth as an entertainer at their corporate events and the local church decided to engage his considerable talents and put on a free show with supper.
As well as the Baptist parishioners, there were members from nearly every other Christian church in Millicent.
Pastor Simun Lalich welcomed a gathering of 80 to the Ridge Terrace premises and said one of the aims of the night was to show that “Baptists are not boring”.
The pastor took the opportunity to promote some of his church’s outreach activities including its Wednesday craft groups and Thursday bible studies and prayer gatherings.
In a night mostly dedicated to comedy, Pastor Simun also scored a few laughs of his own by putting on an exaggerated accent from his native New Zealand.
It was then the turn of a four-piece band from the Mount Gambier Baptist Church to be the support act.
Guitarist Pastor Cam Buchanan, pianist Josh Harfull and vocalists Hannah Dyson and Tamara Cameron sang five Gospel songs.
Ben Price then took centre-stage for a 45-minute gig which left no doubt that he is Australia’s best impersonator.
He has developed an impressive repertoire of over 200 character voices and his Millicent audience heard many from the worlds of film, politics etc.
They included Boris Johnson, Dr Phil, Donald Trump, Liam Neeson, Robert DeNiro, Sean Connery, John Cleese, King Charles, Donkey, Shrek and Homer Simpson.
Some of his jokes were corny and some were not politically correct but they were lapped up by the audience of all ages.
There was a change of pace and tone in the closing 10 minutes as Ben Price spoke about his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Ben Price knew Pastor Cam from their long-ago days of working in a Melbourne call centre.
As a result, Ben Price also presented a show later in the weekend at the Mount Gambier Baptist Church.
