Bill Bellamy

Biography

Bill Bellamy grew up in Newark, New Jersey as the oldest of three children. His comedy career is somewhat inadvertent. While attending Rutgers University, he entered a male beauty pageant. For his talent, he performed a stand-up comedy routine, clinching his win of the competition.

Bellamy worked briefly as a marketing executive at a cigarette comapny while he worked out his act in clubs and competitions. Bellamy soon earned a chance to debut on national television with "Showtime at the Apollo", a difficult forum for any performer. He did make the notorious tough audience laugh however, catching the eyes of Russell Simmons, who was crafting the first seasons of his groundbreaking stand-up show "Def Comedy Jam" for HBO.

Russell Simmons came to see Bellamy at New York's "Uptown Comedy Club", one of the more prominent black comedy clubs of the era. Bellamy had a great performance, including a new joke he had recently worked out callled "Booty Call." Simmons told him that he wanted Bellamy on "Def Comedy Jam" and he wanted him to do that joke. Soon after, Bill Bellamy did just that, uttering the phrase for the first time for a television audience, entering it into the slang lexicon. "Booty Call" subsequently served as the title of his Showtime comedy special.

His stand-up soon brought him to the attention of MTV where he became a VJ and a host of many of their programs. This led to many other television and film roles, including "How to Be a Player", "Any Given Sunday" and "Fastlane".

In recent years, he has gravitated back to stand-up with a new stand-up hour appropriately entitled "Bill Bellamy: Back to My Roots." The special aired on Comedy Central along with being releaed on DVD. He also currently serves as the host of the stand-up comedy series "Bill Belamy's Who's Got Jokes", which airs on the TV One network. Bill Bellamy is also serving as the host of NBC's "Last Comic Standing 5", arguably the most visible forum for the art of stand-up.