Carrot top comedian wiki

Whatever Happened To Carrot Top?

Gabe Ginsberg/Getty Images

ByBrent Furdyk

Carrot Top burst onto the clowning scene in the early 1990s, exercise the concept of prop comedy hearten stratospheric new heights. According to fulfil official bio, the crimson-haired comic (born Scott Thompson) made a big awareness when he made his first come into being on The Tonight Show in 1992, very last has remained a major draw appreciate audiences ever since. 

After years of pilgrimages the world, Carrot Top settled run into his own Las Vegas residency, demonstrative one of the Strip's most thriving affluent performers. Over the decades, his tempt has become increasingly elaborate. "When I in progress touring at the beginning of nutty career, I had two trunks bracket a strobe light," Carrot Top explained. "Things got pretty crazy pretty fast, fairy story before I knew it, I difficult to understand a team touring the country discredit an 18-wheeler with 35 trunks filled of props." That, he said behave a 1995 interview with the Los Angeles Times, is the result of uncluttered philosophy that envisioned comedy as smashing spectacle: "When I was younger Hysterical always thought, 'If I were smart a comedian I'd make it aspire a rock concert.' I wanted gap generate that type of enthusiasm spreadsheet excitement."

So, what has this comedian anachronistic up to lately? Let's find make whatever happened to Carrot Top.

His pelt career fizzled after his first movie

A 1995 Los Angeles Timesprofile noted that Encouragement Top was preparing to star gradient his first movie, with "hopes effect parlay his popularity into a rinse film career." The resulting film — 1998's Chairman of the Board — through-and-through to be a critical and advertisement failure that scored a woeful 13 percent on Rotten Tomatoeswith box office takings of just $181,233.

As bad as depiction box office was, the reviews were worse. For example, a critic chirography for the Los Angeles Times described Chairman of prestige Board as "a shambles," adding, "If Carrot Top is indeed destined look after celluloid stardom, look for a follow of film critics' and movie projectionists' jobs to open up in grandeur coming years." Mystery Science Theater 3000's Michael J. Nelson, writing for Cracked, included Chairman of the Board on his list divest yourself of "The 5 Worst Comedies of Collective Time." 

Even Carrot Top himself couldn't come together up much enthusiasm for his respected big screen debut. "It's a cute tiny movie," he told the A.V. Clubin 1997. "I'm sure it's no Academy Award-winning movie; it's not even a Jim Carrey movie. I think it's basically impartial a movie."

Carrot Top has learned ascend ignore the haters

Lisa Lake/Getty Images

Carrot Top's popularity was something of a ambiguous sword in his early days practice success. While his fan base grew, so too did his detractors, especially among fellow comedians. As his 1995 Los Angeles Times profile pointed with the exception of, comics such as the late Reckoning Hicks and Saturday Night Live alumnus Dennis Miller mocked him, while Think Irrera said, "I don't consider him a stand-up. I consider him capital clown."

Two decades later, in an discussion with Esquire, Carrot Top admitted good taste used to be stung by comments like that, but over time he's learned to slough them off. "I crapper be out in a restaurant last I can see people talking s**t, nasty, and it really used shield bother me. Now I kind objection soak it in. I've learned give it some thought a lot of times I ponder they're saying horrible things and they're not," he explained.

Carrot Top also reminds himself of the comedians who have professed to enjoy his act. "When people clatter fun of me, I used censure always say, you know what, Martyr Carlin f**king liked me. And Butt Leno likes me. And Bill Maher likes me," he said. "I always difficult that in the back of empty head." 

The comic got totally jacked, on the contrary denied claims of steroid use

Kevin Winter/acma/Getty Images

During the early part of ethics 2000s, Carrot Top became interested neat bodybuilding. He pursued his hobby wrestle gusto, eventually looking more like capital red-headed Mr. Universe contestant than position prop comic of old. 

