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Bio

About me

I have been a comedian for more than 30 years. I have no homebase and I travel the world doing comedy. I almost drowned in Thailand, got maced in Paris and had my own Late Night Talkshow in the Netherlands. Whenever I can I will share my adventures with you on my RhodesTube, Twitter and FanPage. Oh yeah, I just got on Instagram. All the kids are doing it.

My latest TV appearances were Dave Attell’s Comedy UndergroundComedy Bang Bang and you can catch me on episodes on @midnight. Coolest episode was with Eddie Izzard and Kevin Pollak.

My latest one hour special is currently on Netflix. It’s called Light Sweet Crude. Just hit that search button.

I have a podcast Tom Rhodes Radio with more than 200 episodes. It’s me talking with interesting people around the world. Sometimes I do a rant, book review or share my world wide adventures.

Catch me on several podcasts. Marc Maron‘s, Joe Rogan‘s or several pods on the ATC comedy network. London Real is a good interview.

If I got you interested go to my website tomrhodes.net where I laid it all out in Bio or see my Wikipedia page where things get more personal.

W: About me TomRhodes.net
P:  Listen to my podcast Tom Rhodes Radio
T: Follow me twitter.com/_TomRhodes
F:  Follow me facebook.com/TomRhodesComedy
Y: Subscribe to RhodesTube YouTube.com/KingofHaHa
 
Management: 3Arts, Dave Becky | dbecky@3arts.com | (001) 310.888.2146

 

Tom Rhodes Short Bio

Tom Rhodes is a world traveling comedian who is now celebrating his 30th year as a stand up comedian.  The New York Times  describes him as “A mostly natural intellect with a knack for reporting the harsh realities of life with a dark and absurdly optimistic cynicism.”

An adventurer forging his own path, Rhodes has built a career that not only includes stand-up specials,  a sitcom,  a travel show,  a late night talk show,  numerous live CD’s & DVD’s,  his critically acclaimed podcast Tom Rhodes Radio,  as well as being a travel writer for the Huffington Post.

Fresh from releasing his new hour special Light Sweet Crude  on Netflix Rhodes has had a long raucous career covering every corner of the globe.  His latest TV recording on Comedy Central Comedy Underground with Dave Attell will be airing in 2014. In 2012 Rhodes was featured in the Showtime stand-up series,  Live From Amsterdam (2012).  His three half hour stand-up specials include two Comedy Central Presents (2009 & 2001) and Raw,  recorded in Stockholm for Swedish television (2009).  He had his own sitcom television show on NBC called Mr. Rhodes (1996 – 1997),  his own Late Night Talk show on Dutch television  Kevin Masters starring Tom Rhodes  (2002 – 2003),  and traveled the world as a TV presenter on the Dutch travel program  Yorin Travel (2004).

His latest LIVE recording as a double CD Colossus of Me released in 2012.  In 2009 Laughspin.com named his DVD Rhode Scholar  the Number One Comedy DVD of 2009.  As a featured travel writer for Huffington Post his travel story ‘A Tragedy, A Miracle And A Brawl…Welcome to Ireland’ got awarded by the Huffington Post one of the Top 10 Best Travel Stories of 2011.

His podcast Tom Rhodes Radio was named one of the Top 10 of Best Podcasts of 2011 by Matador Network and was praised as the best newcomer in The Onion AV’s Club (December 2012). Since 2013 Tom Rhodes Radio joined Bill Burr’s & Al Madrigal’s All Things Comedy Network.  Tom has been a guest on  The Joe Rogan Experience (#248, 364, 420 & 500),  The Adam Corolla ShowMarc Maron’s WTFAisha Tyler’s Girl On GuyLondon RealThe Artie Lange ShowRon & Fez ShowNPR Snap Judgment.

W: About me TomRhodes.net
P:  Listen to my podcast Tom Rhodes Radio
T: Follow me twitter.com/_TomRhodes
F:  Follow me facebook.com/TomRhodesComedy
Y: Subscribe to RhodesTube YouTube.com/KingofHaHa
 
Update – Sept 2014
 
 

Tom Rhodes The Whole Story

Early years

Tom Rhodes was born in Washington DC on January 14th, 1967.

At the age of 12 Tom’s father, David Rhodes, a decorated Vietnam war hero with a great sense of humour and a love of stand-up comedy, took Tom to see his uncle Bob perform. The entrance to the room was right next to the stage and as a joke the comedian pulled Tom up because he wearing a Washington Redskins jacket. He interviewed him as if he was the coach of the Washington Redskins. It was that moment on stage in Washington DC, seeing the happy people with their heads thrown back in laughter, that Tom Rhodes decided to be a stand up comedian.

