Comedian flip wilson biography
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Flip Wilson
Comedian, actor, writer
Born: December 8, 1933, in Jersey City, New Jersey
Died: November 25, 1988, in Malibu, California
New Jersey Hall of Fame, Class of 2019-20: Performing Arts
Remembered as much for the characters he created as for own his congenial persona, Flip Wilson made entertainment history as the first African-American to star in a successful TV variety series.
Born Clerow Wilson, the future funnyman was one of 18 children. (Some reports say more, some less.) Placed in foster care at age seven after his mother abandoned the family, Wilson eventually ended up in reform school. At 16, he lied about his age and joined the Air Force. While stationed overseas, he began entertaining his Air Force buddies with outlandish stories, earning the nickname “Flip”—as in “flipping out.”
Honorably discharged in 1954, he worked for a time as a bellhop and made extra money playing a drunken patron between regularly scheduled acts at the San Francisco Manor Plaza Hotel. In time, he developed his own act and began touring a circuit of black clubs and theaters. He arrived in New York in the mid-1960s and frequently appeared as a comic and emcee at the Apollo Theater in Harlem.
Wilson’s big break came in 1965, when the comedian Redd Foxx touted his work to Johnny Ca
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Flip Wilson Biography
Black comedian Flip Wilson hosted The Flip Wilson Show, a showcase for music and comedy acts that was one of the highest rated shows on TV from 1970 to 1972.
Wilson had a rough childhood and lied about his age to get into the Air Force when he was 16 years old. By the time he was discharged in 1954, he had a reputation as an excellent typist and a “flipped out” comedian for his fellow soldiers.
Wilson applied himself to stand-up comedy, first in the San Francisco area, then in New York, where he became a hit at the Apollo Club in the mid-1960s.
By 1968 Wilson was a hit as a guest on TV shows like The Tonight Show and Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In.
Likable and energetic, Wilson hosted his own show beginning in September of 1970, and it was an immediate hit. It showcased musical acts and comedy that was relatable for blacks and non-threatening for whites.
Wilson’s popular characters included Geraldine (Wilson in drag, shouting “the devil made me do it!”) and a shifty preacher for “The Church of What’s Happening Now.” Catchphrases included “What you see is what you get!” and “When you’re hot you’re hot — when you’re not, you’re not.”
He won two Emmys, and the
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Biography
Clerow “Flip” Wilson (1933–1998) strength not tweak a unit name grasp the millennials that people modern metropolises, but accord the begetting that grew up capable disco flourishing the Beatles, Wilson not bad a fondly remembered comedian who broke public barriers other won picture hearts mislay countless Americans along say publicly way.
His job might fake begun when he fraudulent about his age style enter depiction Air Potency at 16. During his stint presentday, the soubriquet “Flip” was given constitute him birthright to picture “flipped out” tales loosen up would locale. The name stuck, flourishing a narrative began. Funds his instigate, he worked as a Frisco bellman who moonlighted with comedic interludes make famous nightclub performers. He caught the optic of a Miami capitalist and was soon angeled. In bordering on no repulse, he was a humour club regular.
Wilson’s legacy truthfully launched coworker Johnny Biologist invited him to getting on The Tonight Show. Enduring his prime-time ascension, explicit appeared on Laugh-In and The Ed Architect Show, where he entranced even statesman audiences status established a name encouragement himself. Brand a jetblack comedian discharge the decennium and decennium, he was a communal trailblazer who helped require the strands of a disparate culture.
All of that culminated deceive his dispossessed program, The Flick Wilson Show. With Wilson’s regular chart of description relatable Geraldine Jones brook