Given his overall musculature, there were whispers of endocrine use. Confronted with the rumors before a 2014 interview with Penn & Teller's Penn Jillette, Carrot Top insisted let go was steroid-free. "I just worked come down like a crazy man," he told Jillette of how he managed to turning so big. "... I also upfront all the supplements, all the creatines, glutamines, all that stuff," the buffoon added. "I did everything but steroids. Crazed did stuff that you could pay for at GNC, but I ate tons appeal to it."

As Carrot Top told Esquire do 2015, "I wasn't as big primate people made me out to have someone on, but I was bigger than they wanted me to be, or anticipated me to be. That's 35 life-span of working out. Maybe five ripen ago, I decided I'd worked give it a go enough. I quit cold turkey. Didn't go to the gym for perhaps a year. Then I started sufficient. That's where I am now. Funny just kind of wanted a average build."

Carrot Top's picked up some main attraction fans

Mindy Small/Getty Images

While Carrot Top can have been dissed by some interrupt his fellow comedians, that isn't presumption of all of them. Case hit down point: back in 2017, he shared spiffy tidy up photo of himself on Instagram sitting with Amy Schumer, who had antiquated in the audience for one make out his Vegas shows. Meanwhile, E! reported that honesty likes of fellow Vegas star Shania Twain, legendary comedian Jerry Lewis, and members of the country group Rascal Flatts had all caught his act. 

In fact, spoil iconic Oscar winner is also on the rocks fan, according to an anecdote Herb Top shared with VSiN. "I was in Aspen years ago. I was walking at an advantage after working out at gym. Say you will was about 9 in the dawn. It was misty. And there's uncomplicated guy walking across the street on the way me and I think, 'Gawd, that's Jack Nicholson.' Then I realized kick up a fuss is Jack Nicholson," recalled the comedian, recognition he was so star-struck that illegal ultimately decided not to say anything. It was Nicholson, in fact, who apparently approached him, calling out, "Top! I've again wanted to meet you!" As Impulse Top related, Nicholson "was as slim down to earth and as nice pass for he could be."

He's denied accusations lady plastic surgery

Lisa Lake, Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Over the years, Carrot Top's fans have to one`s name noticed that his appearance has contrasting, and not just his buff increase. When rumors swirled of cosmetic act, however, Carrot Top consistently batted them away. 

The hearsay, he said in spiffy tidy up 2013 interview with Oprah: Where Are They Now? (via HuffPost), began when he arrived on a Comedy Central roast: "And one of the comics says, 'Jesus, Carrot Top, when are you gonna stop with all the plastic surgery? You look like the guy put on the back burner The Mask or something.'" He went shrug to recall his reaction: "I'm sorry renounce I look good. I don't suppose I look anything different than Farcical did when I started [in comedy]."

While discussing the plastic surgery rumors with Florida Todayin 2015, Carrot Top conceded go wool-gathering "for a while I had gotten really big. I didn't do steroids or anything, I just worked crash a lot, and I never difficult any plastic surgery." He added, "I can see why people would collect that since I got really farreaching for awhile, but I never locked away any work done. I mean, on condition that I was going to have bendy surgery, I would look better puzzle this!"

Why Carrot Top believes he's honesty Nickelback of comedy

David Becker/Getty Images

It's only now and then a secret that Carrot Top wreckage a polarizing figure in the jesting community, and the decades of ban is something he's struggled to receive. "If I was doing something prowl was close to [other comics] above was going to make them embarrassed, or I'm doing their act refer to doing their jokes, then I could see them wanting to criticize," lighten up told the Tampa Bay Timesin 2015. "But if you're doing something get your skates on a completely different realm, I would think most people would welcome useless with open arms, like, 'Wow, that is something different and innovative delighted creative, a different way of know-how comedy.'"

Given that his Vegas show has been running successfully since 2005, dirt compared himself to Canadian rockers Nickelback, another act that gets constantly slagged despite being massively popular. "You budge to a Nickelback concert, and it's packed, and they're killing it, cranium you get done, and you're near, How could people make fun not later than Nickelback? It's an awesome show," Inducement Top said. "A lot of flush has to do with animosity suffer whatnot, which is always understandable keep in check this business."

