Bear’s Place celebrates 26th anniversary with famous prankster

Nationally-known comedian Tom Mabe came to Bear’s Place Monday Night to help celebrate the 26th anniversary of Comedy Caravan by doing his signature stand-up routine.

One of his albums, “Revenge on the Telemarketers,” was released on Virgin Records and featured pranks he played on telemarketers who called him. The idea was to waste the telemarketer’s time because he said they were wasting his.

His new television show on Country Music Television is called “Mabe in America” and features a combination of Mabe’s pranks and comedy routines.

He said he did his first prank when he was eight. After a truck continually ran over the snowman he made, he finally decided to build his next snowman in front of a fire hydrant. When the truck that was running over his snowman tried again, the fire hydrant destroyed the vehicle, he said.

Aside from talking about some of his pranks, the comedian performed stand-up and played some of his more famous songs, such as “I Hate Every Bone in Her Body but Mine.”

Mabe also joked about his family, noting that he was having another kid because he “wasn’t happy with the first one.”

And with all the recent talk of “change,” Mabe did not avoid politics.

“I’m just glad the debates are over; I’d rather watch the Weather Channel,” he said.
Mabe told the audience about his trip to a telemarketing convention in Washington, D.C., where telemarketers were trying to prevent laws from being passed against their industry.

The comedian checked into the same hotel, found out which rooms the telemarketers were in, and proceeded to call them late at night trying to sell them products such as sleeping pills.

The opening act was fellow Louisville comedian Big John Richardson. Like Mabe, Richardson seemed well-received by the young audience. Prior to Richardson taking the stage, a few local and lesser-known comedians also performed for a few
minutes each.

To help celebrate the anniversary, emcee Brad Wilhelm passed out prizes to audience members who guessed the correct movie, album or song from 1983 – the first year that Bear’s Place hosted comedy shows on Monday nights. Wilhelm has been an emcee at Bear’s for 12 of those 26 years.

Comedy Caravan at Bear’s is the longest-running comedy series in America, and Wilhelm said he doesn’t see things changing anytime soon.

“All the greats in comedy have been here many times over the last 26 years,” Wilhelm said. “We will continue to have nationally- known acts for years to come.”