Carrot Top Overdoses Hours Before His Luxor Curtain

Scott Thompson, the 61-year-old comic known as Carrot Top, overdosed at his Las Vegas home on September 18, hours before an 8 p.m. Luxor show. Clark County Fire units were sent at 4:20 p.m. for a 61-year-old man who was not alert. A private ambulance took him to a hospital.

People close to the response described a suspected overdose of prescription medication and a suicide attempt. His representative has not said what he took. On September 20, Jami Schlicher said he was awake, breathing on his own, and still in hospital care.

First Responders Reached His House Before Showtime

About two hours before that dispatch, Thompson was in public. Neighbors and fellow entertainers Murray Sawchuck and Dani Elizabeth said he and two companions were at Finney’s Crafthouse in Downtown Summerlin around 2 p.m. Sawchuck, a Vegas comic-magician who has been close to him for about a decade, texted around 5:30 p.m. and got no reply.

Metropolitan Police, Clark County Fire, and EMTs were outside the house from about 4:15 p.m. A fire department representative said a city ambulance and a private ambulance both responded, and the private crew made the transport. The 8 p.m. Atrium Showroom performance did not go on.

FRIDAY AT THE HOUSE

1. September 18, about 2 p.m.: Thompson is seen at Finney’s Crafthouse in Downtown Summerlin with two companions.
2. September 18, 4:20 p.m.: Clark County Fire is called for a 61-year-old man who is not alert; police and EMTs are already in the street.
3. September 18, 5:30 p.m.: Sawchuck texts and receives no answer.
4. September 18, 8 p.m.: The Luxor curtain time passes with the show pulled.

The gap from the 4:20 p.m. call to curtain was 3 hours and 40 minutes. In a residency that runs six nights a week, that is the whole window between a house call and a sold room.

$500,000 or a Motion Filed in Public

The medical crisis landed on top of a Florida court fight that had already turned the public docket into the prize. Brian Evans, 56, a Hallandale Beach singer who once opened for Thompson at Luxor, had been pressing a 2024 settlement and a claim that, in 2022 or 2023, Thompson sent him an unsolicited sexually explicit video. Thompson’s Orlando lawyer, Ronnie Bitman, put Evans’s own emails into a Broward County file on September 3 under the title “Non-Party, Scott Thompson’s, Notice of Filing (Communications Demonstrating Plaintiff’s Extortion).”

The notice, filed in Evans v. Creative Artists Agency, LLC and Steve Levine, Case No. CACE26012570, as Filing No. 256369734, said Evans had demanded immediate payment and, if he was not paid, would place a sexually explicit recording of Thompson in a public court file so the press could get it. Bitman wrote that this was not settlement talk.

This is not settlement communication. On its face it is a malicious threat to expose Thompson to disgrace, and to expose a secret affecting him, with intent thereby to extort money under the guise of litigation conduct.

Ronnie Bitman, attorney for Scott Thompson, September 3 Broward County filing

Evans has denied that reading in a straight line. He said he never threatened to post any video anywhere in exchange for a settlement, and that the recording discussed in the emails “was deleted a long time ago in accordance with the prior settlement.” He called Path A a Rule 408 settlement proposal: payment as consideration for a civil release, with the next step a motion for leave to lodge a USB exhibit for in-camera review if the offer lapsed.

The Path A language, quoted in later papers, was blunt about the money. “Path A remains available on the terms previously stated: Five Hundred Thousand Dollars ($500,000.00) in immediately available funds, in exchange for resolution of all claims against Scott Thompson. Otherwise I will proceed with the motion for leave as the next filing.” In the same chain he wrote that he expected the press to report the motion and “use its own imagination about what the USB is,” then added that this was “a foreseeable fact about third-party reporting of a public docket. It is not a threat.” He also wrote that he does not control the public docket and does not control the press.

That is the second-order fact the hospitalization brief kept missing. Evans did not have to leak a file to a website. He only had to describe, in writing, what a public motion would do to a famous name, then let the clerk’s office and the copy desk finish the job.

Judge Leibowitz Already Restricted His Filings

Federal judges in Miami had already started treating Evans as a problem filer before those September emails. On July 8 he paid a $405 fee and lodged a July 8 federal complaint against Thompson in Evans v. Thompson, No. 1:26-cv-24682, seeking to unwind the 2024 deal and adding claims for fraudulent inducement and intentional infliction of emotional distress. He asked for a temporary restraining order. Magistrate Judge Yeney Hernandez struck the emergency label, finding the alleged harm was financial. Judge Roy K. Altman later adopted the report and denied the TRO.

