Alfred University News

Comedian, actor Rob Bartlett visiting artist in Alfred University Theater Department

Actor and comedian Rob Bartlett, who attended Alfred University in the mid-1970s, will be a visiting artist in Alfred University’s Theater Department for two days next week.


ALFRED, NY – Actor and comedian Rob Bartlett, who attended Alfred University in the mid-1970s, will be a visiting artist in Alfred University’s Theater Department for two days next week.

Bartlett, who attended Alfred University from 1975-76, will visit two “Intro to Theater” classes, on Wednesday, March 23, and Thursday, March 24, to discuss his career in stand-up comedy, on radio and Broadway. He will also give an audition workshop on Wednesday, March 23, at 6 p.m.

The events, sponsored by the Alfred University Theatre Department and Performing Arts Division, will be in the Rod Brown Studio, Miller Performing Arts Building.

Bartlett started performing stand-up comedy in 1978 hoping it would lead to a career in acting and more than 40 years later is a successful actor, standup comedian, radio personality and writer.

He started in stand-up comedy at Richard M. Dixon's White House Inn, a talent showcase club on New York's Long Island run by the presidential look-alike. It was at Dixon's club where Rob met a 17-year-old Eddie Murphy, and the two became fast friends and formed two-thirds of the improvisational trio The Identical Triplets. When the trio broke up shortly after Murphy’s debut on Saturday Night Live, Rob went on as a solo act and became a headliner in comedy clubs and colleges across the country.

Bartlett has headlined at the Sands Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Atlantic City's Tropicana and Hilton Hotels, and Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods Resort and Casino in Connecticut. On television, Rob has appeared on the MTV Half Hour Comedy Hour, Standup Spotlight on VH1 and on Late Night with David Letterman and Conan O'Brien

He appeared in the films “The Sex O'Clock News” (1984), “Spin the Bottle” (1999), “Table One” (2000), and provided the voice of Boss Baker Bunny in the animated feature, “The Easter Egg Escapade” (2005). Rob's television credits include starring roles on the Paramount/CBS comedy special “What's Alan Watching?”, ABC's “Move the Crowd”, and in a recurring role on NBC as attorney Milton Schoenfeld on “Law & Order, Special Victims Unit.”