High energy, topical comedy and creative use of props made “Carrot
Top” a national pop culture icon, but he learned the ropes right here in comedy clubs of Florida.
The comedian known today as “
"Carrot Top" was born Scott Thompson
on February 25, 1965. He is the youngest
son of Lawrence Thompson and Donna Thompson Wood.
Scott grew up in Rockledge, Florida, the oldest city in
Brevard County. Situated on both the
Indian River and the St. Johns River, Rockledge lies just south of Cocoa and is
part of the greater Melbourne-Palm Bay-Titusville area on Florida’s Central
East Coast. The Thompsons also lived in
nearby Orlando during part of Scott’s youth.
Larry Thompson, Scott’s father, worked as a scientist with
the NASA Gemini and Apollo space programs at nearby Cape Canaveral. He was active in the design of the moon-rover
and later in his career he worked on the Space Shuttle missions.
As a boy, Scott was a small and skinny fair-skinned “ginger”
with a ready smile. He didn’t yet have
his trademark curly locks, though. Curls
would come later—during a growth spurt while Scott was in college. In his boyhood, Thompson’s hair was red, but
straight, according to his mom, Donna.
Friends and family describe Scott as a quiet but charming
young man who had a way with people. Not
necessarily funny, but nice and accommodating.
People naturally gravitated towards him.
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| Scott Thompson - age 17 with Prom date |
Thompson’s early teens were years of change.
At 13, his parents divorced. In 7
th grade, he transferred into
public school after years at St. Mary’s Catholic School in Rockledge.
The period was a rocky one for Scott but his
sense of humor bloomed as he found comedy to be a way to connect with the new kids
around him.
Thompson graduated from Cocoa High School in 1983 and
enrolled at Florida Atlantic University (“the Harvard of Florida,” he jokes), in
Boca Raton, Florida.
His freshman year
he went to a club and saw live stand-up comedy for the first time. Shortly thereafter, he happened upon a campus
bulletin board with an announcement for an “open mic” night at a local comedy
club.
“I wasn’t going to do it but my roommate said I should. “Do it!
You’re funny,” his roommate argued.
Thompson was scared but pulled together some old jokes for a
routine and the club crowd liked him. The next semester he signed up again, but
this time he came up with his own jokes, written especially towards
the college audience.
“The street in the center of town was Butts Road. I stole
the sign and told the audience, “This must be where the assholes live!” Thompson remembers.
He was a hit with the campus crowd, but he
needed to broaden his jokes in order to perform before larger audiences, so he
went home and got to work.
“So I came up with more visual jokes, coming up with props
like high heels with training wheels for young girls,” Thompson recalls, and he
attended every amateur night he could find performing under the name “Carrot
Top,” as a shout out to his looks and one of the many nicknames folks had
called him.
Scott earned a degree in marketing and graduated from FAU. Father Larry Thompson vividly recalls a
conversation with his son just prior to that day. Skeptical about the value of his new degree,
Larry wanted to discuss Scott’s career options.
“The only marketing major from FAU that I knew was selling
cars,” Larry says. “We went to see Scott on campus in Boca Raton, and I asked
him, ‘You’re about to graduate, what are you going to do?’
He said, ‘I think
I’m going to go into comedy.’ I was stunned.
My response was definitely ‘You have got to be kidding!’”
It was no joke.
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| Garrett (age 4) and Scott Thompson (age 2) |
Scott’s older brother, Garrett, earned a scholarship to the
Air Force Academy and was now securely on his way to becoming a fighter pilot with
the United States Air Force.
Scott, on
the other hand, would spend his first year after college as a bank courier
while he honed his comedy act.
His
parents were worried about Scott’s plans for his future.
Scott gave it a year.
But when finances got so bad that his car was repossessed, he quit in
frustration, taking jobs driving a bread truck, cleaning office buildings and
even shucking oysters.
One night, months after leaving the comedy circuit, he bumped
into a club owner who asked incredulously “What do you mean you’re not doing
comedy? You’re terrific!”
Hearing Scott’s plight, he offered “Carrot Top” his club’s New Year’s Eve gig, and
with one stroke, put Thompson back in comedy.
