Colin Quinn
Colin Quinn, July 2005
Born	(1959-06-06) June 6, 1959 (age 53) Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Medium	Stand-up, television, film
Nationality	American
Years active	1985–present
Genres	Observational comedy, black comedy, sketch comedy, satire, political satire, news satire
Subject(s)	American politics, current events, race relations, embarrassing hangovers
Influences	Richard Pryor,[1] George Carlin[2]
Influenced	Dave Attell[3]
Notable works and roles	Co-host of Remote Control Weekend Update anchor on Saturday Night Live Host of Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn

Colin Edward Quinn (born June 6, 1959) is an American stand-up comedian and writer best known for his five years in the cast of Saturday Night Live, as the sidekick/announcer of MTV's late 1980s gameshow Remote Control and as host of Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn on Comedy Central from 2002–2004.

Early years[link]

Quinn was born in Brooklyn, the son of teachers ^[4] of Irish descent, and was raised in the Park Slope section of the borough. He attended and graduated from John Dewey High School. His natural idiosyncratic mannerisms are trademarks of his stand-up act, headlining at top comedy clubs across the country, including Caroline's Comedy Club in New York City. Before becoming a comedian, Quinn attended Stony Brook University for a year and worked as a bartender. He stopped drinking in the early 1980s after several bad experiences with alcohol, including drunken blackouts and nights spent in jail.^[5]

After quitting bartending, Quinn began his stand-up career in 1984. He first achieved fame in 1987 as co-host of the MTV game show Remote Control, which he did for three years. In 1989, he hosted A&E stand-up showcase Caroline's Comedy Hour, and acted in and wrote the comedic short/music video Going Back to Brooklyn along with Ben Stiller. Much of his early comedy career focused on stand-up and writing for shows like In Living Color. He later co-wrote the story and was an associate producer for the movie Celtic Pride, starring Damon Wayans and Dan Aykroyd.

[edit] Saturday Night Live

In 1995, Quinn was hired by Saturday Night Live as a writer and featured player until 1997–1998 season, when he became a full cast member. He established himself on the show with characters such as "Lenny the Lion" and "Joe Blow", and did the recurring segment "Colin Quinn Explains the New York Times". Quinn took over as host of the Weekend Update segment in January 1998 after Norm Macdonald's firing, and anchored the segment until departing SNL in 2000. Quinn would often comment on the highly publicized media circuses such as Clinton-Lewinsky Scandal and the Microsoft Anti-Trust Trial. At the end of each Weekend Update segment, he would use the catchphrase, "That's my story and I'm sticking to it." He was not thrilled about his run on the show, declaring on an episode of Tough Crowd, "I don't miss it."

During his SNL years, Quinn made his Broadway debut in his one-man show, Colin Quinn: An Irish Wake co-written with fellow comedian Lou DiMaggio, and was offered the role of Scott Evil in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery by Mike Myers, which he turned down to make time for his writing projects.^[6] The role was taken by Seth Green.

[edit] Recurring characters on SNL

• Gene, an ex-convict who does menial jobs.
• Joe Blow, a blue-collar worker from Queens who complains about the declining quality of his neighborhood.
• Lenny The Lion, a lion, similar to his Joe Blow character, only he talks about trying to better himself.
• Rolf, a racist who always has second thoughts about his behavior.

Celebrity characters[link]

• Dale Jarrett
• Elvis Costello
• Gerry Adams
• Leon Panetta
• Robert De Niro in the "Joe Pesci Show" sketch where the real Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci make surprise appearances.

[edit] Post-SNL career

After leaving SNL, Quinn had a sketch comedy show on NBC called The Colin Quinn Show in 2002 that lasted for only three episodes.

