Bill Bellamy

Biography

Bill Bellamy seems to have the kind of life dreamed up by two lads downing a few cold ones over the latest issue of Maxim.

He's got looks, talent, charisma and a good jump shot. He's gone from a male beauty pageant contestant to comedian to MTV VJ to host of his own Showtime Special, which introduced a new phrase into the mainstream vernacular: booty call.

He made the leap to movies, starring as a wide receiver in the football drama "Any Given Sunday" with Al Pacino. In "Love Stinks," he shared camera time with Playboy centerfold Shanna Moakler. He's shot hoops in celebrity basketball games with Snoop Dogg and Gary Payton on MTV's "Rock 'n' Jock Basketball and Baseball" series.

In "Fastlane," a recently canceled television series on Fox, he starred as one of a modern day Mod Squad whose other members were Peter Facinelli and Tiffani Thiessen. Together, they played a trio of unorthodox undercover cops barely working the right side of the law in the low-life strata of Los Angeles.

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No doubt about it, Bellamy is living large in that celebrity-sports-movie-hip-hop loop that erstwhile playas can only dream of.

And he'll riff on it all this weekend when he plays the Pittsburgh Improv.

"A lot of it is talking about me living in Hollywood," says Bellamy, on the phone from Phoenix. "Working in 'Fastlane,' the war. There's so many things that have gone on in my life. Also reading the news. That's the thing I love about doing stand-up. Stand-up keeps you fresh and cutting edge. A lot of times, people don't have the time to see you from your movies. When people come out and see me, that's the real Bill Bellamy."

A native of Newark, N.J., Bellamy was persuaded to enter a male beauty pageant while an economics major at Rutgers.

"It was crazy," he says. "Everything that the girls' contest had, you had to do. You got evening wear. I went out and rented a tux. You had the bathing suit contest. Some dudes were doing the whole speedo thing."

Bellamy chose to showcase other assets. For the talent competition, he developed a stand-up comedy routine for the judges.

It was so much fun that he was inspired to try his act on the comedy club circuit. One such gig brought him to the attention of the producer of the television series "Showtime at the Apollo." That gig brought him to the attention of Bernie Brillstein, who had managed John Belushi. Bellamy was signed up as a guest star of HBO's "Def Comedy Jam."

He's in the process of developing a movie for himself, he says.

"It's a lot of work. It's a lot of waiting around. You'll do a movie, and the movie might not come out for six to eight months. It's a really vulnerable place to be, even though it's exciting."

His 20-city summer tour is a way of stepping back from the glitter part of showbiz and reconnecting with audiences in a more immediate way.

"I've been doing this for a long time," he says. "A lot of people may think of me from TV and movies but that's how I got into the business (doing stand-up). It's something I love to do. I'm on my summer hiatus. I'm doing my thing. ... Stand-up is instant gratification. If you're funny people are going to laugh right there, right on the spot.

"Put it in the paper, let 'em know Bellamy's coming through!"