Radio listeners’ (kind of) long nightmare is finally over. J. Anthony Brown has a regular gig again.
Two of them, in fact. Brown, the widely popular funnyman and entrepreneur who actually got his professional start in Atlanta said Wednesday that he'll be a regular on Steve Harvey's morning show starting April 17.
“Every day, every day,” Brown, who left his longtime gig on the rival Tom Joyner Show back in December, announced. Not only that, but he went on to say that he’ll take over Harvey’s weekend slot starting April 28 with a self-named Top 20-style countdown show. “It’s good to be 55!”
To understand why this news -- and Brown -- are of such interest, read on:
Brown's career path changed for the better when he ran out of money in Atlanta: Born in Columbia, S.C., Brown moved to Atlanta in 1972 to study clothing design. But as he himself explains it on his web site, he was $316 short of tuition money, and wound up visiting a local club where he "entered a gong show contest. The one time tailor was asked back to the venue, and later transformed it into a city hot spot as word of his natural wit traveled quickly."
Related video: J. Anthony Brown’s take on “Tardy for the Party” and Atlanta’s “Real Housewives”
He's a standup's standup, who found fame performing his own material and by writing for others. In the early 1990s, Brown moved to California, where he wound up as head writer for Arsenio Hall's groundbreaking late night talk show. He later went on to writing gigs on popular series like "Me and The Boys," "The Parent 'Hood" and Steve Harvey's Big Time. He also kept performing comedy himself on "It's Showtime at the Apollo," "Def Comedy Jam" and "Evening at the Improv."
But what he really wanted to do was act? Brown's acting credits range from "Moesha" and "Living Single" to projects made by others with Atlanta ties: "Drumline" and Tyler Perry's "House of Payne" and "Madea Goes to Jail." He may be best known, though, for his role as Pop on "Like Family," which starred Holly Robinson Peete.
Tom Joyner gave him his radio start -- when he offered to work for free. As the AJC's Rodney Ho exclusively reported back in December, Brown offered to do weekly parody songs for Joyner's show in 1996. Joyner liked what he heard so much, he gave him a fulltime job. "We were off to the races," he told Ho, about the program heard weekly by millions."It was truly a blast."
"Watch out deh" for his signature catchphrase and funny videos. Fans of Brown's radio and standup appearances know him for his punchy "Watch out deh now!" He also has his own YouTube channel where he does funny parodies of and takes on everyone from Kirk Franklin and Tiger Woods to Kanye West and former "Real Housewives of Atlanta" Kim Zolciak's "Tardy for the Party."
He didn't give up his dream of clothing design. Over the years, Brown's entrenpreneurial instincts have led him to launch his own clothing line, "The J. Anthony Brown Collection," and a "WatchOutDehNow" hot sauce.
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