Interview with comedian Carrot Top

Interview with comedian Carrot Top

In this insightful and funny sit down interview with Carrot Top for the newest episode of the Allison Interviews podcast, the veteran comedian gets candid about his upbringing, the reasons he doesn’t ever want marriage or kids, his long term Las Vegas residency, his thoughts on Adele’s Las Vegas residency debacle, his close friendship with the late Louie Anderson, his thoughts on the late Bob Saget, and his aversion to alcohol and drugs.

Scott “Carrot Top” Thompson has been making audiences around the world laugh for more than three decades. Since 2005, fans have flocked to his Las Vegas headlining residency at Luxor Hotel and Casino to catch comedy’s King of Props induce sidesplitting laughter with his current take on pop culture, music, and headlines of the day in a continually evolving show.

The following are excerpts from the latest episode of the Allison Interviews podcast with host and entertainment journalist, Allison Kugel, interviewing Carrot Top. The full podcast episode is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify; and on YouTube.

Here are some excerpts from the interview with Carrot Top by Allison Kugel . See below for the whole interview podcast.

You were born Scott Thompson. How did you get the name “Carrot Top?” Who gave you the name?

Carrot Top: Unfortunately, I had something to do with that. It’s a blessing and a curse. Why I did it? I don’t know. I thought the name Scott Thompson was kind of boring. Well, not kind of, it is. Being a stage performer, I always thought I should have something fun. Queen Latifah was taken, and so I thought, “Gosh, I need something better.” I went up to the stage one night and said, “Bring me up as Carrot Top.” They said, “Carrot Top? Are you sure?” I said, “Yes, I’m pretty sure.” And that was it. I was “Carrot Top” forever.

You’ve been doing your residency at The Luxor for sixteen years now. What is it about Las Vegas that you love?

Carrot Top: It came around by accident, believe it or not. I used to do a couple of weeks at a time at the MGM Grand, seventeen years ago. It was like a mini residence. I would go there for two weeks, and then I would go on the road and do shows. Then I would come back and do two weeks and then go back out on the road again. They had brought to my attention that David Copperfield wanted to take over that show room and make me disappear, and so I was thinking, Okay, I guess I’ll go back on the road.” Then my manager says, “There is a room open at the Luxor right across the street.” We walked over one night and looked at it. I was then told, “This will be full time. You’ll be here every night.” I wasn’t ready to be a resident headliner. I was reluctant. I said, “Let’s do a year and see how it goes.” It was horrible for that first year. I was living in the hotel. It was just not a good time. Things weren’t working. Shows were tough and I was losing my mind, and thinking I have to get out of this gig. Then one day it was really weird, I just started having fun and it started to click. It was kind of cool because I wasn’t having to travel. I agreed to do another two years, making it a three-year deal, and at that point we really got into a groove. It wouldn’t make any sense for me not to be in Vegas. Then I agreed to a five-year deal.” Then it became a ten-year deal, and now it’s been sixteen years and counting. You’re in one place and people come to you, as opposed to you going to them. I’ve gotten used to the room. We just did this brand-new bit about Adele. I could go on stage and knock it out and not have to be on the road traveling with it. Then I can come home and hang out with my dog, and I’m in bed by 11pm watching TV.

On not needing to be on substances to write his material or go on stage:

“I’m completely sober. I don’t smoke marijuana and I never have. I don’t think I have been drunk since high school, literally. I have friends like Gene Simmons, he’s never had a drop of booze, zero. I’m not that pure. I definitely have a little Crown on the rocks right before a show. We do a ceremonial shot of Crown, then I do the show. Then I’ll come home and watch TV with a glass of red wine. I’m definitely not the drug guy. I’m actually more of a nerd than anything else.”

