Atlantic City Weekly

WHEN CHARLIE PROSE debuted his Christmas Show at Trump Plaza 15 years ago, the perception was that Atlantic City was destined to be just a summer resort town. The loveable, local entertainer -- who had made a name for himself as a successful comedian/musician at the former Playboy Casino for a few years -- had to do some major arm-twisting in order to convince people that a Christmas variety show could attract audiences during a time that was known as the "off season." Luckily, Prose didn't take no for an answer.

It was this kind of persistence, along with a mind for marketing, that helped Prose rise to become one of the most well-known faces of entertainment at the Jersey Shore and beyond. Not only is his Christmas show the longest-running annual holiday show in Atlantic City's history, but it has also caught on across the country. Prose's mix of holiday songs and homespun humor continues to thrill audiences each year.

"It's just been one show at a time," says the 59-year old Prose. "Evidently the people still want it because they come out and see it."

Initially staged at Trump Plaza and then at the Claridge, Charlie Prose's Christmas show has found a home at Bally's where it's currently running through Dec. 13. Prose says the show continues to be the only thing he wants for Christmas each year.

"It's the most wonderful gift for me," says Prose. "When people say 'what do you want for Christmas?' I always say my best present is to have my family and my friends ­-- I don't call them fans, they're like friends -- to have them in an audience around me. That's why to me it's not a show; it's like a big party."

With over 350,000 names on his mailing list, you could say Prose has a lot of "friends." A peek into his office (a recent add-on to his Mediterranean-style house in rural Mays Landing which he shares with wife of 40 years, Linda) reveals a man who loves what he does, loves making people laugh and loves the Jersey Shore.

"My home is here," says Prose, sitting behind a desk covered with fan mail, order forms and requests for cassettes and videos of his performances. "I love Atlantic City and I feel a part of the history of Atlantic City now. It is a good feeling."

That history extends back to 1969 when the young man from Lancaster County, Pa., a son of a neighborhood grocery store owner, started doing an afternoon stand-up comedy routine at the Surf Club in Wildwood.

"I did comedy in the afternoon in Phil and Eddie's Bar, which was the bar part of the Surf Club," recalls Prose, whose birth name is Charles Procopio. "Then at night I would go in the back and emcee the big shows where they brought in Don Rickles and Jerry Vale and Al Martino. That's when I first got on a big stage and I got really hooked on doing stand up."

Prior to his start in Wildwood, Prose was intent on becoming a musician. A student of the piano since the age of five and a respected saxophonist, Prose played both instruments during his college years in motels, bars and inns across the tri-state area. By his early 20s, he was incorporating comedy into his act, but not by choice.

"I was singing and playing in piano bars, trying to go to college and there were a lot of traveling salesmen hanging around those places," recalls Prose. "And they would heckle me, throw wisecracks and I would throw them back. I found out that I had a flair to do comedy. And when I saw the laughter I thought, 'Gee, this is fun to get people to laugh.'"

During his Wildwood days, Prose began bringing the music back into his live act, peppering his comedy routine with piano tunes. The audiences ate it up and the combination proved so successful that when the Playboy Casino opened its doors in Atlantic City, they wanted Prose. He signed a year-long contract to perform at the casino and decided to put an end to his tiresome commute from Elizabethtown, Pa. to the shore.

Twenty-five years later, Prose's home at the Jersey shore has become his sanctuary from the hectic life of a working headline entertainer running his own business. In his basement warehouse, Prose houses boxes upon cardboard boxes of his CDs, DVDs and VHS tapes including copies of his Platinum Video Award winning live shows, Love and Laughter with Charlie Prose, filmed in Laughlin, Nevada and An Evening with Charlie Prose, filmed at Trump Plaza. This is also where Prose keeps the boxes of homemade "tu-ta-roos" that his fans have made, sent or given to him over the years. "Most entertainers will get roses on stage," notes Prose, holding up some of the more ornate examples. "They send me boxes of tu-ta-roos." Prose says the decorated toilet-paper rolls/musical instruments, popularized in one of his famous routines, come from as far away as Europe.

A do-it-yourselfer before it was hip to be one, Prose has never had the backing of a major record label, yet he has fans in all corners of the world writing him on a weekly basis. That fan base has grown year after year thanks to Prose's innovative marketing approach and dedication to his work.

Prose has successfully infiltrated the entertainment industry, giving a new meaning to the term "direct marketing" by cutting out the middleman and bringing his entertainment to busloads of potential fans.

At the dawn of Atlantic City's casino era, Prose began providing 8-track cassette tapes of his material to the tour buses going in and out of Atlantic City. Later, when most of the buses were equipped with VHS players and TV monitors, he too changed formats. Today, tapes of Prose's live shows can be viewed on tour buses across the country. The G-rated entertainer has spent a lot of time and money on this marketing effort, and like his idea of a Christmas show in Atlantic City, it has certainly paid off. Prose, however, admits it wasn't his original intention to take on the entertainment world all by himself.

"Did I consciously decide to do it myself? Not really," says Prose. "What I did was pay attention to little events that happened -- one door opened up another door." Prose was intent on figuring out what drove certain groups to a specific venue or show. "I learned and watched from behind the scenes. Look at that bus, what are those 46 people doing going into that nightclub and how did they get a whole busload to come? Where did that bus come from? A travel agent sent them? Aha! Well, then let me go and see if a travel agent will send them to me. They have a tape player on the bus? Well, suppose they play a tape of me on the bus? One thing led to another and I found a way to crack through the wall."