Jim David
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jim David is an American stand-up comedian, actor and writer. He is originally from Asheville, North Carolina, and lives in New York City.
Contents |
[edit] Stand-Up Beginnings
Growing up in North Carolina, David played Phyllis Diller and Jonathan Winters records until they were ruined and voraciously read Mad Magazine, even creating his own comedy magazine entitled "Icky." He made his stage debut at age 9 as a Munchkin in The Wizard of Oz, and by college had appeared in over 50 plays.
After attending Furman University and Southern Methodist University, he moved to New York, appeared in several Off-Broadway and Regional theater productions, and did commercials and voice-overs. His New York theater career led him to remark, "I came to New York to be in the theater, but the theater said, 'we don't see you as an actor, we see you as an usher.'" However, he did appear on Broadway in the musical The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public in 1994, directed by Tommy Tune and Peter Masterson, receiving better reviews than the production.
He became a director and directed plays (among them Candide, The Skin Of Our Teeth, Waiting For Godot, Dark Of The Moon, Noises Off, Jesus Christ Superstar and Molière's The Learned Ladies Off-Broadway) and taught theater in high schools and community theaters. In 1986 he became a stand-up comedian full-time.
[edit] Comedy career
David's comedy, a free-form conversational style featuring characters, stories, one-liners and social and political comment, has been seen at many venues worldwide. He has performed at many comedy festivals including Montreal's Just For Laughs Festival and HBO's US Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colorado.
He currently is featured as one of the stars of Laughing Liberally, a political comedy show that made its debut at New York's Town Hall in 2006.
His one-man show for the theater, "South Pathetic," in which he played himself and 10 characters, detailed his experiences directing the worst community theater in the South in a production of A Streetcar Named Desire. It was performed at the prestigious Williamstown Theatre Festival in Williamstown, Mass., as well in New York and other regional theaters.
[edit] Television
He has appeared on many television comedy shows, most notably his special Comedy Central Presents Jim David, and a two-year stint on Comedy Central's Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn. The show featured many of the performers he worked with at the Greenwich Village club Comedy Cellar and is based on the freewheeling political arguments they had off-stage at the "comedian's table" at the Olive Tree Cafe, the restaurant above the club. Often featuring as much of the comedians "roasting" each other as discussions of current events, the show was cancelled in November of 2004 despite a large cult following.
David also appeared on many television shows as a comedian or commentator, among them Comedy Central's Out On The Edge, Comic Cabana, USO Comedy Tour, Comic Remix and Friar's Club Roast Of Rob Reiner, Bravo's Queer Eye For The Straight Guy and Greatest Things About Being Queer, ABC's The View, A&E's Caroline's Comedy Hour and Evening At The Improv.
[edit] Magazines
David is a contributing writer to The Advocate. He has also written for the New York Blade, Washington Blade, and US Weekly.
[edit] Internet
David was a staff-writer for Dailycomedy.com and writes humorous political pieces for The Huffington Post, viewable at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-david/.
[edit] Discography
Eat Here And Get Gas, CD, 2000, rereleased by Stand Up! Records, 2007
Live From Jimville, CD, 2003, rereleased by Stand Up! Records, 2008
[edit] Quotes
- The thing about your family is that you're connected forever by blood relationship to a group of folks who are really not your kind of people.
- It makes sense that I work in nightclubs, because when I was a kid, our home had a two-drink minimum.
- I went to a gym and said, "How much is it for a year?" and the guy said, "It's gonna take longer than a year."
- White people are scared to go to a black neighborhood because they think they're going to get mugged. The only time I was mugged in a black neighborhood was by a white guy who grabbed me screaming, "Get me the hell out of here!"
- A man in Texas said to me, "I didn't like what you said about Texans being stupid, boy. If I had my gun you would be dead." I said, "Well, I'm glad you are so stupid you forgot to bring it."
- My nephew got one of those video games where you can pretend you are Lee Harvey Oswald and assassinate JFK in the motorcade. I think that's outrageous. I think you should be able to pick the president.
- George Bush outlined his plan for postwar Iraq, then he colored it.
- Being gay is not a choice. It's not like you wake up one morning and go, "I'm tired of corn flakes. I think I'll have a cock."
- I was standing in Manhattan, a man came up and said, "they ought to take all these homos and put them on an island." I said, "Merry Christmas, Bozo, you're on it."
