{"id":2369521,"date":"2026-04-12T12:30:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T12:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2369521"},"modified":"2026-04-12T12:30:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T12:30:12","slug":"the-internets-brother-blink-is-jan-rishers-brother-entertainment-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/the-internets-brother-blink-is-jan-rishers-brother-entertainment-life\/","title":{"rendered":"The internet’s Brother Blink is Jan Risher’s brother | Entertainment\/Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n
\n

My brother Robin has a superpower he never asked for.<\/p>\n

He almost never blinks.<\/p>\n

Parkinson’s disease does that. It steals the small, involuntary things first \u2014 the natural rhythm of eyelids, the easy swing of arms while walking, the face’s instinct to move when the heart does. Robin was diagnosed about 15 years ago. He spent more than 30 years as a Southern Baptist preacher before deciding to stop late last year.<\/p>\n

\n

\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n \n <\/div><\/div>
\n

<\/p>\n

In March on his way to New Orleans, Robin Risher, aka Brother Blink, made a stop by\u00a0Southern Boyz Outdoors in Hammond, Louisiana.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n


\n Provided photo<\/span>
\n <\/span><\/p>\n


\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Though Parkinson’s has affected his cadence, about a year before he stopped preaching, he appeared on a podcast called Hayden Alabama \u2014 it\u2019s focused on the outdoors, Christianity and Southern storytelling. They hit the trifecta with my brother.<\/p>\n

As is the custom with Baptist preachers, the hosts call him Brother Robin.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

He showed up the way he always has \u2014 direct and funny with exquisite timing as a storyteller. One of the first stories he told \u2014 \u201cThe Plowed Dirt\u201d \u2014 has\u00a0been watched millions of times.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve watched it at least a dozen times myself, and there are still a couple of places in it that make me laugh every single time. Considering the distance between my brother\u2019s perspective and my own, that\u2019s saying something.<\/p>\n

The podcast invited him back.<\/p>\n

And back again.<\/p>\n

Many stories later, my brother has an audience.<\/p>\n

Those viewers, before anyone explained that Robin was ill, noticed something. The comments flooded in: \u201cBlink, Brother, blink.\u201d So many of them, so consistently, that it has become his de facto name.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

He is now widely known as Brother Blink. He gets invited to speak at events and outdoor shows. People seek him out. They’ve even made well-designed T-shirts.<\/p>\n

My brother \u2014 who once refuted evolution with the declarative sentence, \u201cIf you put a dog in a basket and leave it there, it\u2019s still a dog”\u00a0\u2014 now has merchandise.<\/p>\n

Ain\u2019t life grand?<\/p>\n

\n

\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n \"IMG_7333.jpg\"\n <\/div><\/div>
\n

<\/p>\n

Early on the morning of July 29, 1981, columnist Jan Risher convinced her younger brother, Robin Risher \u2014 now known as Brother Blink \u2014 to get up early and enjoy breakfast after watching the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana. She got out the crystal for tea and crumpets.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n


\n Provided photo by Nelda Risher<\/span>
\n <\/span><\/p>\n


\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

By his own description, Robin is a gun-toting, Bible-carrying, camouflage-wearing, Walmart-shopping Southern Baptist preacher. The only time he lived outside Mississippi was in the mid-1990s when he attended the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, he has described me as follows: \u201cMy sister married a Mexican, and they have a Chinese daughter. Plus, she left Mississippi and has lived all over the world and country.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Through the years, our holidays around the table have been interesting.<\/p>\n

Growing up, Robin and I were four years apart and largely living in different worlds, even under the same roof. Looking back, I remember a few moments when we weren’t.<\/p>\n

There were others, harder to name, but the most vivid was centered around a Dan Fogelberg song. I loved Dan Fogelberg with my whole heart. Robin called him Dan Eat-a-booger. Nonetheless, when I was 14 and Robin was 10, one spring day, our parents were gone for the afternoon.<\/p>\n

I had just gotten my stereo and Fogelberg\u2019s \u201cHome Free\u201d album. There was one song on that album that sounded more country than the rest. It\u2019s called, fittingly enough, \u201cLong Way Home \u2014 Live in the Country.\u201d It was the only Fogelberg song that Robin liked too.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n

\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n \"IMG_7334.jpg\"\n <\/div><\/div>
\n

<\/p>\n

Early on the morning of July 29, 1981, columnist Jan Risher convinced her younger brother, Robin Risher \u2014 now known as Brother Blink \u2014 to get up early and enjoy breakfast after watching the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana. She got out the crystal for tea and crumpets. In a rare conciliatory moment, he obliged.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n


\n Provided photo by Nelda Risher<\/span>
\n <\/span><\/p>\n


\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

So, we did what you do when you are young and the house is yours for a few hours \u2014 we opened the front windows and turned the speakers outward toward the front yard full of loblolly pines and blared the song as loud as it would go.<\/p>\n

And then, we went outside and sang and danced \u2014 loud, wild, joyful, ridiculous dancing. Together.<\/p>\n

The song is about longing for open land and sky, for a life unplanned, for children laughing just because they’re living.<\/p>\n

Robin, even at 10, already knew that was exactly the life he wanted. I was 14 and knew I was headed somewhere else entirely.<\/p>\n

We danced anyway.<\/p>\n

What strikes me now, watching him in his Brother Blink era, is how light he seems. For decades, Robin carried the full weight of fire and brimstone \u2014 the calling, the congregation, the responsibility of standing before people week after week.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Something has lifted.<\/p>\n

The people who follow him online don’t know or care about any of the things that made us different. They just like him. They find him funny. He gets recognized at restaurants. People want to take their pictures with him and call out, \u201cBlink, brother, blink!\u201d<\/p>\n

My brother has turned an involuntary symptom of a hard disease into an identity that brings joy, connection and purpose.<\/p>\n

Phillip Bremmerman, co-host of Hayden Alabama podcast said that Robin makes people feel something.<\/p>\n

\n

\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n \"c2eade72-673c-481a-8e91-536070436e7a.jpeg\"\n <\/div><\/div>
\n

<\/p>\n

Robin Risher stands behind Hayden Alabama Podcast co-hosts Shane Thomas and Phillip Bremmerman in their studio.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n


\n Provided photo<\/span>
\n <\/span><\/p>\n


\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

“He generates emotion within people \u2014 and by and large, that emotion is humor and joy,” Bremmerman said. “People want to feel the joy he brings through his stories and just his demeanor and quips.”<\/p>\n

Shane Thomas, also co-host of the podcast, described my brother as “the master of metaphor.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

He said that Robin is able to paint pictures with words that surprises people.<\/p>\n

“People are like, ‘Wait a second, that’s not where I thought this was going,” Thomas said. “This guy can use words in a way that allows people to go somewhere in their minds and be there with him in that moment.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

I think about those speakers turned outward to the front yard and two kids headed in opposite directions, dancing among the loblollies to the same song anyway.<\/p>\n

I’m glad we had that afternoon. I’m glad he’s still making people laugh.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m glad the world found him, too.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.nola.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My brother Robin has a superpower he never asked for. He almost never blinks. Parkinson’s disease does that. It steals the small, involuntary things first \u2014 the natural rhythm of eyelids, the easy swing of arms while walking, the face’s instinct to move when the heart does. Robin was diagnosed about 15 years ago. He […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2369522,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[128321],"class_list":["post-2369521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-hardwall"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/The-internets-Brother-Blink-is-Jan-Rishers-brother-EntertainmentLife.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2369521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2369521"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2369521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2369523,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2369521\/revisions\/2369523"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2369522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2369521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2369521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2369521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}