So, when I was told that he'd call me at 9:15 a.m., I didn't know what to expect. "Hi, this is Carrot Top," he said in a calm, nice voice. "You sound so normal," I couldn't help saying. "I'm actually wearing a clown outfit, at the moment," he joked. Then added, "all the comics I've ever met, like Robin Williams and Jim Carrey are all very mellow. The only person I thought was just as wacky in person as he is on stage is Jonathan Winters. He's always funny."I've spoken to a lot of comedians and I have to agree with him...they're not "on" all the time...yet, I expected Carrot Top to get on the phone ranting...sillay me. "I went out to dinner last night, in Indiana," he said. "And some people said to me, 'you look like that guy...' and when I told them I was...they said, 'but you're so normal' so it's funny that you used that word."Well, he may be just a regular guy off-stage, but on-stage he's hysterical. He got his start in comedy in college at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. "I saw a bulletin board with this flyer on it that said come to a talent show. I took one and told the guys that we should go to it...and they said 'go to it? You should be in it! You're funny, dude...you make us laugh...go and tell jokes....'"So, I did and it was really fun and my friends loved it. So, the next semester they had the same kind of show and I did it again. This time I did jokes about the school and teachers and it was even better because the audience could relate to what I was saying. Every semester I'd do another one, so I kind of became the campus comic."Then I entered a local talent contest at a comedy club and was told that I was funny but the audience wouldn't get college material, so I had to come up with an idea for something more broad...and that's where the props came into play. I thought of a couple of things that I saw that I thought were funny. One was a neighborhood crime watch sign that I had and I always thought it was funny that I had it...cause how good was their crime watch if they couldn't even watch their own sign..."So, I went on stage and said 'hey look at this,' and did the whole joke and the audience thought the visual was cool. So I kept thinking of more and more visual things and that's how it happened. It just kept evolving...more props and more jokes. It's always been a combination of stand-up mixed in with some props."I'm just a normal guy who got really lucky. It's been a lot of fun doing this. The best part of everything is meeting my fans. I learn so much from them. They tell me what they like and what I did last time that made them laugh. I even have a few groupies..." he says with a laugh. "Not as many as I'd like. Once I met this girl who said, 'do you want to see my tattoo?' and when I said yeah, she pulled up her shirt and she had a tattoo of me! I said, 'that's not real...' but it was. That's a little freaky...It's neat, though."It is freaky...and neat...kind of like him...on-stage. Come see Carrot Top this Sunday at Westbury Music Fair. "I like Westbury. It's very intimate. Everybody has a good seat there. You get a nice intimate crowd. I call it my Carrot Top unplugged night. It's fun. New York is always fun..." And so is he.
