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VOL.35, NO.10
From standup to news anchor
Childhood influences Perkins was born in the Bronx, New York, and his family moved to (and all around) the D.C. area starting when he was five years old. He attended elementary school in Southeast Washington, D.C., junior high in Prince George’s County, Maryland and high school in Alexandria, Virginia. Although Perkins was shy in school, he would host mock gameshows at home
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NBC News4 Today anchorman Tony Perkins worked as a standup comedian for a decade before landing his first television position. Perkins will be interviewed live at the Beacon 50+Expo in Silver Spring, Maryland, on Oct. 22.
with his younger brother, Scott. Using a hairbrush as a microphone, he would interview his family members and ham it up. A public speaking class in high school gave the diffident student newfound confidence. Perkins went on to become the first black editor-in-chief of the Mount Vernon High School newspaper. He came by his love of radio naturally. Perkins’ father, who he has called “Mr. Charming,” was a DJ at WOL, a popular
AM radio station in D.C. in the 60s. As a teenager, Perkins also visited the “powerhouse” Philadelphia radio station where his uncle worked. “I thought it was very cool. I was attracted to it,” he said. “I would hear my father on the radio and I would get to go to the station,” Perkins recalled. “I thought it was very mysterious — you’re talking to the microphone, and See TONY PERKINS, page 40
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OCTOBER 2023
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By Margaret Foster Some people enjoy a challenge. News anchor Tony Perkins — who started his career in standup comedy — is one of them. The first time he stepped on stage at a comedy club 40 years ago, the crowd erupted in laughter and applause. But the second time was another story. “I went back two weeks later with all new material and bombed,” Perkins, now 64, recalled in an interview with the Beacon. “I thought, well, this is interesting. You might be the greatest comedian in the land two weeks ago, and tonight I’m not getting anything…That was kind of what hooked me, and I just kept going and going,” he said. Perkins turned that tenacity into a decade-long career in standup, which was followed by a much longer successful career in radio and television. After stints at “Good Morning America” and “Get Up DC,” Perkins is now a beloved news anchor at NBC’s News4Today in Washington, D.C. He calls it “literally a dream job.” Perkins will be interviewed on stage about his varied career at the Beacon’s 50+Expo in Silver Spring, Maryland, on Sunday, October 22.
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