Josh Blue (born November 27, 1978) is an American comedian. He was voted the Last Comic Standing on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

's reality show ''

Last Comic Standing ''Last Comic Standing'' is an American reality television talent competition show on NBC that aired from June 1, 2003, to August 9, 2010, and again in 2014 and 2015. Each season a comedian from an initially large group of hopefuls was picked as ...

'' during its fourth season, which aired May–August 2006. Blue has

cerebral palsy Cerebral palsy (CP) is a group of movement disorders that appear in early childhood. Signs and symptoms vary among people and over time, but include poor coordination, spasticity, stiff muscles, Paresis, weak muscles, and tremors. There may b ...

, and much of his self-deprecating humor is centered on this.

Early life

Blue was born in

Cameroon Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...

where his father, Walter Blue, was a professor of

Romance languages The Romance languages, also known as the Latin or Neo-Latin languages, are the languages that are Language family, directly descended from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-E ...

Hamline University Hamline University ( ) is a private university in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. Founded in 1854, Hamline is the oldest university in Minnesota, the first coeducational university in the state, and is one of five Associated Colleges of th ...

teaching during a

mission Mission (from Latin 'the act of sending out'), Missions or The Mission may refer to: Geography Australia *Mission River (Queensland) Canada *Mission, British Columbia, a district municipality * Mission, Calgary, Alberta, a neighbourhood * ...

. Blue grew up in

Saint Paul, Minnesota Saint Paul (often abbreviated St. Paul) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County, Minnesota, Ramsey County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, ...

, and graduated from

Como Park Senior High School Como Park Senior High School (CPSHS or commonly known as CPHS) is a public high school located in the Lake Como area of Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States, serving grades nine through twelve. Along with nine other public high schools, Como Par ...

in 1997. He began his career as a comedian while seeking a creative writing degree at

The Evergreen State College The Evergreen State College is a public liberal arts college in Olympia, Washington. Founded in 1967, it offers a non-traditional undergraduate curriculum in which students have the option to design their own study towards a degree or follow a ...

. During college, he went back to Africa to volunteer as an intern at Parc de Hahn, a zoo in Senegal. At one point for a joke on a busy weekend, Josh locked himself in an empty animal exhibit for eight hours. A bewildered crowd threw him bananas and peanuts anyway, to which Josh quips, "that was the best day I ate in Senegal!"

Career

Blue got his start in comedy doing

open mic An open mic or open mike (shortened from "open microphone") is a live show at a venue such as a coffeehouse, nightclub, comedy club, strip club, or pub, often taking place at night (an open mic night), in which audience members may perform on ...

sets while attending

. Audiences reacted enthusiastically to his self-deprecating humor, and Blue started making a name for himself on the comedy circuit. In 2002, he won the prestigious

Comedy Works Comedy Works is a stand-up comedy club with two locations in the Denver, Colorado metropolitan area. The downtown club opened in September 1981 and is located in Larimer Square in Denver. The south club, which opened September 2008, is part of The ...

New Faces contest. He has appeared several times on

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American Cable television in the United States, cable television channel, channel owned by Paramount Global through its Paramount Media Networks, network division's Paramount Media Networks#MTV Entertainment Group, MTV Ente ...

's ''

Mind of Mencia ''Mind of Mencia'' is an American comedy television series on the cable channel Comedy Central. Hosted by comedian Carlos Mencia, it aired over the course of four seasons from July 6, 2005 to July 23, 2008. History The first season of ''Min ...

''. Blue won $10,000 for finishing in first place at 2004 Las Vegas Comedy Festival's 2004 Royal Flush Comedy Competition. After winning the 2006 season of NBC's reality show ''

'', he was the first comedian to do stand-up on ''

The Ellen DeGeneres Show ''The Ellen DeGeneres Show'' is an American first-run syndicated talk show that was hosted by Ellen DeGeneres. The show ran for nineteen seasons from September 8, 2003, to May 26, 2022, in which it broadcast 3,339 episodes. It was produced by ...

''. His other television credits include ''

Live with Regis and Kelly ''Live with Kelly and Mark'' (or simply ''Live'') is an American Broadcast syndication, syndicated breakfast television, morning talk show hosted by Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos. Executive produced by Michael Gelman, the ''Live with...'' show ...

'', ''

Comics Unleashed ''Comics Unleashed'' is a half-hour comedy talk show produced by the Entertainment Studios production company and hosted by Byron Allen, with John Cramer as announcer and DJ Cobra or sometimes DJ A1 providing music support. It originally ran fr ...

'', plus numerous appearances on

Fox Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush"). Twelve species ...

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

, and

MSNBC MSNBC is an American cable news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. Launched on July 15, 1996, and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, the channel primarily broadcasts r ...

