Press release below:

Rich Hall aka Otis Lee Crenshaw
Rich Hall the grouchy, deadpan, comic genius quit his job as a hurricane namer for the United States Meteorological Service eighteen years ago and hasn't looked back. He is well known in the United States for appearing and writing on The David Letterman Show - for which he won an Emmy Award.
Looking like a Pearl Jam roadie, Rich is a master of absurdist irony while eschewing the human condition. He particularly likes to lay into Americans and life across the Pond at every opportunity. As Rich Hall the stand-up, he has visited the Edinburgh Fringe Festival several times and performed at the major comedy clubs in Britain and across the world.
In 1998 Rich Hall created the character Otis Lee Crenshaw, a redneck jailbird from Tennessee, who has been married seven times, all to women named Brenda. A singer song-writer, Otis writes bourbon soaked, Tom Waitsian tunes and blends this with audience banter, producing a perfect fusion of music and comedy.
Since 1998, Otis Lee Crenshaw has been charming sell-out audiences each year at the Edinburgh Festival, throughout the UK (on tour), at several festivals in Australia including Adelaide and Melbourne and at London's famous Comedy Store, where he had a monthly slot for six months. At the Endinburgh Festival 2000, Rich Hall as Otis Lee Crenshaw won the highly prestigious Perrier Award - the Oscars for Comedy in Britain.
In the United States Rich Hall has appeared on The David Letterman Show and Saturday Night Live. In the UK, Rich has appeared on Have I Got News For You, Never Mind The Buzzcocks, Jack Dees Sunday Service and Edinburgh Nights.

The press on Rich Hall:
"Belly laughs and aching sides....whimsical and splenetic. The man is an extempore powerhouse" The Times
'Anecdotal, observational, inspirational, confrontational, apoplectic, aggressive, vitriolic comedy' Melody Maker
The press on Otis Lee Crenshaw:
'Crenshaw skips through blistering spontaneity, excruciatingly funny banter and heckler put downs as mortifying as an electric chair' The Guardian
'He is a supremely talented comedian, quick-witted, topical and charismatic on stage' The Times.
'An inspired comic creation, striking the perfect balance between flirtation and intimidation. Unmissable' The Independent.

more info:

Rich Hall Shows:    Rich Hall is Otis Lee Crenshaw, Perrier Pick of the Fringe Award Show, Perrier Pick of the Fringe Show (3)

Biography:   An Emmy Award-winning veteran of landmark American TV shows like Letterman and Saturday Night Live, where he worked with stars like Jim Belushi, John Candy and Billy Crystal.
Hall started out as a street performer in Seattle. At his first indoor gig, he was brought on by Jerry Seinfeld. He wrote a hilarious spoof life improvement manual, Self Help For The Bleak.
His latest alter-ego is Otis Lee Crenshaw, a gravel-voiced Deep South prison crooner who warbles hard luck ballads like Tonight The Malt Is Single And So Am I. ŒWe say lots of people are funny,¹ said David Letterman. ŒHe¹s the real thing.¹
Winner of the 2000 Perrier Award .