"I forgot just how much fun this is to do--and that I could do it well,”
Scott explained.
But breaking into comedy would continue to be an uphill
struggle.
Many clubs wouldn’t book Thompson
because he didn’t fit into the mold of the angst-filled comedy of the late 80’s
and early 90’s.
Scott’s fans were still to
be found on the college campuses where his imaginative hyper-reality became a real
hit with young people, so he learned to play to them.
His first big break came in 1990 when Scott Thompson got his
first booking outside Florida.
The show in
a North Carolina club introduced Carrot Top to the outside world and led to a
club owner/talent manager who set him up with gigs each weekend all across the
country.
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| Carrot Top and Jay Leon on The Tonight Show |
Nationwide jobs led to his first TV appearance on
Comic Strip Live.
Thompson later said it was traveling to
California and performing on this television show that made him realize he was legitimately
a professional comedian.
In 1992, Scott made his first appearance on
The Tonight Show.
There would be more than two dozen more visits to the show after that first one.
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| Regis Philbin and Carrot Top |
In 1993, Carrot Top became and remains the only person ever
named both Entertainer of the Year and Comedian of the Year in the same year by
the National Association of Campus Activities.
In 1994, he took home the American Comedy Award for Best
Male Stand-Up.
In 1996, Scott became an author when he published a
retrospective of Carrot Top inventions called “Junk In The Trunk: Some Assembly
Required” through Simon and Schuster.
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| Carrot Top and Hulk Hogan in Clearwater, FL |
Carrot Top was a headliner for 15 weeks annually at the MGM
Grand in Las Vegas for many years; after
which he would leave Las Vegas and tour for hundreds of concerts across the
country, squeeze in appearances on television,
in movies, and act as a celebrity spokesperson in commercials.
His work ethic is prodigious and well-respected
in the industry.
Over the past 25 years, Carrot Top has been seen in hundreds
of TV programs – from “Regis And Kathy/Kelly”, “Politically
Incorrect with Bill Maher”, Comedy Central’s “Strip Mall”, “Carrot Top’s A.M.
Mayhem” on the Cartoon Network, Last Comic Standing, Craig Ferguson, David
Letterman, Chriss Angel-Mindfreak, Gene Simmons-The Family Jewels, Larry the
Cable Guy, many ESPN commercials, and the American Movie Classics
presentation of Three Stooges shorts,
Tosh.0, to name just a few.
He’s been in movies such as Chairman Of The Board, Dennis The Menace
Strikes Again, and many, many others.
"I went from two
trunks and a strobe light to an 18-wheeler and 35 trunks full of props...from a
Yugo to a tour bus for the crew and myself. I actually had to hire people to
carry my props. It got pretty crazy pretty fast."
And the statistics agree…Carrot Top was selling out more
than 200 concerts every year.
Carrot Top's Mega-Deal at the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas
After headlining at MGM Grand in Las Vegas for many years, Carrot Top inked
a very lucrative and long-term contract with the
Luxor Hotel and Casino through
the year 2015 and moved to a new venue. This mega-deal brings Carrot
Top’s total run with the Luxor to an amazing 10 years in length.
Scott now performs as Carrot Top in nearly 300 shows each year
in the Luxor’s
Atrium Theatre.
Tightly
produced and manically performed, Carrot Top’s shows are current as today’s
headlines and a combination of stand-up routines and prop jokes.
The audience reaction has been pure joy.
Even those who thought they never wanted to
see a Carrot Top show, walk away from the experience as diehard fans.
The show is fast-paced, energy-filled, and
very funny.
Comedy Has Been His Calling
Becoming a pop culture icon is a difficult thing to achieve
but Scott "Carrot Top" Thompson has done just that. With two and a
half decades of comedic performance behind him now and having played
to more than 3 million fans, Carrot Top is one of the most popular,
recognizable and successful comedians in America. He continues to write and produce much of his
material himself. He loves his career and is an avowed workaholic.
Personal Life
When he’s not Carrot Top, he enjoys time to himself; going
to the gym, watching sports, hanging out with his girlfriend, surfing, riding
his jet-skis, and working at home.
