Carrot Top on Kill Tony Guest of the Year win and his 20 year Las Vegas residency (Image: CARROT TOP)
The American comedian, famous for his hilarious props, has been performing his Las Vegas residency at the Luxor Hotel and Casino (that giant pyramid) for over 20 years. He may be in his sixties, but far from fading from the spotlight, Carrot Top (real name Scott Thompson) has had something of a career renaissance over the last couple of years, with a number of appearances on stand-up comedy show Kill Tony, the world’s biggest live podcast. Having won joint-Guest of the Year 2025 during the Netflix New Year’s Eve special Once Upon a Time in Texas, Carrot Top is back on the streamer this week in Kill Tony Mania, a Wrestlemania special filmed on the Strip last weekend that continues to dominate the US Top 10. The Daily Express sat down once again with the comedian in his colourful and heavily decorated dressing room to chat about two decades in Vegas and his entry into the Kill Tony universe.
Read more: Carrot Top on his close friendship with Queen’s Brian May and Roger Taylor
Carrot Top with his Kill Tony Guest of the Year 2025 award in his Luxor dressing room (Image: DAILY EXPRESS)
Congratulations on 20 years at the Luxor. What would you say are the biggest changes to your show in its evolution over that time?
Oh man, well the whole thing has changed because of the technology with the video wall behind me. I mean, even the amount of props that I do as the supposed stories is probably 70% stand up now. Some of that happened because of Covid, as we were in a restricted room where I kind of didn’t rely on the props, and I started doing more storytelling. And then I broke my leg snowboarding and I was on a knee scooter, so I couldn’t do my show physically the way I wanted to do it. So I was restricted to telling stories, and then just kind of blended the storytelling with the props, which are still involved, but there’s not as many. I’m never going to get rid of the props. That’s my thing. But I do enjoy telling stories now and keeping topical.
You always like to update your show with new props and current affairs jokes. Half of your residency time has been dominated by Trump in politics. Is the president still the comedy gift that keeps on giving now that he’s been reelected?
It depends on how you do it. I don’t get political in the show for a reason. It’s a very fine line, because I don’t really try to get political, and the crowd doesn’t want it either. So I do a joke about how America voted in 2024 and this picture of Trump comes up behind me, and the crowd either goes crazy and claps, or they go dead silent. So I’m prepared for either reaction and I’ll say, ‘Every night is the same! No one knows what to do.’ Last night, they all cheered. No one’s ever booed. They just either get dead silent, like, ‘oh crap’, or they all cheer. Nevada is definitely a swing state!
How would you say Vegas has changed in your 20 years here? With David Copperfield ending his residency next week, in terms of uninterrupted headliners, it’s just you and Penn and Teller still going from when you started.
It’s changed immensely. I mean, not only the number of shows, the number of hotels, the growth and the people that come here. When I started at the MGM Grand, 20-some years ago, there was, on a given night, around 25 shows across 12 major casinos. Now we have like 50 major casinos and 1000s of shows every night. It’s changed across the board. As far as comedy goes, I think it’s just the same. People want to laugh and you’ve got to be smart enough to know what not to do. I mean, that’s just common sense. People have been oohing and ahhing for years. I’ve been doing it for 40 years. People used to ooh 40 years ago. They still ooh and ahh at risky jokes.
How did your Kill Tony appearances get started? Did Tony Hinchcliffe just call you up one day? Had you heard of the show?
I knew what the show was. I was in Florida on my boat, and I got a call from one of my guys, and they said, ‘Tony wants to call you, is it okay if he calls you?’ And I said, ‘Yeah’. He calls and says, ‘I’m a big fan. Of all the guests I’ve had on Kill Tony, I really want you. Would you bring props?’ And I said, ‘No. I’m trying to move on from just being the prop guy, I want to come on and just tell a story.’ He said, ‘Oh, man, well, you can do that too. But, the props would be pretty sensational, because you’re going to show these young people who don’t know who you are, who you are.’ He’s very smart and I said, ‘That’s a good point!’
Another big achievement for you was winning Kill Tony joint-Guest of the Year 2025 with Rob Schneider on the Netflix New Year’s Eve special. How did that feel? It must be amazing to see your work being discovered by a new generation of comedy fans.
My initial thought was, it’s Guest of the Year, not Guests of the Year! I was like, ‘How did two of us win?’ Tony was like, ‘Come on!’ We were backstage and I was told, ‘By the way, you can’t leave early and need to stay to the end because you’re kind of going to be in it.’ So I assumed I was going to get Guest of the Year, and then when they had both of us win, I was like, ‘What the f*** is this?’ But no, it was a great moment and Rob Schneider and I have been friends for many years. So it was kind of cool coming together. He’s a really good guy and well deserving. No one better to share that with. It was an honour when Joe Rogan gave it to us. Rob and I have become even closer since then, texting back and forth.
Carrot Top performs nightly at the Luxor Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas and tickets can be booked here. Kill Tony Mania and Kill Tony: Once Upon a Time in Texas are streaming now on Netflix. Carrot Top’s appearances on the main Kill Tony podcast show are episodes 720 and 735 on YouTube.