Quinn became host of Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn on Comedy Central in December 2002. The show immediately followed The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and was one of several attempts to create a companion show for Stewart's program. However, Tough Crowd never managed to keep the majority of its lead-in audience. Although it was renewed through the 2005 television season, Tough Crowd was placed on indefinite hiatus in October 2004, with its "final" episode airing on November 4, 2004. The show featured four comedians (often his friends such as Dave Attell, Jim Norton, and Patrice O'Neal) with Quinn as host, discussing various political issues in conversations that were often heated. Quinn gave many comedians exposure on the show, which ran for roughly 250 episodes over a two-year period. His stand up material was also used in Comedy Central's animated stand up series Shorties Watchin' Shorties. ^[7]

Colin performs regularly at the Comedy Cellar in New York City, where many top comedians perform when not on the road. In 2004, he was named #56 on Comedy Central's list of the 100 greatest standups of all time. He was also named to the Irish America Magazine list of the "Top 100 Irish Americans of the Year".^[8]

He would later be heard as the "unofficial co-host" on the Nick DiPaolo show on the now-defunct 92.3 Free FM in New York City, airing Monday-Friday from noon to 3pm. Quinn and DiPaolo were originally slated to host the show together on WJFK-FM, but the station decided not to pick up the show. Nick often referred to Quinn as "the joke fairy", due to his propensity for telling a joke and hanging up the phone before getting a response. Quinn is also a regular guest on The Opie & Anthony Show. Recently Quinn has discussed what he refers to as thousands of pages of "manifestos" that he's written since his departure from Tough Crowd, but never elaborated on the contents.

More recently, Quinn played Dickie Bailey, the childhood town rival to Lenny Feder (Adam Sandler's character) in Sandler's movie Grown Ups, released in the summer of 2010.

In 2010, Quinn premiered his one-man show "Colin Quinn Long Story Short" on Broadway at the Helen Hayes Theatre, directed by Jerry Seinfeld. Comically channeling the demise of various world empires, Quinn takes a satirical look at the history of the world in 75 minutes. Quinn recorded a special performance of the show that aired on HBO on April 9, 2011. He explores the attitudes, appetites and habits that toppled some of the world's most powerful nations.^[9]

In summer 2011, Quinn toured "Colin Quinn Long Story Short" to Guild Hall in East Hampton, Philadelphia Theatre Company in Philadelphia, and other cities including Chicago at the Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place.

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Colin Quinn at the Internet Movie Database
• Colin Quinn on National Public Radio in 2003
• Comedy Cellar - a Comedy Club in New York and one at which Colin always performs.
• SNL Transcripts: Colin Quinn - contains searchable database of almost all of Quinn's SNL works
• ColinQuinn.com - Website for Colin Quinn's Broadway show "Long Story Short" directed by Jerry Seinfeld.
• [1]

Sam Roberts
Sam Roberts perfoming at Lollapalooza in 2007
Background information
Born	(1974-10-02) October 2, 1974 (age 37) Westmount, Quebec, Canada
Origin	Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Genres	Rock, Indie Rock
Occupations	Singer-songwriter
Instruments	Vocals Guitar Bass Violin
Years active	2000 - present
Labels	Secret Brain MapleMusic Recordings Universal Music Canada Cordova Bay UK Pony Canyon (Japan) Lost Highway Records (USA)
Website	Sam Roberts Band
Notable instruments
Gibson ES-335, Fender Telecaster

Sam Roberts (born October 2, 1974) is a Juno Award-winning Canadian rock singer-songwriter, whose 2001 debut release, The Inhuman Condition, became one of the bestselling independent releases in Quebec and Canadian music history.

Life and career[link]

Born in Westmount three weeks after his parents immigrated to Montreal from South Africa, Sam Roberts grew up on Cedar Avenue in Pointe-Claire, where his family moved when he was five years old. He attended St. Edmund Elementary School in Beaconsfield, Loyola High School in N.D.G. and John Abbott College in Ste. Anne de Bellevue before graduating from McGill University in Montreal. Roberts formed the band that eventually became known as William in 1993. The band's name was changed to Northstar in 1996. Although the band gained some notice in independent rock circles, they never broke through to a national audience and broke up in 1999 after failing to release an album.^[1] Roberts' bandmate George Donoso went on to significant success in indie rock circles with The Dears but Roberts struggled for several years afterward.

