Carrot Top on his close friendship with Queen’s Brian May and Roger Taylor | Music | Entertainment

The American prop comic, famous for his wacky inventions, has been performing in Las Vegas for almost 20 years; most of which has been his residency at the pyramid-shaped Luxor Hotel and Casino.

As Carrot Top (real name Scott Thompson) approaches the two decade milestone, Express.co.uk sat down with the 59-year-old in his eclectic dressing room, full of colour and trinkets, to talk about his residency, the impact of cancel culture on comedy, his bizarre interaction with Donald Trump and his friendship with Queen rock stars Sir Brian May and Roger Taylor.

Asked how he keeps the show fresh for himself and the audience after almost 20 years in Vegas, the muscular redhead shared: “It’s a great question. Every day, I try to do one thing; sometimes, it’s two things, and sometimes, it’s a dozen new things each night. Not only for the audience, but also for me and my crew because every night, we’re doing the show.

“There’s an outline and then we dance in and out of the outline. It’s not set in, but all my sound cues and my video are. We have a rehearsal a little bit before the show.”

Known for the props he makes himself, Carrot Top has embraced elements of traditional standup into his nightly performance over the years. He shared: “When I first started in this, it was a lot more prop-driven because that’s all I really knew, and I didn’t have the courage to just have a quiet moment and be a stand-up. I was like, ‘That’s not me,’ and people would say, ‘He can’t do stand-up’. And then I started doing the Vegas show, and as I got a little older, everything just kind of morphed into me telling a story. Now everyone that comes, even my friends, are like, ‘When did you start doing it like that and bringing in your heart to it?’

On navigating which props to keep in and when to add new ones, Scott said he always begins his show with his greatest hits before trying out a fresh invention, which can often be controversial in an age of cancel culture.

He confessed: “You don’t wanna go too far. There’s a whole thing about the cancel culture that I talk about in the show. ‘Are you worried about being cancelled?’ Everyone kind of is to a degree, but if it happens, I’ve had a good run. If it’s over, it’s over… I’m a big believer in improv to a degree. I mean, there are some nights when something happens in the news that is a little tense and then you make a new prop.”

Most recently he’s added mirrors to a golf club to help Trump avoid assassination. The comedian exclaimed, “It’s killing! Excuse the pun. It literally brings the house down… Trump is comedy gold!” It also turns out that Carrot Top had a bizarre run-in with the former president back in the 1990s.

Scott was performing at an attended by Trump when he told the audience: “It’s great to be in a show where I don’t have the weirdest hair.” Everybody laughed, but the future president struggled to see the funny side. Catching him backstage, The Apprentice star asserted, “It’s real.” The comedian remembered: “He made me touch his hair and then he said, ‘Tell everybody it’s real.’ I said, ‘I didn’t say it wasn’t real. I said it was weird.’ And he just didn’t get the joke!”

Aside from Trump, Carrot Top has encountered many famous faces over the years, with celebrity friends and fans visiting his Vegas residency, including Queen rock stars Roger Taylor and Brian May.

Queen is Scott’s favourite band, and he couldn’t believe it when he heard that their drummer Roger Taylor was coming to see his show. The rock legend joined him backstage, the pair hit it off immediately, and then an invite to London was offered. It wasn’t long before Carrot Top found himself at Stonehenge with his girlfriend, before heading to Roger’s countryside pile described by the comedian as “a castle-like f***ing Downton Abbey”. The drummer’s £6 million Surrey mansion on a 48-acre estate is a Grade II listed 18th-century Palladian-style house boasting six reception rooms, nine bedrooms, six bathrooms, a staff flat and an eight-car garage.

After being wowed by the residence over dinner, Scott and his girlfriend were then invited upstairs to see Roger’s private studio on the top floor. Carrot Top shared: “Every drum set from every literal concert, everything is all staged, roped off, carpeted with all the records on the wall, everything like a museum. And my girlfriend [who wasn’t that familiar with Queen] says, ‘Oh my God, you really like drums.’ I’m not making this s*** up.”

Luckily the rock legend didn’t hear this comment, as Scott spotted the gold record of 1979’s Queen Live Killers on the wall; pointing it out as his favourite album. Later that evening, Roger joined the couple in the bar of the hotel they were staying in since it was the comedian’s birthday. To his delight and surprise, the drummer had wrapped up and gifted the Live Killers gold album, which is now hanging on Carrot Top’s wall at his Florida home.

Since then, Brian May has visited Carrot Top’s Las Vegas residency on Roger’s recommendation, joining the comedian in the very same dressing room afterwards. Scott recalled: “It was just so magical, he was just standing there talking to me about my show.” It turns out that the guitarist was fascinated by how the sound cues worked in the performance and said, “This is gonna sound odd, but is it okay if I come back tomorrow? My son is flying in.”

Naturally, the comedian obliged and after the second night in a row, Brian told him: “I’m gonna tell you something honest. I had to come back to make sure it wasn’t a fluke!” Scott added: “That’s something I’ll never forget.”

Carrot Top performs nightly at the Luxor Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas and tickets can be booked here.