Later that same year Tom’s family moved to Oviedo Florida just outside of Orlando where Tom became obsessed with comedy. He dreamed to become either a major league baseball player or a professional stand up comedian. Sometime during high school as the swift curve balls increased their precision, Tom knew he wasn’t born to be a baseball player and continued to fill notebooks with joke ideas and focus on following his comedy dreams.

Tom’s father David had many classic comedy albums in the house and with his guidance he studied the masters: Richard Pryor, Bob Newhart, Bill Cosby and Rodney Dangerfield.
While attending Oviedo High School, everyone knew Tom wanted to be a comedian and he was invited to host talent shows, pep rallies, and the morning & afternoon announcements.

One of Tom’s earliest supporters was his drama and speech teacher, Mr. Mintrel Martin. Where other teachers found Tom’s talkativeness to be a problem, Mr. Martin encouraged Tom to explore his natural talents. The classroom had a small elevated stage in the center and Mr. Martin would give Tom the first five minutes of class to talk about whatever he wanted, he sometimes even elaborated on prepared speeches. Tom would talk about world events, things that were happening at school, and whatever joke ideas he felt trying. The rants became so popular that children from other classes would sometimes attend.

 

Comedy beginnings

At the age of 17 Tom took a fake ID and auditioned at the only comedy club in Orlando, The Funny Farm. Soon after passing and becoming a regular performer at The Funny Farm, Tom stopped attending football games and other school social functions and decided to fully follow his dream to be a comedian.

Throughout his junior and senior years of High school he did shows every weekend in Orlando and branched out to one nighters all over the state of Florida. After graduating in 1985 from Oviedo High School, Tom went on the road to play comedy circuits all over the Southern United states and up and down the Eastern seaboard.

At 19, Tom won “The Funniest Person in Central Florida” contest. The grand prize was the opportunity to perform at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles, California. After meeting Jay Leno, who told Tom that all great comedians should be living in New York or Los Angeles, Tom decided that he was right and moved to New York City.

In what he describes as the worst year of his life, Tom was living in the Washington Heights neighbourhood “like a dog” with no money and not getting very many sets in the city. He decided that the one nighters he was doing in New Jersey and Long Island were not the pot of gold he was looking for, so he moved back to Florida with his tail between his legs. Back in Florida, Tom’s comedy became stronger than ever and he started branching out and getting into better comedy clubs across the United States.

The first quality comedy club to headline Tom was the “Atlanta Punchline”. After Atlanta other quality clubs followed.

 

Turning professional

At 22, Tom moved to San Francisco with the sole purpose of growing and strengthening his comedy in the city he refers to as “the Jerusalem of stand up comedy.” There was an exciting array of comedians living and performing at that time: Margaret Cho, Marc Maron, Patton Oswald, Greg Proops.

Tom quickly became a regular at the comedy giants of the city: The Punchline, The Improv, & Cobbs. Along with meeting many people that would become lifelong friends, Tom got to open concerts for James Brown and the Everly Brothers while in San Francisco. Tom also got the notice of comedy programs and began appearing on shows like An Evening at The Improv, Comic Strip Live, Caroline’s Comedy Hour, and MTV’s Comedy Half Hour.

 

Television success

It was an appearance on Comedy Central’s ‘Two Drink Minimum’ that led to Tom performing on a more regular basis on the network. Presented as interludes, Tom filmed a series of jokes in a jail cell setup like a rock video by Comedy Central. These clips helped the long haired comedian break out on the national consciousness.

Tom became the first comedian to sign a one year development deal with Comedy Central that led to his one hour special ‘Viva Vietnam’ a comedy travel log to the newly opened country Vietnam as a heartfelt tribute to his father and the other veterans who served. Tom’s friend Rich Hall worked on ‘Viva Vietnam’ as the one and only writer he was allowed to bring with him. Viva Vietnam was critically acclaimed and the Washington Post ran a feature story on Tom and his father, and how the premier in Washington DC attracted both Vietnamese diplomats and US diplomats laughing in the same room when they were once mortal enemies.

In that same year (1995) Tom performed at the first ever HBO Aspen Arts Festival and at the Montreal International Comedy festival. At the Montreal Festival, Tom was discovered by NBC talent scouts and the network offered him a development deal to create his own sitcom.

