Steven Wright

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other persons named Steven Wright, see Steven Wright (disambiguation).
Steven Wright
Wright at Tufts University, 1994
Wright at Tufts University, 1994
Birth name Steven Alexander Wright
Born December 6, 1955 (1955-12-06) (age 52)
Burlington, Massachusetts, U.S.
Medium stand-up, film, television
Nationality American
Years active 1979 - present
Genres Surreal humor, Wit/Word play, Observational comedy, Musical comedy
Influences Woody Allen, George Carlin[1]
Influenced Mitch Hedberg, Demetri Martin, Jimmy Carr
Notable works and roles I Have a Pony
K-Billy DJ in Reservoir Dogs
Website StevenWright.com
Academy Awards
Best Short Film, Live Action
1988 The Appointments of Dennis Jennings

Steven Alexander Wright (born December 6, 1955) is an Academy Award-winning American stand-up comedian, actor, and writer. He is known for his distinctly lethargic voice and slow, deadpan delivery of ironic, witty, deeply philosophical and sometimes confusing or nonsensical jokes and one-liners with overly-contrived situations.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Wright was born in Burlington, Massachusetts, the son of Dolly Wright and an electronics company executive father.[2] Wright attended Emerson College and began performing stand-up comedy in 1982.[3]

[edit] Career

Wright's 1985 comedy album entitled I Have a Pony, released on Warner Bros. Records, received critical acclaim and was nominated for a Grammy Award. In 1989, he won an Academy Award for his short film, The Appointments of Dennis Jennings. In 1992, Wright had a recurring role on the television sitcom Mad About You. He also supplied the voice of the radio DJ in the film Reservoir Dogs.

There are numerous lists of jokes attributed to Wright circulating on the Internet, sometimes of dubious origin. Wright has stated that "someone showed me a site, and half of it that said I wrote it, I didn't write. Recently, I saw one, and I didn't write any of it. What's disturbing is that with a few of these jokes, I wish I had thought of them. A giant amount of them, I'm embarrassed that people think I thought of them, because some are really bad."[4]

After his 1990 comedy special Wicker Chairs and Gravity, Wright continued to do live stand-up performances, but was largely absent from television, only doing occasional guest spots on late night talk shows. In 2006, Wright noticed that much of his audience in recent years was getting older and wanted to reach out to a generation that only knew him from films like Half Baked. He produced his first stand-up special in 16 years, Steven Wright: When the Leaves Blow Away, originally aired on Comedy Central on October 21st, 2006 and again a day after its DVD release date, Wednesday, April 24.

In a 2005 poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, he was voted amongst the top 50 comedy acts ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders. He was named #23 on Comedy Central's list of the 100 greatest standups of all time.

On September 25, 2007, Wright released a follow-up to I Have a Pony, titled I Still Have a Pony (a CD release of the material from When the Leaves Blow Away).

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Discography

  • I Have a Pony, Warner Bros. Records CD ( 1985)
  • A Steven Wright Special, HBO DVD (1985)
  • The Appointments of Dennis Jennings, DVD (1989)
  • One Soldier, DVD (1999)
  • When the Leaves Blow Away, DVD (2006)
  • I Still Have a Pony, Comedy Central Records CD (2007)

[edit] Notable jokes

  • "Curiosity killed the cat, but for a while I was a suspect."
  • "I stayed up all night playing poker with tarot cards. I got a full house, and four people died."
  • "I'm living on a one-way dead-end street. I don't know how I ever got there."
  • "Whenever I fill out an application and it says 'In case of an emergency notify...,' I put Doctor. What the hell is my mother gonna do?"
  • "I went into this restaurant that serves you breakfast at any time, so I ordered French toast during the Renaissance."
  • "I wish my first word was 'quote', so when I died I could say 'un-quote'."
  • "I finally got around to reading the dictionary. Turns out the zebra did it."
  • "If it's a penny for your thoughts, and you put your two cents in, someone's making a penny."
  • "I saw a subliminal advertising executive, but only for a second."
  • "I spilled spot remover on my dog. Now he's gone."
  • "It's a small world, but I wouldn't want to paint it."
  • "Next week I'm gonna have an MRI to find out whether or not I have claustrophobia."
  • "They say you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone. So I got rid of everything to see what I had."
  • "When I woke up, everything in my apartment had been stolen...and replaced with exact replicas."
  • "Do you think when they asked George Washington for his ID, he'd just pull out a quarter?"
  • "I went to the bank and asked to borrow a cup of money. They said, "What for?" I said, "I'm going to buy some sugar."
  • "My theory of evolution, is that Darwin was adopted."
  • "24-hour banking? I haven't got time for that."
  • "I went to a store that had a sign that said "Open 24 Hours" and it was closed...I asked the manager 'Why are you closing? It says you're open 24 hours.' He said 'Not in a row.'"

[edit] Award nominations

  • Grammys 2008 Best Comedy Album - I Still Have A Pony

[edit] References

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
  1. ^ The Comedy Couch - Steven Wright Interview
  2. ^ Steven Wright Biography (1955-)
  3. ^ Steven Wright Biography - Yahoo! Movies
  4. ^ Interview with Steven Wright

[edit] External links