Tom Rhodes
Tom Rhodes is an American comedian, actor, host, and travel writer.
When Comedy Central began in the early 1990s, Rhodes became the first comedian spokesperson they signed. Much of his commercial success came during this time. He was later the star of NBC's Mr. Rhodes, Dutch Yorin Television's Kevin Masters Show starring Tom Rhodes and Yorin Travel. In addition to venues in the United States, Rhodes has also performed in Hong Kong, Tokyo, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Beijing, Shanghai, Jakarta, Bali, London, Berlin, Munich, Zurich, Lausanne, Vancouver, Stockholm, Sydney, Melbourne, Basel, Geneva, Copenhagen, and Toronto.
His podcast Tom Rhodes Smart Camp is a festival of ideas, knowledge, stories, books, and adventures. Co-hosted with Ashna Rodjan, the podcast often features conversations with comedians and individuals he meets while traveling.
He writes for the HuffPost Travel section and often documents his travels on his YouTube page. He has released seven comedy albums, the most recent being The Honkey Motherland in 2020, and two DVDs which feature his performances and interviews with locals across the world.
Career
Stand-up comedy
Rhodes was introduced to stand-up at age 12 when his father took him to a local D.C. comedy club to see his Uncle Bob perform. Because Rhodes was wearing a Washington Redskins jacket, another comedian pulled him up onstage and interviewed him as if he were the Redskins football coach. He claims this was the moment he fell in love with stand-up comedy. He also idolized his favorite Uncle Bob, who influenced his sense of humor and the way he talked.Rhodes had a chance meeting with Jay Leno at a jazz club called Cheek to Cheek in Winter Park, Florida. He was not old enough to get in the club at the time, so he waited by the backstage door for the opening act to walk out. When they did, he stuck his foot in the door and watched Leno's show through a crack in the curtain behind him. When the show was over, Leno discovered him and, impressed with his curiosity, took him backstage and let him ask questions about comedy and what it takes to be a comedian. Part of the advice Leno gave was that great comedians should be living in New York or Los Angeles to better seize performing opportunities on stage and TV. On his first appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Rhodes reminded Leno about this meeting, which Leno recalled.
Rhodes took Leno's advice and moved to New York City. He spent, what he describes in interviews, as the worst year of his life living in Washington Heights "like a dog", with no money and very few comedy sets in the city. Instead, he was performing mostly one-nighters in New Jersey and Long Island. Eventually, he got a break when he was booked as a headliner at his first quality venue, The Punchline near Atlanta, Georgia.
Rhodes is featured in the 2010 book ¡Satiristas!: Comedians, Contrarians, Raconteurs & Vulgarians written by Paul Provenza, Host of Showtime's The Green Room with Paul Provenza, which features photos by San Francisco photographer Dan Dion. The book also includes interviews with George Carlin, Eddie Izzard, Trey Parker, and Matt Stone.
Comedy Central
After an appearance on Comedy Central's Two Drink Minimum, Rhodes was signed to a one-year development deal, the first stand-up to sign with the young station. He filmed several comedic rant commercials. These were shot in a jail cell and edited like a music video, a format popularized in the early 1990s with Denis Leary's MTV rants. Comic Marc Maron, a personal friend of Rhodes, hosted Short Attention Span Theater during this time. On an episode of his WTF with Marc Maron podcast he confessed that during their Comedy Central days, he was jealous of Rhodes' commercials. He said that after he complained "like a little bitch" to the network, he was able to get an image piece on the station just like him.Rhodes said that his time on Comedy Central was a positive one. "They were just starting out ," he said. "They didn't have these signature shows like South Park, Politically Incorrect, and The Daily Show. It was really like being a junior filmmaker; I could do whatever I wanted! They loved me!" Rhodes explored this creative license when he hosted and wrote Viva Vietnam: A White Trash Adventure Tour. Viva Vietnam was a docu-comedy and his first television travel show. He chose Vietnam because the country had just opened up for tourism in the early 1990s and he had always been interested in Vietnam due to his father David, a decorated Vietnam war helicopter pilot veteran. He wanted to bring humor to something that was otherwise bleak in American history. Viva Vietnam aired in 1995 on the 20th Anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. Rhodes explored the country, pulling stunts such as setting up a Slip N Slide on China Beach.
In addition to commercials and Viva Vietnam, Rhodes was often interviewed or featured in other Comedy Central shows, such as Comics Come Home, Politically Incorrect and The Daily Show. As a spokesman, he was utilized by the station for special segments or events. A few of these included going up in the Budweiser Blimp and interviewing players at Super Bowl XXVIII in Atlanta, Georgia; interviewing Shaquille O'Neal in the Dream Team II as they prepared for the 1994 FIBA World Championship and the 1996 Olympics; and a week on the H.O.R.D.E. festival, in a bus sponsored by Levi's Jeans and Comedy Central, along with Blues Traveler, Sheryl Crow, Joan Osborne, The Black Crowes, and Ziggy Marley. These segments usually aired during commercial breaks.
