Mo Alexander is an American stand-up comedian and actor. Alexander was born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee. He began his full-time professional comedy career in July 1996 and was headlining on stages throughout the US within three years. He is known for injecting the smart into funny and combining intelligence and debauchery to spotlight real world issues. His comedy is as funny as it is thought provoking and nothing is off limits. His comic influences include Bill Hicks, Paul Mooney, and Richard Pryor. He has worked with notable comedians such as Keenen Ivory Wayans, and Kevin Hart.
Career
In 1999, Alexander impressed Keenen Ivory Wayans with a good natured roast after a show and was asked to be the opening act on tour with Wayans. Alexander's comedy history includes his own Las Vegas show, “The Mo Funny Show” at the Casino Royale. In 1999 he appeared on ABC’s Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher. In 1998 he appeared in Bret Michaels' film “A Letter from Death Row”. In 2017 he made his first national stand-up appearance for Comedy Central, appearing in the series “Hart of the City: Memphis Edition” which first aired December 15, 2017. He has also been on several syndicated radio shows in major markets including The Bob & Tom Show and Mancow's Morning Madhouse. He has been a semifinalist in both the San Francisco Comedy Competition and the Seattle Comedy Competition. Alexander has headlined at several comedy festivals such as Asheville Comedy Fest, Altercation Festival, Hopkins Comedy Festival, Memphis Comedy Festival and North Carolina Comedy Festival. Alexander has released five CD’s: “Mo Files”, “Evolution”, “Nappy Headed Hoes and Other FCC Infractions”, “Just in Case the Mayans are Right”, which was featured on the iTunes new and notable charts front page for five months, and “Got Clots”. “Got Clots” was released April 5, 2016, the one year anniversary of the day he died for two minutes from an embolism.
Early life
Mo Alexander was born in Memphis, Tennessee and raised in the Soulsville neighborhood just down the street from the original Stax Records. His mother was Jerri Edwards, a third grade school teacher. She died on November 8, 2005. His father was Charles Alexander. He was predominantly raised by his grandmother, Jean Williamson. Mo Alexander went to the predominantly black private catholic school, Father Bertrand Elementary, where he balanced being a computer nerd and playing basketball while trying to find his place. This is where he found that humor would get him out of bad situations. His high school years were spent at Memphis Catholic High School hanging out with the nerdier set of kids who also had his twisted version of humor. This is where he found Monty Python and British comedian Lenny Henry and his first theatrical work in the play "Arsenic and Old Lace". In his senior year he was at school from 6am until 8pm nightly because of sports. He was a wrestler, a cheerleader, and the school mascot. Unlike most mascots, Mo was not silent. He was never afraid to take a mic and make the crowds rowdy. After Graduating he moved on to the university of Memphis where he majored in Physics and minored in Theatre. He quit there in 1994 when he decided he wanted to do comedy full-time and didn’t want to have a degree to fall back on. He believed “if I have something to fall back on I won’t try hard enough in comedy.” Later in a conversation, Keenen Ivory Wayans told him the same thing. Mo is a hardcore University of Memphis Tigers fan.
Personal life
In 1999, Mo visited the Viper Room in West Hollywood, CA. He was very drunk and began asking the security guards where and in what position did River Phoenix die. When security was not forthcoming with an answer, he began demonstrating various death poses on the ground near the door and was subsequently physically removed from the nightclub. He would later learn that the band performing that night was Recreational Racism fronted by Maynard James Keenan of Tool. Due to a foot injury that resulted in immobility, Mo Alexander suffered a bilateral embolism that resulted in his two minute death on Easter Sunday, April 5, 2015. He underwent 7 surgeries due to complications and after being hospitalized for 77 days at Methodist University Hospital in Memphis, Tn, he then spent an additional 13 days in a physical rehabilitation center. Seven days later he was performing on stage at the 2015 Chicago Comedy Exposition in Chicago, Illinois despite being in a wheelchair and has been busy touring ever since.
