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Bobbie Oliver is one
of Los Angeles’ funniest comics, but she had to come a long way to
get here. Born Barbara “Bobbie” Evans in Covington, GA, a small town
outside Atlanta whose chief claim to fame was being used for
location shooting for The Dukes of Hazard TV series, Bobbie grew up
in a two-bedroom, one-bathroom trailer inhabited by a family of
seven. The economy was depressed, and so were the people. Bobbie
found escape in staying up late with her father to watch The Tonight
Show with Johnny Carson. Carson and the comedians who performed on
his show became an inspiration to her.
Studying theatre in high school, Bobbie discovered that she had a
gift for comedy, and followed this path to the renowned theatre
program at LaGrange College in LaGrange, GA. At the age of 19,
frustrated by the limited scope of the college theatre program, she
started Lost Comedy, a group that put on variety shows featuring
stand-up and sketch comedy. It was in this group that she met her
future husband, writer Chris Oliver. On her twenty-first birthday,
Bobbie took the stand-up act that she had been honing with the group
to the Punchline Comedy Club in Atlanta. She killed.
After receiving a B.A. in Speech
Communications and Theatre and marrying Chris, Bobbie moved to
Athens, GA. From that base Bobbie began working the grueling comedy
circuit of the East Coast. Comedy clubs, colleges, one-nighters,
military bases, corporate gigs, frat parties…you name it, Bobbie did
it, for seven years. This experience, the comedy school of hard
knocks, has provided her with a rock-solid foundation that cannot be
acquired through any other means.
In 1998, tired of the
road, Bobbie and Chris made the move to Los Angeles. Ready to make a
new start, Bobbie completely scrapped over an hour of material and
started fresh. With a completely new act, she won Uncle Clyde’s
Comedy Contest, The Superbowl of Comedy, and was named “Best of the
Fest” at the Hollywood Ha Ha Festival. She went on to perform at The
Riviera in Las Vegas, The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences,
The Comedy Store, The Improv, and The Ice House, and she is a
regular on the LA comedy scene. |