ORLANDO, Fla. – Bill Bellamy is kind of a Florida boy. The comedian said although he spent a large part of his childhood in Newark, New Jersey, his parents are from the Sunshine State and he spent most of his summers growing up here too.
“I would always spend my summers between Miami, Tallahassee, and Marianna, Florida, then we go to Tampa. So all those little areas, all the alligators, I know all that stuff,” Bellamy said.
He said when he stayed with his grandparents, they would put him to work.
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“I used to have to feed the hogs on my on my grandparents’ farm,” the comedian said. “And one morning very early, I was out there and I was like, ‘That’s not a regular cat’ and I look and I ran in the house and my grandmother, I told my grandmother, I said, ‘Grandma I think there’s a big cat.’ She said, ‘Oh, that ain’t nothing but a panther.’”
Bellamy said he was not interested in going back outside to feed the livestock after that.
“When I saw that, I was like, ‘These hogs gonna be hungry today. I am not gonna stand out here and get taken away by a panther,’” Bellamy said. “I didn’t even know y’all had your own cats, the panthers.”
He has grown up a lot since his childhood on the farm in Florida and is now better known for his acting, VJ days on MTV and stand-up comedy act.
Bellamy will bring his comedy tour to the Orlando Improv Friday for 7:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. shows and Saturday for 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. shows.
The 21+ shows are a special engagement and include admission, priority seating and an exclusive meet-and-greet with Bellamy.
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Bellamy said at his shows you can expect comedy that draws on all aspects of life, from news to politics to family. Often, he said his crowd is packed with couples looking for a night out, ready to cut loose.
In addition to making people laugh on stage, Bellamy also has a podcast—“Top Billin’ With Bill Bellamy”—where he pulls back the curtain on his experience in Hollywood with A-list celebrities. He also has a new book by the same name coming out soon.
If that wasn’t enough, Bellamy said he also has a new movie coming out in August with Kevin Hart, Wesley Snipes and Tiffany Haddish called “Back to the Strip.”
“It’s a super comedy,” he said. “I get to play a stripper.”
Bellamy said a lot of hard work went into the role.
“We did a lot of choreography. For all the guys out there that are strippers, my hat goes off to you. I did not know it was that hard. I did not know your abs hurt, your back hurts, your shoulders hurt, your quads hurt, from dancing. We would dance every single day, it was bananas,” he said.
To see one of Bellamy’s new dance moves from the movie and to learn more about his summers spent in Florida, see the full interview above.
And tickets for his upcoming show at the Orlando Improv are still available here.
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