Pepper Choplin gets Longboat Island Chapel laughing

Composer, humorist and musician Pepper Choplin brought his talents to the Longboat Island Chapel for a concert Feb. 9.

Choplin introduced himself and quickly started the concert. He had the Longboat Island Chapel choir performing songs he had composed, including a “John Denver-Calypso style” song and the nautically styled song “The Church is an Ark.”

“Y’all expected me to be a big deal, [so] now I have to be an even bigger deal than you thought!” Choplin said to the assembled crowd, who spilled all across the chapel and up into the second floor viewing area.

“I make music for my generation, not to live forever or be immortal,” Choplin said.

When not making the crowd roar with laughter, Choplin had them tearing up with “Heaven in Her Eyes,” a song about a man’s daughter, Beth, who was autistic and the light of his life.

“I find out what people want to say and give them a beautiful way to say it,” Choplin said.