Performing isn’t the artist’s only job while on stage. There’s a business side, too. Ian’s merchandise earnings went to raise money for her Pearl Foundation, which endowed a sizeable scholarship right here at Berea.

“How do you pitch merchandise without sounding like you’re pitching merchandise?” she asked. “I could either tell a serious story about my mother’s MS and how she went back to college—resulting in The Pearl Foundation—and ask people to contribute by buying things, or I could be funny. Funny is a lot better.”

So, Ian pitched her merch tongue-in-cheek, finishing each pitch with “Unfortunately, we are all out of action figures.” It wasn’t long before fans began making their own Janis Ian “action figure” dolls and leaving them on stage for her.

The doll that has its own cardboard packaging, which says “Janis Ian figure and all accessories are actual size,” was created by noted author Mercedes Lackey and her husband, Larry Dixon, longtime fans and friends of Ian.