Inside the Kazoo Factory That Keeps America Humming

Our American Stories

iHeartPodcasts

Society & Culture, Documentary

4.3 • 737 Ratings

🗓️ 20 November 2025

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On this episode of Our American Stories, from its roots in African musical craftsmanship to its home in the American South, the kazoo instrument has traveled farther than most people realize. It even shapes the familiar kazoo sound behind every animal in Minecraft. Sarah Barnwell of the Kazoobie Kazoo Factory shares how this small, uniquely American-made instrument became a piece of musical history and why it still matters today.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is an I-Heart podcast.
0:02.5	Guaranteed human.
0:14.2	This is our American stories, and we tell stories about everything here on this show.
0:19.2	And we love tracking down museums, quirky ones, good ones, fun ones, curious ones.
0:26.6	In Beaufort, South Carolina, there's a place called the Kazoubi-Kazoo Factory and Museum.
0:33.6	That's right, Kazoubi-Kazoo Factory and Museum. Today we have Sarah Barnwell telling us the story of the factory
0:41.1	and giving us a little kazoo history.
0:44.1	Here's Sarah.
0:45.2	We do have a vintage gold kazoo.
0:47.2	It's plated in 24-carat gold.
0:50.0	I love this little one.
0:52.1	Mostly because it has to me a jazzier sound to it, I guess.
0:56.0	So, but it's kind of my favorite.
0:59.0	Mm-hmm.
1:03.0	So, so.
1:05.0	So, Rick Hubbard was an entertainer, and, he would go and perform and you know he plays many
1:14.0	instruments and things like that and I think he just liked the kazoo he had a kazoo that he kind of
1:19.3	held on to for a long time that he had as a kid and it just basically was something that I think
1:25.0	you know as an entertainer and things like that, he saw,
1:31.7	you know, gosh, I'd really like to, I wish there was more kazooze where you can get a hold of these. There's not like everywhere. And so it really just started as something, a small kind of
1:37.7	project that he did. And then it just grew from there. So it's, it's, you know, those kind of stories where it starts off very small and surprising. And then it just grew from there. So it's, you know, those kind of stories where it starts off very small and surprising.
1:48.2	And then it turns into, you know, a kazoo-kizoo factory.
	...

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