In 1996, Tom moved from San Francisco to Los Angeles to create a sitcom with his friend, comedy writer Mark Brazill. Tom’s original idea for the sitcom was to be a public defender lawyer – “the voice of the voiceless and champion of the little people.” It was NBC’s opinion that because they just had a lawyer show fail they suggested that Tom should be a schoolteacher. From 1996 to 1997, the sitcom ‘Mr. Rhodes’ aired for a full season on the NBC network. Tom played a longhaired rebel English teacher in a stuffy private school for rich kids. Although the sitcom had a short life and was prone to focussing on inane silly hair jokes, the cast included the exceptional actors Steven Tobolowski, Ron Glass, Lindsay Sloan, and Jensen Ackles.

When the sitcom ended Tom looked at the money he made as his “NBC artist’s grant” and moved back to New York City to focus on his first true love of stand up comedy. Living in New York City 1998-1999, Tom got to fulfill the promise that he made to himself that he would one day live in New York City with style. For two years Tom performed multiple sets nightly across the city at Gotham Comedy Club, The Comic Strip, Caroline’s, The Comedy Cellar, and Stand Up New York, and opened for Ray Charles at the famed jazz club Tramps. Tom also performed for the second time in Montreal International Comedy Festival and Just for Laughs. Having too much money in the city that never sleeps and living the comedy rock star life, Tom found himself to be partying at an alarming intensity.

 

Breaking into Europe

During this period, Tom began to take trips to London. Through the help of his friend, comedian Rich Hall, he began to brake into the London comedy scene at the Comedy Store. Success at The Comedy Store led to Tom getting more work in the United Kingdom and all around Europe.

While performing in Toomler, Amsterdam in 1999, Tom fell in love with a Dutch girl and in the year 2000 he moved to Amsterdam. Tom says he was partying so much while he lived in New York City that he actually moved to Amsterdam to “bring it down a notch.”

Also in 2000, Tom appeared in Australia for the first time in the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. This inspired Tom to start expanding his reach to more international circuits in Paris, Dublin, Berlin, Hong Kong, Beijing, Bangkok, Jakarta. All the while performing half the year in the US so as not to let his American comedy muscle go soft.

In July 2001 Tom filmed his first ‘Comedy Central presents…’ half hour stand-up comedy special at the Hudson Theatre in New York City.

 

Dutch Television

At the end of 2001 Tom’s relationship was coming to an end and he was about to go back to the USA when producers from the Yorin television network saw his show at Toomlers in Amsterdam.

In January 2002, the ‘Kevin Masters Show starring Tom Rhodes’ premiered. The show was a charming mix between Tom’s American perspective on Dutch culture and interviews with the biggest actors and artists in the region. The show ran for three full seasons.

In 2004 when the show came to an end the network asked Tom to be a presenter on one of the country’s most popular travel programs – ‘Yorin Travel’.

For one full season Tom got to film travel segments all over South America & Europe, including Peru, the Champagne region of France, Saint Petersburg Russia, Wales, the Dutch Caribbean, Aruba, Curacao, and a very special highlight on the Beatles in Liverpool.

 

Going International

At the end of 2004, Tom decided to go back to the United States and continue to travel the world.

In 2005, he performed at the Vancouver Comedy Festival and started to appear in Australia regularly.

In December 2005, Tom released his first live CD “How Sweet Ass” on Stand Up Records, recorded in Houston.

In June 2006, Tom released his second CD “Live in Paris” recorded in Paris, France at the famed Hotel du Nord.

Also in 2006, Tom appeared on the Australian Rove’s Live, and in 2007, The Side Show.

In 2007 Tom released his first self-produced DVD ‘Holy Temple of the HA HA’ recorded live at the Sydney Comedy Store in Sydney Australia. The bonus feature is a short documentary of Tom’s life over a ten year period as a stand up comedian entitled ‘There and Back Again’. It includes appearances and kind words from Dave Chappelle, Janeane Garofalo, Bobby Slayton.

Tom’s travels and passion for filming his travels culminated in 2008 with his obsession for making YouTube clips. Watch them at www.youtube.com/kingofhaha.

In August 2008, Tom filmed his second “Comedy Central Presents…” at the Hudson Theatre in New York City. It aired March 2009.

In April 2009, Tom preformed at the Altitude Comedy Festival in Meribel, France. In July 2009 Tom did his third Montreal International Comedy Festival, Just for Laughs with Whoopi Goldberg as the host.

