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Access Atlanta > Blog > Archives > 2008 > July > 14 > Entry
‘Best comedian in the world’ visits ATL
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jon Reep performed at the Punchline this past weekend. The blue-collar comedian from Hickory, N.C. took on locker room etiquette, his new marriage and silly expressions such as “that’s as easy as shooting fish in a barrel.” CREDIT: Rodney Ho/Staff*
Jon Reep, winner of last year’s “Last Comic Standing,” has been on a yearlong victory lap and finally made it to Atlanta, courtesy of the Punchline Comedy Club.
“I was on this reality show awhile back,” Reep told a sold-out crowd Friday night. “And I won the whole damn thing. If you voted for me, thank you very much. … Because of your votes, I get to tell people now: ‘I am the best comedian in the world!’ That’s right: because they searched the world, and I won the contest!”
Then he added, “It’s not my fault that Jerry Seinfeld and Chris Rock [who was at the Fox Theatre this past Saturday] did not enter the contest. They were busy!”
Reep became known on the show for his jokes about his Hickory, N.C., roots and blue-collar upbringing. He reprised a few bits from the NBC show, including the use of the term “bless his heart” before insulting somebody and the bizarro phrase “Johnny cracked corn and I don’t care.”
He also admits he still occasionally gets mistaken for a certain “Get-R-Done” comic Larry the Cable Guy. “What? That ain’t me! I have sleeves on. I wish I was that guy. He makes 50 gazillion dollars and takes private jets. I take Southwest - middle seat.”
ABOVE: Kurt Thomas (right) from Smyrna was shocked he won “The Next Big Thing” contest Saturday night that enabled him to play at Turner Field to open for the huge Kenny Chesney concert Sunday, which also featured Brooks & Dunn, Sammy Hagar, Gary Allan and LeAnn Rimes. Here, he celebrates with family and friends who came to support him at Hard Rock Cafe Saturday night. CREDIT: Rodney Ho
BIG BREAK FOR STAY-AT-HOME DAD
Buzz got to judge a 94.9/The Bull “Next Big Star” contest at Hard Rock Cafe on Saturday night and helped pick an artist to open for Kenny Chesney at Atlanta’s biggest concert of the year at Turner Field on Sunday.
The winner? A definite feel-good story, a 32-year-old stay-at-home dad, Kurt Thomas, who has struggled to get a big break in music for 12 years.
Though most of the 40,000-plus fans weren’t around to see him perform five hours before Chesney hit the stage Sunday afternoon, Thomas didn’t care. His biggest audience before this was 300 hometown fans in Dahlonega in 1996. (Catch his mad skills at Olde Mill Steakhouse on Wednesdays and Vinings Inn on Thursdays.) “I couldn’t sleep a wink last night,” Thomas told Buzz on Sunday before his scheduled Turner Field performance. “I was completely blown away.”
In a surprise appearance, Chesney stopped by Hard Rock and sang a couple of songs impromptu for a thrilled crowd of just 150 people, including a Jimmy Buffett classic “Why Don’t We Get Drunk and Screw.”
Though Thomas said he was too shy to talk to Chesney, “he used my guitar!”
‘BLACK MEN REVEALED’ DEBUTS
The 2 Live Stews, already a big brand in sports talk radio and heard locally on 790/The Zone, are making a foray outside the zone of football and basketball into relationships and black stereotypes in a TV One show “Black Men Revealed.”
Debuting Sunday, the nine episodes of the talk show were taped nine months ago at Fever nightclub off Cheshire Bridge Road. It was so long ago that Ryan Stewart, one of the co-hosts, had trouble remembering the names of the guests.
“I have no idea,” Stewart told Buzz. “Several doctors. A pastor of a megachurch. Several different comedians.”
He said he and his brother Doug got to stretch and hit on issues such as fatherhood and going on the “down low,” meaning ostensibly straight black men secretly sleeping with other black men.
“I’m very pleased how it turned out,” he said.
The radio syndication deal they started a few months ago is now up to 23 stations, he added, and they are launching a charity foundation focused on helping young black males.
BRANGELINA BOOM
The Brangelina brood has blossomed yet again — actress Angelina Jolie has given birth to twins, a boy and girl, in a French hospital.
According to The Associated Press, Jolie, 33, delivered son Knox Leon (5.03 pounds) and daughter Vivienne Marcheline (5 pounds) by Caesarean section Saturday night with partner Brad Pitt, 44, standing by.
The twins join the couple’s already star-studded family of four children: Maddox, 6, Pax, 4, Zahara, 3, and Shiloh, 2. No word on which celebrity magazine has snagged the first photos of Hollywood’s newest celebrity twins, but the pics are expected to fetch millions.
HIGH FIVE
Dave FM
For the week of July 4
1. “Mercy” —Duffy
2. “Love Remains the Same” —Gavin Rossdale
3. “I Will Possess Your Heart” - Death Cab For Cutie
4. “Come On Get Higher” — Matt Nathanson
5. “It’s Not My Time” — 3 Doors Down
— Yes.com
CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS
Actor Vincent Pastore (“The Sopranos”) is 62. Actor Matthew Fox (“Lost,” “Party of Five”) is 42. Actress Missy Gold (“Benson”) is 38. Musician taboo of Black Eyed Peas is 33.
Contributing: Katie Leslie and news services.
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
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