Rip Taylor
Born	Charles Elmer Taylor, Jr. January 13, 1934 (1934-01-13) (age 75) Washington, D.C., U.S.
Occupation	Actor/Comedian
Years active	1962–present
Official website

Charles Elmer "Rip" Taylor, Jr. (born January 13, 1934) is an American actor and comedian.

Contents 1 Early life and career 2 Television and film 3 Comic trademarks 4 Live theater 5 Taylor in Washington 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Early life and career

Rip Taylor was born Charles Elmer Taylor, Jr. in Washington, D.C., the son of Elizabeth, a waitress, and Charles Elmer Taylor, Sr., a musician.^[1] As a young man he entered show business as a stand-up comedian, diligently playing second- and third-rate burlesque theaters and nightclubs. His original stand-up persona did not include the trademark moustache, toupee, and loud suit. Instead he appeared clean-shaven in an ordinary business suit. His early years followed the conventional path of a stand-up comic: nightclub tours and TV appearances, with a strictly verbal monologue: just jokes, no special material or props. (Sample joke: "[Tonight's emcee] is a very honest man. He worked in a bath house for two years, and never once took a bath.") Rip soon realized that he needed a gimmick, something that would distinguish him from the other stand-ups. He hit upon an everything-happens-to-me routine, where he would recount all the terrible things that bothered him, and deliver each punchline with a sobbing wail. A typical appearance was on The Jackie Gleason Show: Rip walked on-camera with prop crutches, moaning about the bad drivers he just encountered. Soon Rip Taylor was being billed as "The Crying Comedian". During this period he appeared, as himself, as one of the eligible bachelors on The Dating Game, punctuating his answers with sobs.

A much more successful gimmick started quite by accident in 1969 at Merv Griffin's show. Taylor tore up a script on stage and threw the pieces in a fit of pique. The outburst got a huge audience reaction, prompting the comedian to assault the crowd with confetti at every performance; to wit, when he made his entrance on any given show he would randomly toss handfuls of confetti at audience members from a huge sack before ultimately slinging the entire contents of the sack at the audience, or whoever happened to be nearby. When asked how much confetti he used, he once jested in an interview that "three nuns are tearing it for me 24 hours a day."

[edit] Television and film

Taylor played a wacky, but memorable villain named Wizard Glick in the final episode of The Monkees TV series in 1968. He continued to work as a voice performer in the 1970s NBC cartoon series Here Comes the Grump and in the second Addams Family cartoon series (as Uncle Fester).

Throughout the 1970s Rip Taylor was a frequent celebrity guest panelist on game shows such as Hollywood Squares, To Tell the Truth, and The Gong Show, and substituted for Charles Nelson Reilly on The Match Game. He became a regular on Sid & Marty Krofft's Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, playing Sheldon, a sea-genie who lived in a conch shell. In addition, Taylor was also a regular on The Brady Bunch Hour, playing a role of neighbor / performer Jack Merrill. He also hosted a short-lived send-up of beauty pageants called The $1.98 Beauty Show created by Gong Show producer/host Chuck Barris, in 1978. Taylor appeared as a celebrity on the slot-machine version of Match Game. On one episode of Super Password in 1988, gameplay went awry after another celebrity guest, Patty Duke, inadvertently gave away the password and host Bert Convy lost control of the show. Rip reacted to the craziness by ripping off his toupee (something he claimed to have never done on network television before),^[2] resulting in hysterical laughter from everyone in the studio. This scene has been seen on TV many times since and has even been posted on YouTube.

Rip Taylor was featured at the end of the 2 part Chalet 2000 skit on the television show The Kids In The Hall. He was referred to Uncle Rip by one of the show's characters "Buddy Cole".

In 1997, Taylor appeared in a segment on the show "Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction". He played the role of Elmo Middleton in the segment titled "The Man in the Model T" in Episode 17 (the 11th Episode of the 2nd season) of the show.

In 1998, Taylor also appeared as himself on the NBC sitcom Will & Grace. In 2005, he appeared as himself on an episode of ABC TV's The George Lopez Show. Taylor guest-starred as chef "Rappin' Rip" in four episodes of an earlier ABC sitcom featuring Lopez, Life With Bonnie.

Taylor is an accomplice of the Jackass crew. In 1995, he performed the intro for the Bloodhound Gang's Use Your Fingers album, and in 2002, he appeared in the final scene of Jackass: The Movie, wielding a pistol that, when fired, released a sign that read "The End" (Taylor's section of the film was originally considerably longer, and ended with him complaining about the heat, and fanning himself with his toupee. This footage was included on the DVD of the film.) He did the same thing at the ending of Jackass: Number Two. In the credits of the 2005 remake of The Dukes of Hazzard, Rip shows up in the blooper reel.

He guest starred in The Suite Life of Zack and Cody episode "Loosely Ballroom" as Leo. He is also in some episodes of The Emperor's New School, as the voice of the Royal Record Keeper. He was also recently in the Jetix animated series Super Robot Monkey Team Hyper Force Go!

He was also in the 1990 summer movie Walt Disney DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp as the voice as the Genie/"Gene

Taylor has made occasional appearances in movies, usually in broad comedies like the R-rated Deep Throat parody Chatterbox.^[3] In Amazon Women on the Moon a funeral service turns into a celebrity roast when guest Rip Taylor shows up to "honor" the deceased. In Cheech and Chong's Things Are Tough All Over, he picks them up in the middle of nowhere driving a convertible full of props. Rip then proceeds to drive them to Las Vegas and telling jokes the whole way and moving Chong to tears from laughter. In 1993, Taylor also appeared in Tom and Jerry: The Movie as Captain Kiddle, and in Wayne's World 2. In 1993's Indecent Proposal as Demi Moore's boss, he appears without his toupee. In 2002 he appeared in Jackass: The Movie again in 2006 he had a small part in Jackass: Number Two alongside Johnny Knoxville.

[edit] Comic trademarks

Taylor is known for his high-voiced yells, wacky toupée, and handlebar moustache over a perpetually toothy grin. He often enters a venue tossing handfuls of confetti from a paper bag onto his audience and laughing hysterically, while the band plays his theme song, "Happy Days Are Here Again."

Taylor's comedic style includes puns, often in conjunction with props (for example, holding up a plastic fish full of holes and exclaiming "Holy Mackerel!") and miming along to novelty records (including the works of Spike Jones). If he gets little or no reaction following one of his jokes, he stops for a moment and yells at the audience: "I don't dance, folks! This is it!" Or, "Hello? Can you people hear me?"

[edit] Live theater

Taylor appeared for three years in the burlesque-themed musical comedy Sugar Babies, and was featured on the soundtrack album. He has been a frequent co-star with Debbie Reynolds in her live shows in Las Vegas, Reno, and Lake Tahoe.

[edit] Taylor in Washington

Prior to becoming famous, Taylor was a page in the U.S. Senate.

In 2006, Taylor returned to the nation's capital as the grand marshal of Washington D.C.'s Capital Pride parade.^[4]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Rip Taylor's personal webpage
• Rip Taylor at the Internet Movie Database