| bio |
Chris Crofton started performing comedy after he graduated from
college in 1991. He moved to New York City from Connecticut and
appeared at open mics around the city: Stand Up NY, The West End,
Rose’s Turn, New York Comedy Club, The Village Gate, and Gladys’s
Comedy Room at Hamburger Harry’s. Crofton was also writing songs at
this time. Following the release of his critically acclaimed first
album, The Alcohol Stuntman, on Stylus Records, he moved to Nashville
to pursue music. From 2001 up to the present, he has performed and
recorded with Chris Crofton The Alcohol Stuntband. Known as much for
Crofton’s between-song comments as the music, The Alcohol Stuntband
has played with The Black Keys, Rocket From the Tombs, Richard Lloyd,
Lucero, Danko Jones, The Paybacks and many, many, more. From 2005 to
2009 Crofton hosted the now-legendary “Best of Bread” radio show on
Nashville’s WRVU, a weekly program in which he and his brother Greg
mixed topical and absurd commentary with 70s soft-rock classics.
Crofton is also an award-winning actor who has appeared in numerous
independent films.
In 2006, a local comedian asked Crofton to try standup again for fun.
After performing for 10 years with The Alcohol Stuntband, Crofton had
developed a remarkable ease onstage, and his topical palette had
expanded dramatically. These qualities combined with Crofton’s unique
perspective to create a comedy monster. His style mixes the social
commentary of Richard Pryor and Bill Hicks, the absurdity of Steve
Martin, and the pacing and stage presence of Lenny Bruce. In 2007,
Crofton was invited to open for Neil Hamburger in Nashville. Hamburger
was impressed with his set and arranged for him to open a show for Bob
Odenkirk and Louis CK at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in Los
Angeles. In 2009, after seeing his standup, Harmony Korine cast
Crofton in his film Trash Humpers and brought him to select cities
to perform comedy prior to screenings. Later in 2009, after WRVU s
lamented demise, Crofton adapted the Best of Bread broadcast into
the popular weekly podcast “The Chris Crofton Show.”
In May 2012, Chicken Ranch Records released Crofton’s debut comedy
album, “Pearls Before Swine: Live at The Springwater, which,
according to Nashville Scene editor Jim Ridley, captures [Crofton s]
nervy, abrasive act on crackling vinyl before an audience that s by
turns incensed, indifferent and doubled over in hysterics.”
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