 |
|
PRINTER FRIENDLY PAGE. To view this artist's HOME page, click or visit: http://www.delafont.com/comedians/Tom-Mullica.htm **
Booking Tom Mullica- Stand-up Comedians - © Richard De La Font Agency, Inc. - For serious booking inquiries only, click here: For more information
|
|
Tom Mullica's affair with show business began in 1955 when, as a seven-year-old, he decided to be a clown. Two years later he discovered magic and not long after combined the two. In addition to magic and clowning, he is a highly skilled ventriloquist, and he and his rabbit figure, Duke, can fracture an audience.
Buster
Keaton, Danny Kaye, Stan Laurel, W.C. Fields, Steve
Allen, Victor Borge and the Three
Stooges have all influenced his comedic style. However, one of the dominant factors in Tom
Mullica's life is the quiet, sincere friendship he had developed with Red
Skelton. Never a night goes by that Tom does not mention Red. "He has influenced my
career as an entertainer more than anyone else," Tom says flatly. "I learned
through him that being liked by the audience is the most important thing...what you do is
secondary, you've got to have a genuine likeability!"
When Tom learned that Skelton would be performing at Atlanta's Fox Theatre, "I contacted him at his hotel, and he said he would meet me at the stage door of the Fox at 7 p.m." Following this meeting, he learned about Skelton's paintings – a collection of 24 he wanted badly but could not afford. He started saving and subsequently purchased the 24 – all signed personally by Skelton, only to learn that there were eight more, which he ultimately purchased. This began a correspondence between Tom and Mr. Skelton's personal secretary.
In 1981, Red came to the "Tom-Foolery" to see the show.
"He changed my whole philosophy of comedy," Tom says, "He said my humor was
suggestive and that I was shocking people into laughing. He made a deal with me right on
the spot. Red offered me the use of his material if I cleaned up my act. He told me to do
every show as if my mother, a priest and a nun were in the audience.
Red Skelton visited the "Tom-Foolery" a second time and then began sending routines to Tom, which are perhaps fifty percent of Tom's repertoire. This friendship between the two took on an even more significant, poignant turn for Tom when Skelton sent him W.C. Fields' famous twisted pool cue.
Fields used the twisted pool cue in a classic vaudeville routine with Ed Wynn eliciting laughs under the pool table. Finally, Fields 'discovered' Wynn under the table and walloped him with the cue. Fields had taken a liking to Red Skelton and had given him the cue about a year before he died.
Tom feels he can never achieve a higher tribute than that in Red's note which accompanied the pool cue: "I don't know of anyone I would rather pass it on to for safekeeping than you!"
Tom Mullica may be available for your next special event. For booking information, click HERE!
To book
Tom Mullica for your special event,
contact Richard
De La Font Agency, Inc.
For faster service, do this first - click on this link:
http://www.delafont.com/contactselect.htm
For serious booking inquiries only - no exceptions. Thank you for your cooperation.