Carrot Top

Comedians have always used props – from Jonathan Winters to Steve Martin. But before Carrot Top, no comic had ever actually created props, not as puns, but as humorous inventions. Nothing new in show business? It’s all been done before? With a Rube Goldberg genius for gadgets and rock ’n’ roll in-your-face energy, Carrot Top is a comedian unlike any other – ever.“Nobody can steal my act,” says Carrot Top (a.k.a. Scott Thompson). “I’ve challenged comics to write me a prop and they can’t. Comedians have done plays on words but writing a visual joke is something else. A rubber chicken isn’t enough. I have to write my own material, make my own props, because no one sells what I do – like the paper-cup-and-string-telephone with a third cup for call waiting. I’m happy not only that I have my own style but I’ve been an original from the very start.”Lawngreen." The road to becoming a pop culture reference (from Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery and MAD magazine, to Celery Head, a comedian who plays a guitar with a slice of cheese on “King Of The Hill”) had its early rocky moments. This college graduate son of a NASA scientist didn’t grow up in show business. Even worse, when he began his steady climb upward in 1990, many clubs wouldn’t book him because he didn’t fit into the angst-filled zeitgeist of contemporary stand-up comedy. But then his imaginative hyper-reality became a hit on college campuses. He remains the only person ever named both Entertainer of the Year and Comedian of the Year in the same year (1993) by the National Association of Campus Activities. In 1994, he took home the American Comedy Award for Best Male Stand-Up.