After disbanding Northstar in 1999, Roberts promptly recorded the full-length and now very collectible independent debut, Brother Down, at his home. In 2001, Roberts recorded and independently released a six-song EP, The Inhuman Condition. The EP sold slowly at first but following a re-release in the summer of 2002 on MapleMusic Recordings, his first single, "Brother Down", became one of the biggest Canadian hits of the year and was followed by the second single, "Don't Walk Away Eileen", in the fall.

Roberts then signed to Universal Music and released his full-length major label debut, We Were Born in a Flame, in June 2003. That album's singles, "Where Have All the Good People Gone?" and "Hard Road", received a large amount of success, although mainly in Canada.

The band's second album, Chemical City, was released in Canada in April 2006. The first single was "The Gate", which quickly shot to number one on Canadian rock radio. The second single in Canada was "Bridge to Nowhere", which won the Juno Award for Video of the Year in 2007. "With a Bullet", the third song used to promote the album on Canadian radio, received little attention and no video was made for it.

Roberts' third album, Love at the End of the World, was released in May 2008. It debuted at the number one position on the Canadian album chart,^[2] a first for Roberts. The lead single, "Them Kids", debuted on iTunes on March 4, 2008.

Sam Roberts is trilingual, speaking English, French, and Spanish. He married his high school sweetheart Jen in 2004 and they have three children.^[3]

Sam Roberts and his bandmates released their fourth studio album, "Collider", on May 10, 2011.^[4] It is the first album under the moniker "Sam Roberts Band" instead of "Sam Roberts".^[5] The first single, "I Feel You" was officially released to Canadian radio on February 28, with an iTunes Canada release of March 8.

Band members[link]

The members of the Sam Roberts Band as of 2011 are:

• Sam Roberts (lead singer, guitar)
• Dave Nugent (lead guitar)
• Eric Fares (keyboard, guitar)
• James Hall (bass)
• Josh Trager (drums)

Discography[link]

• Brother Down (2000)
• We Were Born in a Flame (2003)
• Chemical City (2006)
• Love at the End of the World (2008)
• Collider (2011)

Awards and nominations[link]

Juno Awards[link]

The Juno Awards is a Canadian awards ceremony presented annually by the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.

MuchMusic Video Awards[link]

The MuchMusic Video Awards is an annual awards ceremony presented by the Canadian music video channel MuchMusic. Roberts has received five awards from fourteen nominations.^[6][7][8][9]

Notable performances[link]

• July 31, 2003: Opening performer at Molson Canadian Rocks for Toronto, otherwise referred to as SARStock, promoted to mitigate the economic downturn in Toronto following a limited outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).
• June 12, 2003: National Hockey League's (NHL) NHL Awards ceremony main performer
• November 16, 2003: Canadian Football League's (CFL) 91st Grey Cup halftime show in Regina, Saskatchewan.
• July 2, 2005: Live 8 concert in Barrie, Ontario.
• January 1, 2008: AMP Energy NHL Winter Classic, outdoor ice hockey game in Buffalo, New York.
• August 2, 2008: Opened for The Eagles in Moncton, New Brunswick
• March 29, 2009: Performed at the 2009 Juno Awards
• July 18,19 2009: Performed at Folk on the Rocks, in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.
• August 7, 2009: Performed a free concert at Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia, in honour of Sidney Crosby and his Stanley Cup win.
• February 20, 2010: Performed at 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.
• December 31, 2010: Performed free concert in Brampton, Ontario for New Year's Eve celebrations.
• June 25, 2011: Performed at Bobcaygeon Musicfest in Bobcaygeon.
• July 1, 2011: Performed a free concert in Ottawa on Canada Day for Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and his wife Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge.
• September 9, 2011: Performed at University of Toronto's FROSH week.

