Getting Personal: Stand-up comedian Tony Clements
What's your "real" name; are you named for anyone?
My real name is Jesse Anthony Clements. I'm named after my father and grandfather (both Jesses). My middle name is after an uncle on my father's side of the family.
Since my grandfather, father and I had the same first name, whenever we were together, to avoid confusion, my grandfather would go by Jesse; my father was Junior; and I was Tony.
What time do you typically get up? What do you do the first hour?
I typically wake up (now that I'm retired) around 6 a.m. I lie in bed watching the Western Channel for about an hour. Then get the paper (you know it comes in the morning now) and have my favorite breakfast.
My regular breakfast consists of oatmeal, a banana, toast (dry) and warm tea.
Tell me about your favorite pair of shoes.
A pair of Allen Edmonds leather, closed-toe sandals.
What's your favorite high school and/or college memory?
Most of my best memories surround athletics. I went to high school in North Carolina – J.W. Ligon High School. When I was in high school, the schools of North Carolina were segregated.
The Catholic high school in town was integrated. I was friends with several of their players since the Johnson brothers lived in my neighborhood. They and I had played against some of the other guys when I played in the Knights of Columbus Saturday morning basketball league. It was when I attended parochial school in the second through eighth grades.
During my senior year, we played Cardinal Gibbons in one of the first-ever integrated high school basketball games in North Carolina's history. We won.
Is there one book you read as a child that you still cherish? Own? Read?
I don't think I ever really finished a book as a kid. I read most of the Babe Ruth story, but never finished it. I know now how it ends.
The one book that I read from cover to cover and over and over again was my father's 1947 Encyclopedia of Sports. I had it rebound about 15 years ago and still have it in my library today.
If you could invite three people (all living) to your home for the weekend, who would they be?
President Obama, Willie Mays and Stevie Wonder.
What is your favorite restaurant?
Nationally, it's McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Restaurant. Locally, we have too many great restaurants to just pick one.
Who is your favorite family member?
My sister; she lives in Milwaukee – graduated with three degrees from the UI and graduated magna cum laude. She was a two-time North Carolina state champ in tennis while in high school and a member of the Illini women's tennis team.
She was the salutatorian of her class in high school and is funnier than me.
As a local funny guy, what do you find dead serious nowadays? What is the one topic you'd never joke about?
I really don't do much political humor.
What I'm most serious about now is health care. I want everyone to have a quality level of health care service and insurance, that I'm so fortunate to have. It really provides me with peace of mind.
Where on Earth are you dying to go? Why?
I just returned from one of my most favorite trips. It included a drive with two close friends down U.S. 50 in Northern Nevada – the Loneliest Highway in America. We also spent a day at the Grand Canyon.
The places I'd most like to go now are across Canada on the trans-Canadian railroad and a trip to Hawaii.
What would you order for a "last" meal?
Some kind of fish – fried grouper, walleye, spots (a salt-water food fish), etc.; potatoes (baked or fried); coleslaw; hush puppies and iced tea; also, a slab of ribs and strawberry shortcake. Hey, it's my last meal. We're not going to start counting calories now, are we?
Also on this date
- Group to question key staff in UI admissions scandal
- Two arrested on drug charges after apartment search
- Arson suspected in Urbana apartment fire
- Relay For Life participants give, gain a little inspiration
- The basics on new Danville schools administrators
- Habitat director taking next step in Christian calling
- Local hospitals developing new procedures for strokes
- Tamils raising awareness of rights violations in Sri Lanka
- Champaign-Urbana burglaries
- Obituaries