Time flies when you're laughing! Stir Crazy is 4 years old!
Help us celebrate by laughing the night away with the great Willie Farrell!
Growing up, Willie Fratto Farrell confesses he wasn't the class clown.
"I played baseball, basketball, sports," he said. "What I probably was
closer to was the guy who would encourage others who were nuts enough to
do crazy things, you know, things that would be funny."
In 1980,
Farrell stepped up to the mic to try out his funny business at the
Ingersoll Dinner Theater in Des Moines. "There were 10 comics on the
bill and the first five or six were being heckled really bad by one
guy," he said. "By the time I got up there, it was just like being in
Columbus Park. I ripped him a new one and the crowd went wild for me."
It was such an adrenaline rush that Farrell decided to make standup his
profession.
He grew up, the youngest of five kids, whose father
was organized crime figure Lew Fratto, who at one time worked for Al
Capone. "I didn’t understand exactly what my father was all about," he
said. "One thing I’ll say is that we never waited in lines anywhere. In
my act I'm not ashamed to hit on all nationalities. I'll do a bit in
which the tag line is 'Get in the trunk.' I talk about the camp I
attended as a kid -- La Cosa Nostra."
Farrell has performed in
nearly every comedy club in the country, but now spends most of the year
onstage in Las Vegas and Atlantic City. Willie turns each show into a
memorable event with his unique humor, tailor-made for each audience.
Willie has appeared on A&E, Comedy Central, ESPN and was featured on "The Godfathers of Comedy" airing on Showtime.