2009 was a busy year for Tom, playing internationally in Amsterdam, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Belfast, Dublin, Galway, Rome, London, Geneva, Zurich, Munich, and Stockholm. In Stockholm on November 28, Tom recorded a half hour stand up performance for Swedish television on the television program ‘Raw’.

In 2010 Tom performed at the Galway Comedy Festival with Jim Jeffries, Phil Nichol, Phil Jupitus, Jimeoin, and Rich Hall. Also in 2010, Tom returned to Asia doing shows in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, and Kuala Lumpur.

As a special honor in 2010 Tom was highlighted in the book ‘Satiristas’ – A book of photographs and interviews with the leading comedians in the worldwide business of stand up comedy today.

Early 2011, Tom appeared on the podcast “WTF with Marc Maron”.

In April 2011, Tom married photographer Ashna Rodjan and went on an epic Honeymoon World Tour performing in Cork, Galway, Dublin, Bali, Bangkok, Jakarta, Perth, Sydney, Singapore. While in Perth he performed at the Wild West Comedy Festival headlining the Astor Theatre.

On September 23rd 2011, Tom filmed his first hour-long stand up special in Boulder, Colorado.

As a featured travel writer for Huffington Post his travel story ‘A Tragedy, A Miracle And A Brawl…Welcome to Ireland’ got awarded by the Huffington Post one of the Top 10 Best Travel Stories of 2011.

His latest TV recording on Uncensored Late Nights with Dave Attell will be airing in 2014.

Tom has been a guest on The Joe Rogan Experience (#248, 364, 420 & 500), The Adam Corolla ShowMarc Maron’s WTFAisha Tyler’s Girl On GuyLondon RealThe Artie Lange ShowRon & Fez ShowNPR Snap Judgment.

Tom Rhodes Productions

Also in 2009, Tom started his own podcast called “Tom Rhodes Radio” The podcasts are conversations recorded with comedians and other interesting people that he meets or has known for many years in his travels worldwide. The program is edited by comedian Rob F. Martinez and Ashna Rodjan with excellent clips of stand up comedy and inventive music choices. The show can be heard on his website tomrhodes.net and on iTunesTom Rhodes Radio was named one of the Top 10 of Best Podcasts of 2011 by Matador Network and was praised as the best newcomer in The Onion AV’s Club (December 2012). Since 2013 Tom Rhodes Radio joined Bill Burr’s & Al Madrigal’s All Things Comedy Network.

In 2009, Tom released his self produced DVD “Rhode Scholar.” The two DVD set includes ‘Rhode Scholar’ – which contains two and a half hours of live performances filmed all over the world plus strange absurdities that he recorded on his travels. The second DVD – ‘Built for Joy’ – is Tom’s one hour one man show filmed at the Comedy Central Theatre in Los Angeles. It was a personal telling of stories about his life travelling the world as a stand up comedian. In December 2009, PunchlineMagazine.Com/LaughSpin.com named “Rhode Scholar” the Number One Comedy DVD Release of 2009.

In recent years, Tom has been pursuing his dream of making his own comedy travel television program where he can document his personal travels and highlight comedy scenes around the world. Tom produced the pilot episodes himself in 2010, filming in Montana, Cambodia, Jakarta, Indonesia and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

In 2014 Tom made his debut on the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland.

Tom Rhodes and his photographer wife travel the world with no home base being in another spot every week filming and documenting their lives as they continue living their dream.

 

 

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80 thoughts on “Bio

  1. Hey Tom,thanks for the song, low tide, I just heard it a couple weeks ago on the movie Kandahar. What a great song. I’ve listened to it Prbly 100 times since then, bought it on I tunes. I’m a 65 yr old farmer in central ms. I am farming with my 2 sons and wife. We grow cotton and corn on 2900 acres. Your lyrics have a much different meaning to us as farmers. I put together sum pictures from my phone with the I movie app. All the photos are from our farm except the hurricane pictures of the cotton modules that were destroyed in a hurricane in 2022 in Texas. I used your song for my little movie. Not tryin to make any money or anything, just did it for me and my family to see. Your song fit perfect for the photos of our farm. All the beautiful scenes we get to see along with devastation of floods, droughts and hurricanes. I would like to send it to u to see if I can figure out how. Again not tryin to make money or get any money out of you, jus like for u to see it and know that I thank you very much for creating it. Bruce Craft.

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