On July 17, after Evans filed a second notice of non-consent to a magistrate, Altman struck the paper and warned him in the docket. The filing, Altman wrote, “clogs our docket and wastes scarce court resources.” He added that Evans “must do better,” and that more frivolous filings could bring dismissal under Rule 41 without further notice. Evans dismissed the case without prejudice on August 6. Altman closed it the same day.

The heavier federal order sat in a different file. On August 3, in Evans v. Fitzgerald, No. 1:26-cv-20342, Judge David S. Leibowitz declared Evans a vexatious litigant under 28 U.S.C. § 1651(a), dismissed that complaint with prejudice, and required prior leave before new filings in the Southern District of Florida. Evans says that order is on appeal in the Eleventh Circuit and is not a final, unreviewed judgment. He also argues the list of prior cases is not a stack of separate merits losses.

Schlicher, speaking for Thompson, pointed at the court language rather than at the appeal. “A federal court recently declared Mr. Evans a ‘vexatious litigant’ and described his filings as ‘serial’ and ‘spurious,’” she said. In dismissing one case with prejudice, she added, the court wrote, “It appears this entire case is designed to harass Defendants.”

Florida has its own track for repeat pro se filers. Florida’s expanded vexatious litigant law lets a court demand security and issue a prefiling order after a finding that a self-represented party meets the statute. Evans has told the Broward court he is not a vexatious litigant in that forum, and that an order on appeal cannot be treated as a closed federal judgment under the state definition.

THE FLORIDA DOCKETS AROUND THOMPSON

The federal Thompson case was already dead when Bitman filed the September 3 notice. The pressure had simply moved into a state clerk’s office, where a USB drive and a famous name still make a public record.

The Luxor Calendar Goes Dark Through September 26

Thompson has headlined the Atrium Showroom at Luxor since November 2005. The hotel’s own page still sells the act the way it did before Friday: about 75 minutes of prop comedy at 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 16 and older, tickets from $49 plus an $8.72 service fee. Meet-and-greet add-ons start at 7 p.m. and do not include a show seat. Sundays are dark except for a short list of extra dates.

After the hospital run, the calendar finally moved. Friday and Saturday were pulled first. Monday was pulled next. On September 21, MGM took Wednesday through Saturday as well. The Luxor schedule lists those dark dates as September 18 through 22 and September 23 through 26. The earliest performance still being sold is September 28. That is eight Monday-through-Saturday curtains in nine calendar days, on top of the Sundays the room already skips.

An MGM Resorts spokesperson called Thompson “a beloved member of the Luxor and MGM Resorts family” and said the company was relieved to hear he was recovering. The hotel did not say when he would walk back onstage, and the long-term status of the residency has not been spelled out beyond those posted dark dates.

A residency that old is built on the idea that the headliner is there. Thompson has talked about that as the point of Las Vegas, a way to work without living on a tour bus. The other side of that bargain is the six-night clock. On September 18 the clock did not stop until first responders were in his driveway.

What Remains Unproven in the Florida Filings

Evans’s suit says he was “shocked, disturbed and offended” by the video he claims Thompson sent, and that he signed the 2024 settlement while impaired by psychiatric injury, including stress he ties to the August 2023 Maui wildfires. He has asked a court to treat that deal as invalid. That has not been tried. Thompson has not, in the public papers reviewed here, admitted sending the video or agreed that the settlement was void.

On September 14, Zachary Defazio, 25, filed a declaration in Evans’s Broward case calling himself “a second independent victim” and saying he was coming forward because what Evans had told the court “about Thompson’s pattern, as it concerns me, is true.” That is a sworn statement in a live file. It is not a finding.