See also[link]

• Canadian rock
• Music of Canada

References[link]

External links[link]

• Sam Roberts Band
• Sam Roberts on Myspace
• Sam Roberts at the Internet Movie Database
• Sam Roberts Band collection at the Internet Archive's live music archive

Artie Lange
Lange in September 2006
Birth name	Arthur Steven Lange, Jr.
Born	(1967-10-11) October 11, 1967 (age 44)[1] Livingston, New Jersey, U.S.
Medium	Stand-up, Television, Film, Radio
Nationality	American
Years active	1987–present[2][3]
Genres	Observational comedy, Improvisational comedy, Insult comedy, Black comedy
Subject(s)	Personal life, Self-deprecation, Human sexuality, Pop culture, Italian American culture, Professional sports, Recreational drug use, Drinking culture, Current events
Influences	Howard Stern, John Belushi, Richard Pryor,[4] George Carlin, Woody Allen, Bill Murray, Jackie Gleason, Peter Sellers, David Letterman, Richard Lewis[5]
Website	artie-lange.com

Arthur Steven "Artie" Lange, Jr. (born October 11, 1967) is an American actor, comedian and radio personality best known for his tenures with the The Howard Stern Show and the comedy sketch series MADtv.

Lange performed his first stand-up comedy routine at 19 years of age. He took up work as a longshoreman to help support his family, following the death of his quadriplegic father. In 1995, Lange starred in the first season of MADtv before leaving halfway through the second due to cocaine abuse and his subsequent arrest. After a period of rehabilitation, Lange featured in Dirty Work with Norm MacDonald, who brought Lange into the second season of his sitcom, The Norm Show. In 2001, Lange replaced Jackie Martling on The Howard Stern Show and stayed until late 2009, before a suicide attempt in early 2010 led to an eight-month stay in a psychiatric ward. Lange has released recordings of comedy performances – It's the Whiskey Talkin' (2004) and Jack and Coke (2009). He co-wrote, produced and starred in his film Artie Lange's Beer League in 2006, and co-wrote, with Anthony Bozza, the book Too Fat to Fish in 2008, which entered The New York Times Best Seller list at number one. In 2011, Lange returned to radio with Nick DiPaolo to co-host The Nick and Artie show.

Early life and education[link]

Lange was born on October 11, 1967 in Livingston Township, New Jersey, United States and was raised in Union Township. His mother Judy (née Caprio) was a housewife while his father, Arthur Sr., was a general contractor. His sister Stacy is a fashion designer.^{[citation needed]} Two weeks after Lange's birth, his father went on trial for counterfeiting money but was spared jail time out of the court's sympathy for his young son.^[1] In 2003, after some of the staff on The Howard Stern Show submitted a sample of their DNA for testing, it was revealed that Lange was approximately 25 per cent American Indian.^[6]

Lange played baseball during his time at Union High School, where he became an all-county third baseman.^[7] He spent his free time working with his father, who in October 1985, fell from a ladder and broke his back, becoming quadriplegic.^[8][9] Money soon became an issue within his family, and Lange's mother took a secretary job for income. "We took out a second mortgage. Medicaid paid for a nurse eight hours a day. When my mother got back from being a secretary all day, she had to take care of him. Every night, she set her alarm clock to turn him so he wouldn't get bedsores."^[8] The family contacted celebrities asking them to donate items for auction, and Howard Stern was the only one to respond, who sent an autographed K-Rock jacket in 1987, joking on the air "does this guy think that if he puts the jacket on he's going to walk again?" which Lange and his father found funny.^[8] His father died from an infection on February 1, 1990, four-and-a-half years after the accident.^[1][10]

In August 1985, Lange was arrested for attempted bank robbery. He claimed he was trying to flirt with the teller by passing her a note that said he was armed and demanded $50,000. The teller took it seriously, triggering a silent alarm. He was charged with disorderly conduct and entered community service in March 1986.^[11] As part of his probation, Lange attended the Connecticut School of Broadcasting from March to June 1987 as well as Seton Hall University for a short time before leaving. On June 12, 1987, at 19 years of age, Lange performed his first stand-up comedy routine at The Improv in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan. "I bombed for five minutes. Everyone thinks that they can do better. I was unprepared, I mumbled, and I forgot stuff. But I'm proud that I did it."^[3] In February 1991, Lange took up work as a longshoreman at Port Newark to help support his family.^[12][13]

