Early Life
Fancy Ray grew up in Minneapolis and graduated from Minneapolis West High School, which was located in Uptown Minneapolis and closed in 1982.
Fancy Ray explained the origins of his name to "Weird Al" Yankovic on Ray's cable TV show in Minneapolis, Get Down With It, as follows: "Fancy comes from the Flamboyant, the Fertile, the Fashion part, and the Fragrant."
However, in a 1998 interview, Fancy Ray claimed he was actually principally influenced by his grandfather, Fancy Wade, a sharp-dressed ladies' man. Upon Wade's 1984 death, Ray inherited Wade's music collection, including Little Richard recordings, which inspired him to become known thereafter as Fancy Ray.
Ray began to perform standup comedy in 1989, then launched his television program ""Get Down With It"" on a Public-access television cable TV channel. He interviewed guests such as Tiny Tim and Whoopi Goldberg. In the ensuing years, Ray cultivated an extremely unusual career in Minneapolis as a flamboyantly dressed advertising pitchman.
Read more about this topic: Fancy Ray
Famous quotes containing the words early life, early and/or life:
“... business training in early life should not be regarded solely as insurance against destitution in the case of an emergency. For from business experience women can gain, too, knowledge of the world and of human beings, which should be of immeasurable value to their marriage careers. Self-discipline, co-operation, adaptability, efficiency, economic management,—if she learns these in her business life she is liable for many less heartbreaks and disappointments in her married life.”
—Hortense Odlum (1892–?)
“Some would find fault with the morning red, if they ever got up early enough.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“We cannot discuss the state of our minorities until we first have some sense of what we are, who we are, what our goals are, and what we take life to be. The question is not what we can do now for the hypothetical Mexican, the hypothetical Negro. The question is what we really want out of life, for ourselves, what we think is real.”
—James Baldwin (1924–1987)