Rhodes shot two Comedy Central Presents, which aired in 2001 and 2009, respectively. Both specials were filmed at The Hudson Theatre in New York City. Featured comics are allowed to choose their own unique backgrounds for their episodes. For the first one, Rhodes chose Leonardo da Vinci's study overlooking Florence, Italy. For his second, Rhodes requested a background featuring the great monuments of the world, including Colossus of Rhodes, to be bunched together.
Television
Rhodes starred in NBC's Mr. Rhodes during the 1996-1997 fall lineup. It was his first primetime television show and lasted for 19 episodes, although 2 episodes were left unaired. It followed The Jeff Foxworthy Show at 8:30 p.m. on Monday nights. People Magazine gave the show an 'A−' in their "Picks & Pans" section, calling Rhodes a "gifted standup comic" and the show "a Welcome Back, Kotter for the gentry." Rhodes has gone on record saying his time on the show was only about six months of his life, but the effect it had on him was immense. The Orlando Sentinel reviewed his sitcom unfavorably, mostly critiquing his acting. During filming, Rhodes said that the constant jokes about his long hair and his inability to focus on stand-up, started to get to him. When the show ended, he used the money he earned to live comfortably in New York City again and concentrate on comedy. He called this his "NBC Artists Grant".Rhodes had a relationship with Dutch actress Anniek Pheifer, and moved to the Netherlands with her. The relationship ended, but it jumpstarted his involvement in Dutch television. He hosted the talk show Kevin Masters Show starring Tom Rhodes. The show ran on Yorin for two years beginning in 2002. The producers of the show wanted an American to host the show and give his take on Dutch culture. The name Kevin Masters was a generic one to use until they found an actual host. His audition for the show featured his normal stand-up routine and was selected as the best by producers. Rhodes was akin to David Letterman in the Dutch late-night talk show world. In addition to Dutch celebrities, Rhodes interviewed American celebrities, as well. Since there is no censorship on Dutch television, Rhodes was able to smoke marijuana with Tenacious D at an Amsterdam coffee shop and Steve-O stapled his scrotum to his leg in full uncensored nudity. Rhodes lived in the Netherlands for five years.
In a fourth season episode of Insomniac with Dave Attell, Attell visited Amsterdam with the intention of experiencing the Seven Deadly Sins while there. As the host of Kevin Masters Show starring Tom Rhodes, Rhodes represented "Envy", since Attell was envious of his cushy job in such a liberal town.
When his talk show ended, Rhodes began hosting a travel show Yorin Travel on the Dutch television station Yorin. The format was fitting for Rhodes, who was starting to gain international appeal. It was also reminiscent of the travel show he did for Comedy Central in Vietnam. For a full season Rhodes filmed travel segments all over South America and Europe, including Peru, the Champagne Region of France, Saint Petersburg, Russia, Wales, the Dutch Caribbean, Aruba, Curacao, and a special Beatles tour in Liverpool, England.
Rhodes appeared on the premiere episode of Red Light Comedy - Live from Amsterdam hosted by Russell Peters. On the episode, Rhodes does regional material, such as calling the Belgium city Antwerp "Hand Throw City" and about marrying a Dutch woman.
Podcast
Tom Rhodes Smart Camp is a weekly comedy podcast. The show launched in March 2011 as an extension of the various travel projects he does while on the road. Rhodes has gone on record saying he would like to star in a comedy travel television show where he can document his personal travels and highlight comedy scenes around the world. Tom produced pilot episodes himself in 2010, filming in Montana and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Since 2009, Rhodes' projects have all incorporated his love of traveling and filming in exotic locales, including a "Honeymoon World Tour" after he married Dutch photographer Ashna Rodjan in 2011. He and his wife filmed during this time, and documented his travels on his blog.Most episodes have featured interviews with comics Tom knew in his early stand-up years, such as Doug Stanhope and Brian Regan. Stanhope is known for his comedic cynicism and called Tom a "very positive person" on the first episode of the show. Janeane Garofalo, also a cynical comic, was quoted in a documentary about Tom's career as saying that Rhodes' laid-back persona would normally "rub her the wrong way," but since Rhodes is upbeat both on and off stage, she enjoys him. Matador Network, a travel culture website, listed TRR as one of the top podcasts of 2011 due to its humor and diverse guests. Matador's only complaint was the sporadic release of the show, but cited the eclectic guests—comics, his uncle, promoters, and musicians like Tom Rhodes, an indie musician with the same name in North Carolina—as a strong draw. A special episode featured an interview with Tom's sister Laura shortly before she passed from breast cancer.