An interview with Rich Hall

AN INTERVIEW WITH RICH HALL
Tuesday, Sep. 18.
By REUVEN M. LERNER
COMEDIAN RICH HALL, most famous for his stints as Saturday Night Live cast member and his sniglets book series, appears tonight as part of a benefit for Students Against Driving Drunk (SADD). In an interview by phone, Hall spoke freely about his career, his writing, and his current projects.
Have you ever been to MIT before, or performed at MIT?
Hell no! After they refused to accept me, I didn't want to have anything to do with them. Now, I guess, it's be time to come back. I guess there will be some sort of honorary degree there, that kind of stuff. So I'm really looking forward to it.
Have you ever performed at a college before?
God, yeah! That's all I do -- like nine a day! I just fly from one college to the next, every little vo-tech and community college and cosmetology school, with a correspondence to every winky art institute in the land. MIT is nothing -- you think I'm worried about a bunch of guys sitting around with prescription ashtray glasses and pencils coming out of their pockets? I know, that's the common perception of MIT, but you know, that's going to be the easy audience.
So you're not worried at all about the intellectual capacity of your audience?
Heck no! I'm thankful for an intellectual capacity. I'm used to performing for people who look like RCA dogs, who just tilt their heads and look at you like, "What the hell is he talking about?"
I was in Connecticut last week, in Stamford, CT, and about halfway through my act I do an impression of REM ordering breakfast at Denny's at three in the morning. And people just kind of stared at me. They understood what Denny's was . . . and so, that was met with a lot of confusion.
Now you're doing this as a benefit for SADD, right?
That's the one I'm doing with Gilbert Gottfried. He's a walking anti-drunk driving movement all in himself.
How so?
I'm very much against drunk driving. I don't support the fact that cops can pull you over for no reason whatsoever now -- you know, they have a new security checkpoint law, where they can pull you over on suspicion of anything -- but, I think it's important to stop drunk drivers. I think it's important also to stop the Domino's delivery men who ran over 66 people last year trying to get those pizzas delivered in half an hour or so. A guy in a mobile home called up, and tried to stay ahead of them for 30 minutes. And it is true that a lot of people got run over by Domino's delivery men last year.
There is one contingent of MADD that is "Mothers Against Domino's Deliverymen."
Is this the first time you've been involved in a benefit against drunk driving?
No, I did a MADD [Mothers Against Drunk Driving] benefit a few years ago. I think that we've made a lot of headway in the last couple of years in terms of making people aware of the fact that if they're really hammered, they shouldn't be driving. I think basically we've just scared people into doing it. If you run over someone while you're drunk, you're going to go to jail. And most people seem to realize that now. So it pays to stay closer to home and get cranked, so they can walk. Or until we initiate the pub system like they have in Great Britain. You know, there's very little drunk driving overseas, because there are tons of pubs, and people just walk to them. That's what we have to do here.
Let me ask you a bit about your background: How long have you been in comedy?
This is actually my 37th year. Nah, I've been in comedy for 11 years.
And do you write most of your own stuff?
Most of it. A little bit of it I trace with a crayon.
Do you spend most of your performance time between TV and live audiences?
Yeah. I do stand-up comedy at least three to four times a week. I do a lot of concerts, and a lot of colleges, and when I come up with five or six minutes of pretty hopefully funny stuff, I go on Letterman, or Comic Strip Live, or Not Necessarily the News, or something like that. Mostly, I do my own show for The Comedy Channel, called Onion World, which is a music and comedy show -- that I have complete, autonomous, dictatorial, totalitarian control over.
Is there anyone you really look up to for inspiration?
I don't pay any attention to other comedians. I think there are some great ones out there -- Jay Leno, Jerry Seinfeld, and those guys. But comedians are not the kind of people I want to hang out with. I look more to music for inspiration. And writers. P. J. O'Rourke or somebody like Thomas McGwain. Those were a couple of major influences. Russell Baker is another one. Dave Allen. Guys who put stuff in writing.
Let me ask you about your books: Are they all sniglets books?
No, there's one called The Vanishing America that's kind of like a Charles Kuralt on an acid trip across America. And I'm writing another one now that's kind of a send-up of the whole pick-up scene, between men and women in America. "A scathing indictment," as they would say.
That's due when?
Probably next spring.
Have you been surprised by your success?
A little bit. . . . The sniglets books are funny, but they're really accessible. You know, typical mainstream pop comedy books that you can read in an hour. They're really popular among the kind of people who like the language. They're not for everybody, but they've done quite well. But I think it's certainly more important to write something more substantial, and that's what I've been working on.
Are your Sniglets books completely for comic value?
Yeah. Well, no. I wouldn't say they're completely for comic value. I mean, I get letters from schools all the time saying how they've incorporated a sniglet book into their reading program. You can look at a lot of the words and sort of break them down into their etymological origins. And you can learn a lot about how and where words derive from. When you assign this frailty of human nature a word, then the word has to work. It has to either be a hybrid of several other words, or have a Latin origin, or something.
Do you have any advice to offer MIT students?
Don't take anything that seriously, because it's all just comedy.

Words That Should Exist (by Rich Hall)
Dateline: 09/02/00
Perrier award winner, Rich Hall often compiles his own list of words he reckons should be in the dictionary. Here are some of them:
ACCORDIONATED (ah kor' de on ay tid) adj. Being able to drive and refold a road map at the same time.
AQUADEXTROUS (ak wa deks' trus) adj. Possessing the ability to turn the bathtub tap on and off with your toes.
AQUALIBRIUM (ak wa lib' re um) n. The point where the stream of drinking fountain water is at its perfect height, thus relieving the drinker from (a) having to suck the nozzle, or (b) squirting himself in the eye (or ear).
BURGACIDE (burg' uh side) n. When a hamburger can't take any more torture and hurls itself through the grill into the coals.
BUZZACKS (buz' aks) n. People in phone marts who walk around picking up display phones and listening for dial tones even when they know the phones are not connected.
CARPERPETUATION (kar' pur pet u a shun) n. The act, when vacuuming, of running over a string or a piece of lint at least a dozen times, reaching over and picking it up, examining it, then putting it back down to give the vacuum one more chance.
DIMP (dimp) n. A person who insults you in a cheap department store by asking, "Do you work here?"
DISCONFECT (dis kon fekt') v. To sterilize the sweet you dropped on the floor by blowing on it, somehow assuming this will `remove' all the germs.
ECNALUBMA (ek na lub' ma) n. A rescue vehicle which can only be seen in the rear view mirror.
EIFFELITES (eye' ful eyetz) n. Gangly people sitting in front of you at the movies who, no matter what direction you lean in, follow suit.
ELBONICS (el bon' iks) n. The actions of two people manoeuvring for one armrest in a movie theatre. (or on an aeroplane!)
ELECELLERATION (el a cel er ay' shun) n. The mistaken notion that the more you press a lift button the faster it will arrive.
FRUST (frust) n. The small line of debris that refuses to be swept onto the dust pan and keeps backing a person across the room until he finally decides to give up and sweep it under the rug.
LACTOMANGULATION (lak' to man gyu lay' shun) n. Manhandling the "open here" spout on a milk container so badly that one has to resort to the `illegal' side.
NEONPHANCY (ne on' fan see) n. A fluorescent light bulb struggling to come to life.
PEPPIER (pehp ee ay') n. The waiter at a fancy restaurant whose sole purpose seems to be walking around asking diners if they want ground pepper.
PETROPHOBIC (pet ro fob' ik) adj. One who is embarrassed to undress in front of a household pet.
PHONESIA (fo nee' zhuh) n. The affliction of dialling a phone number and forgetting whom you were calling just as they answer.
PUPKUS (pup' kus) n. The moist residue left on a window after a dog presses its nose to it.
TELECRASTINATION (tel e kras tin ay' shun) n. The act of always letting the phone ring at least twice before you pick it up, even when you're only six inches away.