. He appeared in the 2009 low-budget horror film '' Feast III: The Happy Finish''. Josh was voted the 13th best comedian by viewers in ''Comedy Central's Stand-up Comedy Showdown 2010'' Blue appeared in Boulder band

Rose Hill Drive Rose Hill Drive is an American rock band. The group is often aligned with other bands that are reviving traditional hard rock and early metal–psychedelic. Combining hard-driving rock and blues with modern touches and arrangements, they are of ...

's music video "The Psychoanalyst". Josh Blue

Blue was voted the 11th best comedian by viewers in ''Comedy Central's Stand-up Comedy Showdown 2011''. He appeared in

Ron White Ronald Dee White (born December 18, 1956) is an American stand-up comedian, actor and author, best known as a charter member of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour. Nicknamed "Tater Salad", he is the author of the book ''I Had the Right to Remain Sil ...

's ''Las Vegas Salute to the Troops 2013'' as part of the opening act. Blue also appeared in the sports based comedy ''108 Stitches'' in 2014. In 2021, Blue auditioned for season sixteen of ''

America's Got Talent ''America's Got Talent'' (often abbreviated as ''AGT'') is an American talent show competition, and is part of the global ''Got Talent'' franchise created by Simon Cowell. The program is produced by Fremantle (as well as distributed by) and ...

'', where he got four yeses from the judges and was able to advance through the live rounds. Blue placed third in the season, behind aerialist Aidan Bryant and magician Dustin Tavella. In 2023, Blue appeared on '' America's Got Talent: All-Stars''. In his round of the preliminaries, he placed third behind former winners

Brandon Leake Brandon Leake (born May 4, 1992) is a spoken word poet, educator and motivational speaker and the winner of the fifteenth season of ''America's Got Talent''. He was the first spoken–word poet to be on ''America's Got Talent'' and received the ...

and

Kodi Lee Kodi Taehyun Lee (born July 7, 1996) is an American singer-songwriter, pianist, and savant. At 22, he rose to fame on the 14th season of ''America's Got Talent''. Legally blind and autistic, Kodi Lee rose to fame after being a contestant, an ...

Personal life

Blue currently resides in

Denver, Colorado Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

, with his two children: a son, Simon, and a daughter, Saika. He also creates and sells

sculptures Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

and

paintings Painting is a visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or " support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush. Other implements, ...

. Like his father and siblings, Josh Blue is multilingual. Blue's father Walter Blue speaks 13 languages and Josh and his siblings all speak at least 3 languages. In addition to English, Blue speaks French and

Wolof Wolof or Wollof may refer to: * Wolof people, an ethnic group found in Senegal, Gambia, and Mauritania * Wolof language, a language spoken in Senegal, Gambia, and Mauritania * The Wolof or Jolof Empire, a medieval West African successor of the Mal ...

fluently. Blue has

, specifically classified as spastic hemiplegic cerebral palsy, and many of his jokes center on living with his disability, how he deals with it, and how other people view him. Blue appeared on ''

'' to "make people aware of the fact that people with disabilities can make an impact." He coined the term "palsy punch" during his final set of the final round of the show, when he said that the palsy punch is effective in a fight because "first of all, they don't know where the punch is coming from, and second of all, neither do I." One of Blue's competitors said he has "an unreasonable amount of likability" while another of his competitors said "he is just a good guy". Blue also joked that signing an

autograph An autograph is a person's own handwriting or signature. The word ''autograph'' comes from Ancient Greek (, ''autós'', "self" and , ''gráphō'', "write"), and can mean more specifically: Gove, Philip B. (ed.), 1981. ''Webster's Third New Intern ...

takes 45 minutes and that to write down his phone number he has to find a "big ol' stack of paper." Blue has competed in

Paralympic The Paralympic Games or Paralympics is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of disabilities. There are Winter and Summer Paralympic Games, which since the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Kore ...

seven-a-side soccer; he was a part of the United States national team roster during the

2004 Summer Paralympics The 2004 Summer Paralympics (), the 12th Summer Paralympic Games, were a major international multi-sport event for athletes with disabilities governed by the International Paralympic Committee, held in Athens, Greece, from 17 to 28 September ...

in Athens, Greece.

Works

Comedy specials

Discography

References

External links

Official website
*

(Accessed June 21, 2006) *Hicks, L. Wayne. "Just Joshin'". ''Denver Business Journal'', September 30 – October 5, 2005, issue

(Accessed June 21, 2006) {{DEFAULTSORT:Blue, Josh 1978 births Living people 7-a-side footballers at the 2004 Summer Paralympics American people with disabilities American stand-up comedians Last Comic Standing winners America's Got Talent contestants Paralympic 7-a-side soccer players for the United States Comedians from Denver Comedians from Saint Paul, Minnesota People with cerebral palsy Evergreen State College alumni 21st-century American comedians