Today's comedian is the late great Redd Foxx. The reason that my dad is probably so in to comedy is my Grandfather being a fan of Redd Foxx. It is amazing that Redd got his own show in the 1970's because his act was so dirty, but part of his genius was that he was just as funny clean.
Foxx was born in St. Louis, Missouri and raised on Chicago's South Side. His mother was half Seminole. His father, an electrician, left the family when Foxx was four. He was raised by his mother, his minister, and his grandmother. He briefly attended DuSable High School with future Chicago mayor Harold Washington, but never graduated.
Moving to New York in the early 1940s, he was an associate of Malcolm Little later known as Malcolm X. In Malcolm's autobiography, Foxx is referred to as "Chicago Red, the funniest dishwasher on this earth." Foxx earned the nickname due to his reddish hair and complexion. His stage name surname was taken from baseball star Jimmie Foxx.Foxx gained notoriety with his nightclub act (considered by the standards of the time to be raunchy). His stand-up performances were later released as "party" albums and became very popular.
He was also one of the first black comics to play to white audiences on the Las Vegas Strip. Foxx used his starring role on Sanford and Son to help get jobs for his friends such as LaWanda Page, Slappy White, Gregory Sierra, and Noriyuki "Pat" Morita.
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