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... the artist formerly known as eddy strange
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Where did the name "Eddy Strange" come from?
I was watching the Master's Golf tournament in 1985. I think I was working in either Georgia or one of the Carolina's at a Punchline. Curtis Strange was in the lead....and then he dropped 2 in Rae's Creek and he was not in the lead anymore. But it just hit me, "Strange, what a great name for a comedian!". That night I told the MC to tell the audience Ross Bennett couldn't make it, but luckily we got Eddy Strange to fill in for him, and the rest is show business history. (or really just a footnote to show business history)
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Why?????????
It was the mid 80's, the Comedy Boom was shaking the country, I was working almost every week on the road, and my late wife, Jan, was very sick with cancer. I wanted to find some way to compartmentalize my time on stage away from the seriousness of my home life. And creating Eddy Strange just seemed to make sense at the time.
But why the flip flopping?????
Even though it did help me keep the business and personal aspects of my life seperate, it presented other problems. For those of you reading this who are familiar with my work you know that the bulk of my material is drawn from my life. What started out as a gimick turned into a problem.
I didn't feel comfortable constantly having to create material and then translate it into, "EDDY STRANGE". Even though it had gotten me some recognition and fans in the short run, long term it just wasn't what I wanted to be doing for the rest of my life. So after a few years I went back to Ross Bennett. Ahhhhhh.... But like a bad relationship that you keep going back to because its easier than finding someone new...... I went back to Eddy Strange again a few years later. And this time I simply plead insanity. Or maybe it was a mid-life crisis. Insecurity. Fear. I was actually calling people up for work and they were sorry but they wouldn't book Ross Bennett, but they would book Eddy Strange. So I went back to Eddy for the 2nd (and last time).
It lasted almost 10 years, during this time I worked quite regularlly in the UK and "Eddy Strange" became somewhat known in their wonderful comedy scene of the 90's. But in the fall of 2000 I moved to NYC and I had to make a choice, once and for all. And it all came down to imagining myself being on either Letterman or The Howard Stern Show. And I couldn't imagine either of them not mocking me unmercifully for the name Eddy Strange. So I just cut my hair and just let it go.
Now its a good story to tell my opening acts about at Denny's at 1 am in the middle of nowhere.