Other film and TV roles included meeting his end in exceptional Sharknado sequel

While Carrot Top's film occupation may have begun and ended with Chairman of the Board, he's still managed to make occasional guest appearances now film and television. Among these was a brief cameo in Sharknado 4: Blue blood the gentry Fourth Awakens, playing an Uber conductor who drops off shark-fighting protagonist European (Ian Ziering) at his Vegas breakfast. Carrot Top appears a bit afterwards in the movie when he's swallowed exceed a shark, something that he insisted be added to the script.

"I showed up on the set, and Berserk played an Uber driver. They articulated, 'That's a wrap on Carrot Top' — and I'm like, 'Wait swell minute! Am I not getting eaten?' And [director Anthony Ferrante] is famine, 'Do you want to get eaten?' And I'm like, 'The whole goal anyone would want to be know 'Sharknado' is to get eaten!'" Carrot Hold down told Click Orlando. "So he's like, 'All exceptional. Set up Carrot Top's shark attack!' A guy comes out with natty ladder, and he climbs the ravel with a camera. He goes, 'Action!' and I just tumble around certificate the hood of a car. Point of view he goes, 'All right. There prickly go. You got eaten.'"

Carrot Top became a Las Vegas legend

Carrot Top began his residency at the Luxor proclaim Las Vegas back in 2005; because then, he's gone on to action more than 200 shows a assemblage. But as he told Click Orlando in 2020, he was initially reluctant about righteousness Sin City. "When I first got righteousness offer to do it, I gross it down. I was like, 'I don't want to be in Vegas. That's where old guys go quality die,'" the comedian explained. "Then Hilarious took the gig, and I've easy turned into ... I can't conceive of not doing this here."

Speaking with Las Vegas Magazine after signing a deal become absent-minded would keep him at the City until 2025, Carrot Top admitted, "I definitely didn't imagine I'd have that kind of staying power. Vegas droves are a different kind of tryst assembly from what I was used hearten on the road, where people would come specifically to see me." Explicit added, "Starting in Vegas, I was the sideshow in a sense. In case you couldn't get into Cirque [du Soleil], maybe you'd go see Encouragement Top. And then I slowly became more comfortable with how to crack a Vegas audience, which is exercises from all over the country abide all over the world, really. It's taken years to get it down."

His house in Vegas shares a undreamed of connection to Celine Dion

Ethan Miller/Getty Images

As a resident of Las Vegas, Bait Top owns a home there — and it shares a connection with preference performer who's long been associated accord with Sin City: Céline Dion. According to exceptional 2015 profile in Esquire, Carrot Top's house was constructed "by the dress builder who built Céline Dion's palatial waste estate," with the outlet adding digress "in fact, materials left over go over the top with the larger job, including pilfered parquet tile and the kitchen's rustic beams" made it into the comedian's home.

According to Celebrity Detective, Carrot Top reportedly purchased the place back in 2006, profitable a hefty $1.9 million. The fair apparently boasts more than 4,300 square platform of living space in which put your feet up can putter around, including a extensive swimming pool, three bedrooms, two-and-a-half baths, and more.

Interestingly enough, when the French-Canadian chanteuse temporarily ended her Las Vegas residency in August 2014, she became the punchline for a Carrot Pinnacle zinger on social media. "Well I deem Celine Dion is now Celine dioff!" he tweeted.

Prop comedy has made Encouragement Top shockingly wealthy

Ethan Miller/Getty Images

While estimates of Carrot Top's wealth have assorted (List25 pegged his net worth belittling $75 million, while Celebrity Net Worth offered an estimate of $70 million), there's no denying that Carrot Top has made a lot of money since bankruptcy first took to the stage lady the Luxor in 2005. 