Career[link]

[edit] Early comedy career and MADtv (1992–1997)

In 1992, Lange quit his job at Port Newark to focus on his comedy career. While searching for such work, his regular form of employment was driving a taxi in New York City.^[14] The flexibility of the job allowed him to perform 20-minute sets at the Comic Strip and resume work afterwards.^[15] Within the year Lange landed a role in a dinner theater play, touring restaurants and catering halls in New Jersey.^[16] He then co-formed an improv troupe called Live on Tape, which led to the group performing sell-out shows at Caroline's on Broadway in Manhattan.^[17] Lange was taken by William Morris Agency, where he first met Peter Principato, his manager of ten years.^[17]

In May 1995, Lange flew to Los Angeles to shoot the television pilot for MADtv, a sketch comedy show that was picked up by the Fox network.^[18] He landed a role as one of the eight original cast members from 8,000 comics who were screened, and moved to the West Coast in July.^[19] Lange attributed his hiring to the fact that he fit the John Belushi "mold" that was popular in sketch comedy.^[20] His most popular recurring character on the show was "That's My White Mama".^[21] Lange returned for the filming of the second season of MADtv in August 1996,^[22] but his time with the show came to an end when fellow cast and crew members attempted to have an intervention for him after a cocaine binge. Lange fled the studio, running through streets with his co-workers chasing after him. It ended in a supermarket, where he was arrested and sentenced to time served and probation.^[21]

In March 1997 the producers persuaded Lange to enter rehabilitation, and he checked into Honesty House, a rehab center in Stirling, New Jersey, for two months.^[23] His contract was not renewed for the third season, but Lange would make cameo appearances during the fifth and tenth seasons, including the show's final episode on May 16, 2009.^[24] That night he also appeared on Saturday Night Live, MADtv's rival show, in a non-speaking role.

[edit] Dirty Work and The Norm Show (1998–2001)

After Lange served a short jail term and a drug rehabilitation program, comedian Norm MacDonald, impressed by Lange's work on Mad TV, offered him a part in the 1998 movie Dirty Work. Although the film was unsuccessful during its theatrical run, Lange credits MacDonald and director Bob Saget with rejuvenating his comedy career, leading to several more film appearances and two lucrative television development deals.^[25] He then joined the cast of MacDonald's sitcom The Norm Show during its second season, staying until its cancellation the following year. Lange has since described this period as a personal high point but a creative low point. He enjoyed being paid $35,000 an episode, sleeping late, and being in healthy physical shape, as well as working with the cast, particularly with MacDonald and Laurie Metcalf; however, he disliked the show itself, referring to the material as "ridiculously lame, easy jokes."^[26]

[edit] The Howard Stern Show (2001–2009)

[edit] Replacing Jackie Martling and It's the Whiskey Talkin' (2001–2004)

Lange was introduced to The Howard Stern Show by his father in 1982.^[8] Following the departure of Jackie Martling, the show's head writer for 15 years, in March 2001,^{[citation needed]} Stern announced a "Win Jackie's Money" contest, in which various comedians would audition for Martling's seat by sitting in during shows. Those who sat in included Craig Gass, Doug Stanhope, Richard Jeni, Jim Florentine and Ron Zimmerman.^[27] "There were a lot of great funny guys - guys that were funnier than me...I remember saying to my manager, 'I am not the most talented guy in this group, but I guarantee that I'm the biggest fan of the show."^[3] After the cancellation of The Norm Show in April, Lange sat in for a number of shows between May and October before beginning full time on October 26, 2001.^[28] Since Lange joined the show, Stern has often teased him for his eating habits, gambling, drinking, drug use, and sleeping at work. Stern also makes a point to praise Lange's comedic talents. Lange had grown up listening to the show and was a fan to the point of being able to recall obscure details from years before on a regular basis.