American Family Insurance’s Family Friendly Comedy Special

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of American Family Insurance for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

It is rare to find comedians these days that feature family friendly jokes in their stand-up routines.  To remedy this to some extent, American Family Insurance recently sponsored a family friendly comedy special Stand Up For Family, hosted by actor/comedian Bill Bellamy. You might recognize Bill Bellamy from his work on HBO’s Def Comedy Jam or from hosting MTV’s Jamz and Beach House programs.  He also was in such movies as Any Given Sunday and Fled, among other movies.  He currently hosts Who’s Got Jokes, which is now in its fourth season.

Along with Bellamy, this AmFam special also includes top tier comedians such as: Rodney Perry (perhaps best known from Def Comedy Jam and co-hosting BET’s The Mo’Nique), Mark Viera, Donnell Rawlings (best known for frequently appearing in Chappelle’s Show and his occasional role in HBO’s The Wire), and Tony Roberts.

You can watch video clips of these comedian’s acts here. Mark Viera’s “Old School Grandmother” routine, as well as Tony Robert’s “I was in a Play” and “Grandma Needs Insurance” routines are particularly humorous.  In any case, all the routines are completely family friendly and funny for kids and adults.

Bonus Factoids:

• One little known fact about Bill Bellamy is that he is the cousin of NBA star Shaquille O’Neal.  He also has a degree in economics from Rutgers University.
• During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Donnell Rawlings served in the Military Police in Washington, D.C. at Bolling Air Force Base.
• The gold chain with a microphone on it that Tony Roberts always wears in his performances was given to him by a fan after his performance in BET’s comic view.  Somewhat humorously, while Roberts tours the world doing stand up and is an award winning comedian, he’s probably most recognizable nationally thanks to appearing in nationally shown Burger King Commercials.
• American Family Insurance, then called “Farmer’s Mutual Insurance”, was founded by Herman Wittwer in Madison, Wisconsin way back in 1927 during the Great Depression. Wittwer was an insurance salesman at the time.   When he first started it, he offered only automobile insurance and targeted farmers because he thought they made the safest drivers and didn’t drive nearly as often as people in the city.  Since those humble beginnings American Family Insurance has grown to offer numerous types of insurance policies and currently has an annual revenue of around $7 billion per year.
• Just 11 years after founding the company, Wittwer had grown its assets to over $1 million.  Fifty four years after the company was founded, it passed $1 billion in assets.   Sixteen years later its assets passed $8 billion, then $10 billion four years after that.
• Thanks to American Family Insurance’s “Teen Safe Driver Program”, teens that go through the program reduce their risky driving behavior by about 70%, according to a study done at the University of Iowa.  Because of this, American Family Insurance was awarded the 2010 Teen Driving Safety Leadership Award by the National Safety Council.
• Thanks to $10 million donated by American Family Insurance, along with them launching a campaign to get other businesses and individuals to contribute, the American Family Children’s Hospital and Clinic was opened in 2007 in Wisconsin.

Sources:

• Bill Bellamy
• Rodney Perry
• Donnell Rawlings
• Tony T Roberts
• American Family Insurance: About
• American Family Insurance