Before Tone Bell became a Netflix star, sitcom regular and one of the headliners of the 9th Annual Flyover Comedy Festival, he was a kid from Georgia spending his summers with family on St. Louis’ North Side. He soaked up stories, characters and observations that would eventually become the foundation of his comedy.
“My mom grew up off of Carter,” Bell said. “Right across the street from the hospital.”
His parents, Michael and Val Bell, are Beaumont High School graduates, Class of 1974. Most of his extended family still lives here. The summers he spent in St. Louis helped shape the storyteller and comedian audiences know today.
Bell returns to town Nov. 12 as part of the ninth annual Flyover Comedy Festival Nov. 11-15. The event features five days of stand-up, improv and sketch comedy. Nearly 150 performers are scheduled to appear across venues in The Delmar Loop and The Grove. Headliners include Roy Wood Jr., Dulcé Sloan, David Cross, Cameron Esposito, The Sklar Brothers and Bell.
For Bell, the appearance is another chapter in a relationship with St. Louis that goes back generations. For nearly all of his summers, school would end in Atlanta and Bell would spend months with relatives in the city.
Those visits sharpened the observational instincts that would later become the backbone of his comedy.
From the steps of his grandfather’s porch, Bell watched people, neighborhoods and situations that felt worlds apart from his Atlanta upbringing. Those observations would eventually find their way into his comedy.
“St. Louis is where all my wild takes on stuff came from,” Bell said.
Long before television roles and comedy specials, Bell was already performing. He appeared on a children’s public-access variety show at age 12 and participated in theater throughout high school and college before eventually finding his way to stand-up while balancing a corporate career with Anheuser-Busch.
He spent years balancing a corporate career with acting ambitions, often finding that audition schedules clashed with office hours.
Stand-up appealed to him because it was something he could control.
“I was already telling stories,” Bell said. “I wondered if I could put this on stage.”
The answer came with that first laugh.
“At that moment, I became addicted,” he said. “I fell in love with it.”
His style developed into the conversational approach audiences recognize today.
“We’re having a conversation,” Bell said. “I just happen to be the only one talking.”
That style has carried him from comedy clubs to television sets and movie screens. Yet Bell remains deeply connected to the St. Louis comedy tradition that helped inspire him.
Among those relationships is one with Cedric The Entertainer, another performer whose ties to St. Louis run deep.
“It’s beautiful to go from looking up to somebody to having mutual respect,” Bell said.
Bell said the relationship still feels surreal.
“It’s such a wonderful feeling,” Bell said. “One of the kings of comedy, from St. Louis, gives you a salute and says, ‘Let me know if you need anything.’”
Bell also shared a memorable moment with another St. Louis comedy veteran that left a lasting impression.
While Bell was filming a small role in The Flash, Torry unexpectedly called him.
“I was like, ‘This is just a little part,’” Bell said.
Torry quickly corrected him.
“‘Man, ain’t no little parts,’” Bell recalled Torry telling him. “‘You never know what that’s going to become. Everything you do is worth it.’”
The advice stuck. Years later, Bell still remembers Torry’s words whenever a project seems small or a role seems insignificant.
Earlier this year, Bell spent several weeks back home while filming The Streak, a movie starring Ed Helms. The production shot throughout the region, including Harris-Stowe State University, Saint Louis University, Washington University and Forest Park.
For Bell, returning to St. Louis meant reconnecting with family and longtime friends between shoots. He also got the chance to introduce his wife to the city that helped raise him.
“It was cool to bring her out there and say, ‘This is where I grew up,’” Bell said.
Now he’ll step onto the Duck Room stage at Blueberry Hill as one of Flyover’s marquee performers.
Bell’s Nov. 12 “Tone Bell & Friends” show will also feature fellow Flyover headliners Dulcé Sloan and Reggie Conquest.
Bell plans to test material for his next comedy hour during the performance.
“We’re going to tear the thing out,” Bell said. “You’re going to leave with your stomach hurt.”
Roy Wood Jr., the former Daily Show correspondent and current host of CNN’s Have I Got News for You, headlines The Pageant on Nov. 14. Sloan, an Emmy-winning comedian best known for her work on The Daily Show, closes out the festival with a Nov. 15 performance at The Church on Delmar.
And if anyone still questions how much St. Louis remains part of his identity, Bell has a simple answer.
“The fact that as soon as I get off the plane, I need my Imo’s,” Bell said. “Whoever is picking me up from the airport needs to have it in the car waiting for me. Green pepper, Italian sausage and red onion.”
For a full schedule and more information on the 9th Annual Flyover Comedy Festival, visit www.FlyoverComedyFest.com, www.instagram.com/FlyoverComedyFest, www.facebook.com/FlyoverComedyFest