Comedians

Tommy Drake

Tommy was born in 1973 in San Francisco California and grew up in the east bay in a place called the San Ramon Valley. At a very young age he knew he would one day get into comedy excelling in writing and public speaking in school.

At the age of 10, Tommy picked up juggling and magic as a hobby and by the time he was 12 he had an act. As a teenager, he performed as a juggler and a magician for children’s parties and special events and won numerous awards in speech and drama.

Because he grew up in California, when Tommy graduated high-school he went as far away as he could from home to New York City. This is where he first performed stand-up comedy without his juggling and magic props. He had loads of stage presence and potential and got numerous performance opportunities even earning a little money as a comic, but at the age of 18, he didn’t have much life experience to share with the audience.

Like a Jim Croce song, after about a year, Tommy had to get out of New York and moved back home, to Northern California. He was now 19, but a year in Manhattan made him feel and act 30.

Needing work, Tommy auditioned at a theme park, Paramount’s Great America in Santa Clara, California. He also applied for a job as a waiter at Garcia’s Mexican restaurant. He got both jobs, but only took the one at the theme park.

After two rehearsals, Tommy was named actor/director of the interactive street theatre in the park. He played a Star Trek, The Next Generation character and later a Cone head that interacted with the patrons. It was a very difficult job performing in full makeup in the hot summer sun for people who just wanted to ride roller coasters, but Tommy knew it was better than waiting tables. Tommy learned how to be a professional entertainer that summer. How to show up on time, how to do what you are told, and even how to entertain all kinds of people in all kinds of situations.

At the theme park, Tommy met Ace Miles, an extremely talented ventriloquist, juggler, and magician. At the end of that year, Tommy also met his future wife, Becky, at his brother’s wedding.

Ace and Tommy teamed up and had their own show in the park the following season.

The following two years, Tommy hosted Nickelodeon Live’s Mega Mess-a-Mania in the same park. He was now married to Becky and in a very short time went from performing in the street to producing a show, to hosting a show in a 1500 seat theatre. At the age of 23, he had already done thousands of paid performances.

Tommy’s wife Becky gave up a successful real estate business in Texas to move to California and live with her young husband. After living in California for almost two years, Becky was ready to go back to The Woodlands, Texas. Tommy, now confident that he could find work as a performer anywhere, agreed. The move would prove to be the best thing he has ever done for his career.

Once in Houston, Tommy learned quickly that is was an excellent town for breaking into stand-up comedy. Now armed with a marriage and other life experiences, Tommy also realized that he finally had something to write about.

He did find acting work when he arrived in Houston with a bit part at the Alley Theatre and, of course, he auditioned at the theme park, Six Flags Astroworld, and landed the role of the Riddler in the Batman Forever Water Stunt Spectacular. Tommy would end up performing his own juggling and magic show at the Crystal Palace theatre at this park on a limited engagement basis.

Tommy entered the Funniest Person in Houston contest at the Laff Stop. Though he didn’t make it past the first round, he did well enough that he thought he’d better start hanging out at their amateur night on Mondays. Within a couple of weeks, he had attracted the attention of the management and was booked to MC a week at the club. The Laff Spot and The Comedy Showcase also gave the young comic work in their rooms. After about a year of working locally, Tommy started to get booked out of town to feature and within five years was even getting some headlining work.

Then one day he got a call from his manager asking if he could go to Dallas that night and open for Cher. Tommy ended up opening over 90 dates for Cher during the second leg of her Farewell Tour.