I was hanging out with Eddie Francis, a DJ at a local urban radio station here in New Orleans, when he was hosting a fashion show at a restaurant in New Orleans. I think it was The Fashion Cafe. Around the same time, he and Rose Bratcher were setting up a comedy troupe and invited me to join. One night, we were scheduled to do a show at True Brew, and the comedy show was lacking a few comedians to do stand-up. The host of the show, Dr. Kin Jeong, asked me if I had done stand-up before. I said, “No, but I am sure I can do something.”
After a few shows, I started to think about a name. I began to think back to when I was a bouncer at my old college bars, The Boot and The Metro. There was this underage girl who always tried to sneak in the club. In her effort to sweet-talk me so that I might let her pass, she would call me Red Bean. Hmmm, I am from New Orleans. That will be my name. I decided to spell as one word, capital R, capital B–RedBean.
Over a decade has passed since I first stepped on stage, now I have a lot of credits under my belt: Comic View, The Asshole Monologues, The Galitoires Monologues, Let The Brotha Talk, I Love My Kids… But and numerous plays and stand-up performances. I’ve also hit the big screen in “Grudge Match” with Sylvester Stalone and Robert Deniro where I play Walter, Stalone’s friend, and a mean hit man, who gets beat up by Dolph Lundgren in “Shark Lake”.
Look out world RedBean is on the loose!