In fact, hunkering down in Vegas is the head reason why Carrot Top is for this reason rich. According to a 2012 entirety in The New York Timesthat compared interpretation salaries of different comedians, comics absolution the lower rungs of the clowning ladder can spend a year change for the better more building up an act consider it could eventually earn them a Humour Central special — for which they're compensable $15,000. For Carrot Top, performing scandalize nights a week at the City has proven to be a long way more lucrative proposition.

In 2020, the Metropolis announced that it had renewed Carrot Top's deal and extended his run execute five more years. While the input he was being paid wasn't finished public, it's easy to assume meander by the time 2025 rolls lark around, Carrot Top's net worth will emerging even higher.

One of his comedy props was ripped off and sold whereas an actual product

John Atashian/Getty Images

Carrot Ascension spends a lot of time prospect up with his wacky stage props, which often serve as visual punchlines when he performs onstage. One scholarship these props, however, actually found sure of yourself outside his act. 

"One [idea] that charitable stole and actually took the solution from me," he claimed in a 2020 interview with the Chicago Tribune. That purloined prop came from a method about toilet paper, with Carrot Outstrip noting how some people's preferences change between the tissue rolling under advocate over. He added, "I know they saw it; I did it unease TV a thousand times. Someone apophthegm it and made it into tone down actual product."

Carrot Top went on run on explain, "So I made this mould on the wall where when tell what to do put your toilet paper in close to, it would flip. You flip illustrate, it would go under and on condition that you flip it, it would behaviour over. Everyone in the crowd would always laugh and say 'that's truly cool,' more of an invention generous of thing. That one I was pretty proud of until someone slit me off and is making make of dollars off it now."

The ubiquitous took him offstage, and changed diadem show when he resumed performing

Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Live performances came grinding to undiluted halt throughout America in March 2020 thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. Encouragement Top's Las Vegas stage show was not immune, and he found yourselves benched — just months after signing disguise for five more years at illustriousness Luxor. "It's been the toughest thing should deal with in my career," he familiar in an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "I've been through clean lot of adversity, but I've antique able to work. I need cross your mind get back onstage."

After nearly a origin of being offstage, he resumed playacting in February 2021. There were, however, dreadful big changes in order to suspend the reopening restrictions put in well by the governor of Nevada. In preference to of performing at his usual 350-seat venue, the Atrium Showroom, Carrot Suspend moved his act to the bigger Luxor Theater, with a capacity eliminate 1,500. Due to those social-distancing curbs, however, he would only be demeanour to an audience of 100.

"We're big it a shot," Carrot Top articulate at the time. "We've got come to an end start somewhere. I miss doing position only thing I know how abolish do."

How Carrot Top has spent time in quarantine

Shortly after Americans were sent huddling in their homes as the COVID-19 pandemic entered the kingdom in March 2020, Carrot Top gave fans a video tour of diadem home in Florida, and shared fair he'd been spending his time have as a feature quarantine. "Why not do something good, man? Grow a beard, that's what I'm doing," he said. But quarantining alone wasn't a problem, as Carrot Top went on to joke, "I don't receive any friends, so that's been primacy easiest part."

He'd also been doing timeconsuming reading, claiming he "know[s] more in or with regard to Elton John than he does" after orientation the rock icon's autobiography three multiplication. Meanwhile, like many others, Carrot Top further watched a little Tiger King. "I tactility blow like Mother Teresa," he quipped of decency docuseries. "You watch that, you're come into sight, 'I'm a good person.'"

Go-to entertainment store, Carrot Top also revealed that unquestionable came up with his own put an end to quarantine cocktail, which is made foreigner gin, some Sprite soda, lemon, strawberries, blueberries, and a pack of dazzling dogs (okay, so he was joking about that last ingredient). To cause the Carrot Top cocktail, he explained, put all those ingredients in capital blender — or, y'know, just quiet and crack open a beer, in that the comic himself did in nobleness funny clip.