As the second child of ten, Fred had a built-in audience to hone his comedic skills at an early age. While earning his finance degree from the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater, Fred seized his first opportunity to perform stand-up comedy; entertaining his fellow Warhawk classmates at various campus settings. During college summer breaks, Fred continued to perfect his style by performing at Marriott’s (now Six Flags) Great America.
Upon graduation from college, Fred followed in his dad’s footsteps as a Prudential sales rep. However, his passion for comedy would not be dissuaded and he continued to perform stand-up comedy. Fred’s comedy career took off after winning Showtime’s “Funniest Man in Milwaukee” contest. This victory helped propel him to become a national headliner for comedy clubs across America. Since then, he has performed with comedians Jay Leno, Jerry Seinfeld and Craig Ferguson and opened for musical superstars such as George Benson, Sheena Easton and Ricky Skaggs. The members of the iconic rock band, Kansas, were smitten with Fred’s ability to generate laughter without resorting to innuendo or profanity. They personally asked Fred to tour nationally with their group Kansas (which he happily did).
In addition to performing across America, Fred has performed internationally on elite cruise ships in the Caribbean, Mediterranean, St. Lawrence Seaway, Australia/New Zealand, Fiji, Russia and the Antarctic.
Fred also has numerous tv credits such as Showtime, A&E, NBC Friday Night Video, ABC Nightship, Comedy Channel, TBN’s #1 rated The Mike Huckabee Show and Dry Bar Comedy. His recent Dry Bar special has amassed over 65 million on-line views and generated hundreds of thousands of likes and tens of thousands of responses. A sampling of 500 responses to both his Dry Bar and LIVE specials indicated 20% of his fans are from outside the USA, representing over 50 countries. Fred’s comedy has attained international status as his clean style and original material carry a universal appeal.
Fred is married to Nancy and they have three sons and two grandchildren. He continues to perform for private and public events, on cruise ships, as well as with his son Gus. In 2023, Fred is proud to have introduced this new father-son comedy format, the only one of its kind in America. For more information, please visit www.fredklett.com
