If you are into comedy, chances are you are very familiar with the unique and very much creative style of one of the most prominent comedians there are, Scott Thompson, or better known as Carrot Top.
Born in Florida, in 1965, to a father who worked in NASA and helped build spaceships and trained astronauts, and having a brother who went into the Air Force Academy and became a jet pilot, Carrot Top sometimes felt like the “oddball.” His family, however, supported his passion throughout the years.
Carrot Top knew he wanted to be a comedian since he was pretty young. However, as there aren’t any schools out there that teach comedy, he would often stood in front of a mirror and tell jokes.
It wasn’t until he heard that a comedy club in West Palm Beach, which had a show on the radio, announced they were holding open mic nights that he tried performing in front of audience. The first time he went, he only watched what others did, and the following week, he just knew he was ready to do it himself.
“I put together what I thought was an act, and I showed up. The woman said, ‘You were so funny, but the stuff you’re doing is all about [your] college,’” he recalled.
“She said, ‘Everyone that comes to this club is not going to be in college. They are going to have jobs, and there might be 40-year-olds, there might be 60 year olds. It’s going to be a collection of different age groups and occupations, so your stuff has to be a little bit more general.’”
These words were what helped Carrot Top add uniqueness to his acts and use a bunch of props, smoke bombs, and flashing lights.
“When I started touring at the beginning of my career, I had two trunks and a strobe light,” Carrot Top told the Los Angeles Times in 1995.
“Things got pretty crazy pretty fast, and before I knew it, I had a team touring the country in an 18-wheeler with 35 trunks full of props.”
After a number of appearances in shows such as The Tonight Show and Regis & Kathie Lee, he was slammed by other comedians. Dom Irrera said, “I don’t consider him a stand-up. I consider him a clown.”
But this didn’t crush Carrot Top’s self-esteem. He never spoke negatively of those who criticized his work. On the contrary, he always answered back with style.
“I think what I do is very creative and clever,” Carrot Top said speaking to Los Angeles Times in response to the criticism .
“A lot of comics don’t look at it that way. [That issue] always comes up. It kind of eats at you after a while. Why are so many people bitter and jealous in this business? Everybody has their own style. If you went to the movies every week and everybody acted the same way Tom Cruise did, boy, wouldn’t that suck?”
Show after show, Carrot Top became a famous name in the industry. Even today, there are some who don’t find his comedy attractive, but he has his base of fans who love what he does.
Ever since 2005, Carrot Top performs at the Luxor Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. He does over 200 shows each year.
From the moment he first took the stage until now, his appearance has changed drastically and the media started writing that he was on steroids and did a bunch of procedures on his face and body. The comedian denied everything and claimed that he gained muscles by spending long hours at the gym.
“That’s 35 years of working out. Maybe five years ago, I decided I’d worked out enough,” Carrot Top told Esquire in 2015.
“I quit cold turkey. Didn’t go to the gym for maybe a year. Then I started running. That’s where I am now. I just kind of wanted a normal build.”
During a roast on Comedy Central back in 2013, he recalled one comedian telling him, “Jesus, Carrot Top, when are you gonna stop with all the plastic surgery? You look like the guy from The Mask or something.’” Carrot Top answered back saying, “I’m sorry that I look good,” during an appearance on Oprah.
“For a while I had gotten really big. I didn’t do steroids or anything, I just worked out a lot, and I never had any plastic surgery. I can see why people would think that since I got really big for a while, but I never had any work done,” he told Florida Today.
“I mean, if I was going to have plastic surgery, I would look better than this! My crew, my family, and my friends all know I work so hard I wouldn’t have had time to get work done if I wanted to. That was absurd.”
Carrot Top has an estimated net worth of around $70 million and lives in a 4,300 square feet house with a swimming pool, three bedrooms, and two-and-a-half baths.
According to the 2015 Esquire piece of writing, Carrot Top’s house was constructed “by the same builder who built Céline Dion’s palatial desert estate.” The site further added that materials left over from the larger job, including pilfered floor tile and the kitchen’s rustic beams,” got a spot in his home.
Besides comedy, he has tried himself as an actor too. He appeared in a 2002 episode of Scrubs and other shows such as N.Y.U.K and ComiXspotlight. He also had some more minor, uncredited roles in The Hangover and Larry the Cable Guy’s Christmas Spectacular.
Whether you love his comedy style or not, one thing is certain, that Carrot Top has made quite a career.
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