Ted Casablanca
I’ve heard that when not in public/in front of a camera, 50 Cent is actually a white guy named Preston that is really into golf.
I wouldn’t count Weird Al, because he’s just a funny guy who plays goofy in public, but he’s usually pretty serious, if tongue in cheek, during interviews. He’s not playing a role, he’s just being silly. He never denied being intelligent or whatever. He’s a comedian, not a character.
Judy Tenuta. The accordian must get heavy after a while.
He does speak with a normal voice. I’m pretty sure he even used it in some TV show or movie…I’m thinking an episode of Law & Order or CSI for some reason.
In the film of Nicholas Nickleby from a few years ago–which was rather good, but sank like a stone–he played two roles, one male and one female.
His other more famous character is Sir Les Patterson, Cultural Attache to Great Britain - a drooling dribbling big toothed ugly man.
But Barry Humphries also appears as himself a lot, though not usually comedically. When out of character he doesn’t seem to display much of a sense of humour, he’s normally quite quiet and regular.
Is Carrot Top for real? Is it humanly possible to be that annoying all the time?
Mr. Rilch was a grip on Chairman of the Board, and told me that not only was Carrot Top’s off-camera persona a complete 180 from his stage persona, but that he was actually rather gloomy, and well aware that CotB would be his only starring role.
I’ve heard that Carrot Top is well respected among comedians for his work ethic. He tours over three hundred days a year. My guess would be that he’s probably quite funny, it’s just that once you walk out on stage with a prop no one ever takes you seriously again. I also find it telling that most of the people who criticize him have never seen one of his shows. They just know that everybody else knows that he sucks. :rolleyes:
Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (real name: Cassandra Petersen)
Larry the Cable Guy (real name: Dan Whitney)
Most pro wrestlers don’t stay in character 24/7, and many of them seem like perfectly nice, jolly, funny guys in real life (such as Mick Foley and The Rock, Dwayne Johnson). Then again, you have guys like Triple H, Jeff Jarrett, Steve Austin, and The Ultimate Warrior…
I’ve always thought Paul Giamatti’s voice is fake.
No no no no. It was the New York Dolls.
Andrew Clay Silverstein, aka Andrew “Dice” Clay, manufactured a fairly convincing racist, misogynist loudmouth persona for himself, but unfortunately didn’t seem to know when to turn it off. He made an attempt for the 1995 sitcom Bless This House, which had some promise as a blue-collar family comedy, but by then it was too late. That’s the trouble with shock as a schtick. The audience tires of it, and unless you develop something else, you’ve got nowhere to go but lower and lower.
Johnny Carson was shy to the point of aloofness.
Phyllis Diller built a four-decade career on a fright wig and a cackle. She started the act when she was a suburban wife and mother trying to earn a few extra bucks.
More to the point, we had a local weathercaster here some years ago. He was a jolly good fellow, devoted husband and father who could always be counted on to do his bit for charity and played a passable accordion. Then it was discovered he had been stalking a woman. One night after he had finished the late news, he drove to the airport, took his plane up to 2,000 feet and power-dived into the runway.
Emo Phillips?
Foster Brooks rarely drank alcohol. (And Dean Martin usually didn’t drink much either.)
Professor Irwin Corey was a complete put-on of course.
Paul Reubens used to never appear as anything other than Pee-Wee.