On the late Bob Saget:

“I knew him in a very small capacity, which was wild that he was so friendly towards me. I knew he was a nice man. He knew a lot of my friends, more so than he knew me. But every time my friends would bring my name up to him, they would always say, ‘Bob loves you, just so you know.’ It’s kind of a thing with comics. You want a lot of comics to like you and sometimes comics don’t like other comics; whether it’s a jealousy thing or they just don’t think you’re funny. Bob was always one of those guys that really loved and respected me, and I know this, again, through second and third parties. I think the one time we actually spoke at an event he said, ‘Oh man, you were funny! I said, ‘You’re funny.’ And he said, ‘No really, you were great!’ Then when he passed and I got all these people sending me clips of him with his nice words about me, it was very sweet. I loved that everything I read about Bob, even after his passing, was about what a good guy he was. I hope when I die that is what people say about me. ‘Scott, you know, God he was such a nice guy.’ That’s the reason you get into this business.”

On his close friendship with the late Louie Anderson:

“My friend Louie Anderson just passed away. Louie Anderson was like my brother. We had a very close relationship, and [his death] came very suddenly. I went to the hospital and I was holding his hand the last day he was there, and it was rough.”

“Back in the day for him, it was always a joke. He would say, ‘Yeah, I’m heavy.’ He would look at me and I weigh 140 pounds, and he would say, ‘I can’t be skinny like you.’ He tried all the time to lose weight. I will say one thing, every time we went out, he always said, ‘I’ll have chicken.’ And he would say he was going to go run or walk, and he had bad knees. He was always in bad health, but he was always aware of it and always trying to do better. I would see him and he would say, ‘I lost 10 pounds!’ He wanted people to know it… and then cancer. He couldn’t figure out a way to beat the cancer.”

On how comedy heals people and the responsibility of that:

“I’m very spiritual and I think that there is no way there can’t be a correlation between smiling, laughing, feeling good, and healing. That is why they send clowns into children’s hospitals, and even dogs. They bring in things to make the kids that are sick smile. These kids are laughing, and they are not thinking about their cancer. I have had thousands and thousands of encounters and letters in my career that would shock you. Handwritten letters from families, from people of all ages that have written me letters that say, ‘You have no idea how you have helped my father live through his last days. We watched your movie. He was so depressed. For his last trip he wanted to go see you in Las Vegas. He was sick, and they got him on a plane to come and see you.’ It’s almost a weight on your back. You have this [responsibility] and you have to keep that in mind. Like every time you go on stage, you think to yourself that there is someone out there that needs you, literally.”

On people not liking him or criticizing his brand of comedy:

“My whole career, it hurt my feelings until recently. It’s human nature that you want everyone to love you, and it’s kind of like a cliché, but you can’t please everybody, and not everybody is going to love you dude. They’re just not. There are going to be some people out there that are going to say, ‘Carrot Top? Nope, not good. Not a fan.’ People have always, from day one since I got into this business, They always made fun of me, I think just the red hair, the freckles, the name, the props, just everything. It was a whole smorgasbord of just not liking me. A lot of it was comics that were just jealous because I had gotten some success.”

On Dennis Miller and Gallagher thinking Carrot Top stole their material:

“There was one incident with Dennis Miller, where he had a thing against me. It was a story that was misconstrued, and he thought this happened and this happened, and he was always mad at me. When I talked to him in person, he realized he was wrong and now we are best friends. Gallagher had a little spat with me one time. He said, ‘Why did you steal my act?’ I said, ‘Which act? What are you talking about?’ We ended up talking it through and I didn’t steal his act. He just had this feeling that what I did was touching his type of thing. Was similar and I explained to him ‘We’re not even close.’ He said, ‘Okay, well never mind.”

CHECK OUT THE ENTIRE INTERVIEW:

About Journalist and Podcast Host Allison Kugel
Allison Kugel is a veteran entertainment journalist with more than three hundred long form celebrity and newsmaker interviews published and syndicated, worldwide. She is author of the memoir, Journaling Fame: A memoir of a life unhinged and on the record, and host of the new podcast, Allison Interviews, where listeners can tune in to hear the full conversations behind Allison’s print interviews. Watch and embed the entire interview video with Carrot Top @YouTube. Listen to and share the audio podcast on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Follow Allison Kugel on Instagram @theallisonkugel and at AllisonInterviews.com.