WHAT WE KNOW

• The hospital: Thompson was taken from his home on September 18 after a 4:20 p.m. call and, as of September 20 and 21, remained hospitalized, awake, and breathing on his own.
• The money line: Evans wrote that $500,000 in immediately available funds would resolve claims against Thompson, or he would file a motion for leave tied to a USB exhibit.
• The federal brake: Leibowitz entered a vexatious-litigant order on August 3 in Evans v. Fitzgerald; Evans says that order is on appeal.
• The stage: Luxor has posted dark dates through September 26, with September 28 still listed for sale.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• The medical finding: Schlicher has not confirmed a suicide attempt or named a drug, and no hospital has released a diagnosis.
• The recording: Evans says the video was deleted under the 2024 settlement; Bitman’s notice treats a sexually explicit recording as something that could still be lodged.
• The cause: No filing or statement by Thompson’s team proves the court fight produced the overdose. The two events sat on the same calendar. That is all the record shows.

In a 2022 interview, Thompson described a tight personal rule around drugs. He said he was “completely sober,” did not smoke marijuana, and did not think he had been drunk since high school. He also said he had “a little Crown on the rocks right before a show” and a glass of red wine after, and added, “I’m definitely not the drug guy.” A suspected prescription overdose four years later does not settle that self-portrait. It only shows how little of his private medical life the residency ever had to disclose until Friday.

A New Broward Suit Against Thompson’s Counsel

Four days after Bitman’s notice, Evans sued the lawyers. On September 7 he filed, pro se, a September 7 complaint against the lawyers in Broward Circuit Court, naming Bitman and Bitman, O’Brien & Morat, PLLC, plus Alice Ferot and AXS Law Group PLLC, who had appeared for Creative Artists Agency and Steve Levine in a related federal file. He demanded a jury. He asked for more than $50,000.

WHAT EVANS PUT ON THE LAWYERS

• The notice: He says Bitman’s September 3 caption converted a disputed settlement letter into a public accusation of criminal extortion and cited Florida and federal criminal statutes the letter did not support.
• The omitted line: He says Bitman had the sentence “It is not a threat” in hand and still chose a title that adjudicated a felony.
• The USB step: He says Path A requested payment for a civil release, and that the fallback was a motion for leave to lodge a USB for court-directed, in-camera review, not a leak.
• The other firm: He separately accuses Ferot of using a disputed December 3, 2025, stipulation of dismissal in Evans v. Creative Artists Agency, No. 1:25-cv-25484, before he had even been enrolled for electronic notice.

After that hospitalization, Evans said he was sorry Thompson “apparently did something to hurt himself.” He added that he does not consider Scott a bad person, that a few bad decisions were “not a reason to hurt himself,” and that “it’s not my fault.” He also said Thompson is “still young and has a big life ahead of him.” Those sentences sit in the same week as the $500,000 path. They do not cancel the docket.

Friends on the Strip Ask Him to Stay

Schlicher said Thompson has been reading notes from people who told him his comedy got them through hard stretches of their own lives, and that those notes have meant a great deal in recovery. She said humor is still how he connects, including with the medical staff in the room. She asked for privacy for him and his family.

Brad Garrett, who works his own comedy club on the MGM side of the Strip, posted a photograph with Thompson and Ray Romano and wrote directly to him.

Oh my beautiful, talented friend. We’re ALL thanking our lucky stars that you’re ok. Please take this time to remember how appreciated and loved you are by so many. (Except Ray. It’s a long story, just trust me.) We’re here for you. We need you okay. YOU need you okay. Whatever it takes we’re here for you. You’re getting a second chance for a reason. Use it wisely.

Brad Garrett, actor and comedian, public message on September 19

The first wave of public comment, before the $500,000 emails were widely read, reached for a sad-clown joke about a prop comic who cannot go see his own show. That gag is cheap and old. It also points at the job. Six nights a week, the Atrium Showroom asks the same man to walk out with a trunk of props and fix the room. On September 18 the room was still on the grid at 8 p.m. He was already in an ambulance.

As of September 21 he was still in a hospital bed, and Luxor was still selling September 28. The Broward file is still open. So is the question of when, or whether, the orange trunk goes back under the pyramid lights.

If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988 in the United States to reach the 24/7 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, or use the chat at that site. The service is free and confidential.

Disclaimer: This article is news reporting on a hospitalization, a Las Vegas show calendar, and pending civil filings. It is informational only and is not medical, legal, or mental-health advice, and it is not a finding that any person committed a crime or that any court paper caused the overdose. Readers who are in distress should contact a qualified clinician or the 988 lifeline before acting on anything in this story, and parties with a stake in the Florida cases should consult a licensed attorney. Figures, show dates, and case statuses reflect the public statements and dockets described above and can change as hospitals, hotels, and courts update their records.