Carrot Top On Cusp Of 10,000 Las Vegas Performances
It was a Wednesday night in the Atrium Showroom at the Luxor in Las Vegas. The long, rounded hallway up to the venue featured one side clad with the beautiful women of the burlesque show Fantasy. On the other side, a long-haired beauty of a different type that calls Luxor their home: Carrot Top.
Typically a mid-week performance on the Las Vegas strip would be somewhat barren. However it was a pretty full house for the red headed comedian. A countdown on the screen behind the stage featured several clips of Carrot (real name Scott Thompson) appearing in pop culture, both as himself, in cartoon form or simply being mentioned.
Carrot Top Is In On The Joke
Often when Carrot Top is mentioned by comedians, it is used as a punchline. Norm MacDonald famously dressed Carrot Top down (albeit not to his face) during an infamous Late Night with Conan O’Brien segment. He addressed the segment (and the general comic hate he receives) in a recent interview.
There was also the run-in with comedian Bill Burr who dunked on him on an episode of Opie & Anthony. Bill later apologized to him for what he said, and has since talked glowingly about the “prop comedian”.
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In the industry, the term “prop comedian” has been used as an insult. A “hack”. Using visual gags is a “crutch” for not being funny without them. Yet there we were, in a full theater in Las Vegas on a Wednesday night. The set was a rope-a-dope, one after another. Joke after joke. Some visual. Some crowd work. But all of it getting laughs.
Carrot Top certainly looked up to the best in the “prop comedian” business in the legendary Gallagher, sharing a photo of a much younger, aspiring comic meeting his hero. He ended his show with an amazing homage to him.
For many, Carrot Top is “forever young”. But he’s 59 years old. During the show he points to the screen to show how many shows he has done in Las Vegas. Nearly 9,900 shows. Not bad for a “hack”.
He will certainly go down as one of the legendary comedians in the history of Las Vegas, and he deserves every bit of it. Unlike the hate he receives.
