Thursday, May 2, 2024
Alex Peters couldn't believe his luck when a co-worker in Chicago told him that Mollie Heath had a crush on him. Today the two are living in Granbury and are a husband-and-wife team at Peerless Realty Group. Photo by David Montesino
Alex Peters' life took an unexpected turn when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. But life is good nonetheless. Photo by David Montesino
This article is part of the HCN's 'Growing Pains' series.
These days when Denise Huber instructs a new member orientation class for the Granbury Association of Realtors, chances are good the class size will be considerably larger than the 5-10 average it used to be. Numbers fluctuate, but in February, it was 25.
It’s not necessarily that all those realtors are selling properties just in Hood County. They can sell properties anywhere. But when it comes to finding their own home, many are choosing Granbury.
According to Huber, in mid-2021 there were 430 realtors in Hood County. By comparison, there were just 20 in Somervell County. At the end of May this year, there were 452.
The lake community’s appeal is part of what draws them to Hood County, but the COVID-19 pandemic added new layers. According to Huber, “quite a few” people have been moving here from places such as California and Colorado because of the politics there and how long the shutdowns dragged on. Another factor is that some who worked in industries most affected by the pandemic, such as restaurants and cosmetology, left those jobs for what they hope will be a more promising future: selling real estate.
When Huber instructed an orientation class in September 2020, one of the 26 newly minted realtors in attendance was Alex Peters. The now 40-year-old’s story is similar with those Huber described.
Alex didn’t move to Granbury, he moved back to Granbury. He didn’t relocate from California or Colorado, but rather from Chicago. He did so after his bartending job dried up.
Like many young people, Alex had left his hometown to chase a dream. His was the stereotypical one about fame and seeing one’s name in lights. He almost caught that dream.
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All Alex Peters ever wanted to be, was funny.
“I enjoy making people laugh,” he said. “I mean, I’m the short, chubby kid, and that was the way to get girls to notice me. I wasn’t very good at sports and I’m not tall and gorgeous. If you’re going to get people to notice you, you use what you’ve got, and I was fairly quick witted.”
Literally the class clown (he was voted such in middle school), he graduated from Granbury High School during a very unfunny year: 2001, when 9/11 happened. He enrolled in classes at the University of North Texas.
“I was more concerned with hanging out with the fraternity boys and partying than I was actual schooling, which is something I regret, but you can’t go back in time and change it,” he said.
Alex’s mom paid for him to take classes with the Fort Worth comedy troupe Four Day Weekend. Things really clicked for Alex there. He realized that he was far better suited for classes in comedy improv than for Philosophy or Modern Physics. Comedy was his gift and his passion.
“I loved it. And I figured, you know, this is my path,” Alex said. “I sold everything I had, including my truck, and took off for Chicago with a suitcase.”
The Windy City was home to Alex’s beloved Aunt Franny, but its main appeal was that it is also home to the famed improvisational comedy enterprise The Second City. Founded in December 1959, the venue has launched many top comedians. When Saturday Night Live debuted in 1975, The Second City became the springboard for such SNL alumni as John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Dan Aykroyd, and Bill Murray.
In the mid-1980s, The Second City Training Center opened. Students have included Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert, and more SNL talent, including Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Chris Farley, Mike Myers, and Cecily Strong.
Students must audition to be accepted and must continue to audition to stay there. The class clown from Granbury made the cut. The year was 2005, or 2006.
After living for a bit with Aunt Franny, who is now deceased, Alex got his own place. He paid $500 per month to live in someone’s attic. Since it was just a couple of blocks away from the bar where he worked, near Wrigley Field, Alex got by OK without a vehicle.
Alex made friends and had some roommates. Still, he remembers “dark, dark winters where I was scrounging for change in my couch to buy a can of Van Camp’s beans.”
More time passed and Alex’s success at the Training Center netted him “an actual agent.” He did some writing for an online satire magazine and started his own online comedy production company.
Bartending is what paid the bills, though, and when the Cubs won the World Series in 2016, Alex scored some good tips during a night of celebration. One of them came from a co-worker.
“One of the waitresses came up and said, ‘You know, Mollie has a crush on you,’” Alex said, remembering that night. “And I said, ‘You’re drunk. That type of girl would never go for me.’”
But Alex was exactly the type of guy that appealed to pretty Mollie Heath. The fact that she is two inches taller than Alex was of no consequence to her.
That night, when there was no cab or Uber to be found in a city full of tipsy celebrants and Alex’s ’97 Ford F-150 was nothing but a memory, Alex walked Mollie home.
“We just talked and talked and haven’t stopped talking since,” he said.
In 2020 the pandemic hit. Comedians don’t typically make a lot of money on their way up, and bartenders can’t make any money at all if bars are closed.
Alex’s mom suggested that he move back home. Maybe try his hand at real estate for a while.
When Alex moved back to Granbury in May 2020, he wasn’t alone. He brought Mollie with him.
In November of that year, with the pandemic still running its course, the couple married in a small backyard ceremony. They now work as a husband-and-wife team at Peerless Realty Group.
The equipment Alex once used for his comedy production company is now stored inside the house that he never thought he would have the money to buy, a home that he shares with Mollie and their yellow Lab, Maleficent. Mal, as Alex and Mollie call her, loves to be taken for walks along the city’s bucolic Moments in Time Hike and Bike Trail.
It is a happy life. A good life. The way Alex sees it, he may not be making people laugh as much as he once did, but he is making them smile, and that, too, is rewarding.
“Right now, my dreams are just working on the backyard and taking walks,” he said of returning to his roots. “I can throw on my headphones and listen to some ‘90s music without having to worry if anyone is going to come to our show on Friday or how am I going to pay the rent next month or are the Cubs going to be so bad that no one’s going to come to the stadium and I’m not going to be able to pay my bills. I like the way my life is now. I wouldn’t change it.”
