On this day in Comedy History Drew Carey was born. Like so many of the wildly successful comedians from the 80's Drew Carey is mainly known for things other than "stand-up" to the current generation. If your 16 or younger you probably know him as the host of "The Price is Right". If you are 20 - 30 you'll recognize him as the star of "The Drew Carey Show" or the American version of "Whose Line is it Anyway?" and if your over 30 you might just remember seeing him doing stand-up.
Drew started performing stand-up in 1985 in Cleveland after a friend of his encouraged him to give it a shot. Within a couple of years he was doing shows in Cleveland and Los Angeles and by 1988 he was given a shot at competing on the hit show "Star Search". After the Star Search appearance it was back to the grind until 1991 when he appeared on "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson" and received the highest and rarest of honors for a comedian with Johnny - he was invited over to the couch.(Below is Drew's first appearance on Carson and you can see his shock when Johnny calls him over and he can barely control his excitement once he is seated between Ed McMahon and Johnny.)
He continued to find steady work all through the early 90's when everything seemed to come to a head in 1994. He wrote and stared in his first comedy special on Showtime titled Drew Carey: Human Cartoon for which he won a CableACE Award for best writing. It wasn't too long before The Drew Carey Show would make it's premier in 1995 and would go on to run for 9 season's producing 233 episodes.
Drew has kept himself busy over the years from hosting the improv show "Whose Line is it Anyway", to being an owner in the MLS(Major League Soccer) to his current role of hosting "The Price is Right" his passion for a live audience is in everything he does.
I want to wish Drew a Happy Birthday and continued success...
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