Jim Florentine

Jim Florentine
Birth name James Fiorentino
Born August 18, 1964
United States
Medium Stand-up comedy, film, television
Nationality American
Years active 1993–present
Genres Stand-up comedy
Spouse Samantha Warner (m.2012-2015)
Website http://www.JimFlorentine.com

Jim Florentine (born August 18, 1964) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and television personality. He is best known for co-hosting That Metal Show on VH1 Classic, as well as voicing several Characters on Crank Yankers including Special Ed and Bobby Fletcher.

Currently, he is touring the country performing solo and with Don Jamieson.

Early life

In 1993, he began his career in comedy clubs in New York City.[1]

Career

In July 2001, Florentine released Terrorizing Telemarketers Volume 1. After numerous plays on the Howard Stern Radio Show, his CD ranking on Amazon.com went from 282,363 to number 2. The only artist ahead of him was the Backstreet Boys. Later that week, Florentine's CD came in at #17 on the Internet Billboard charts.

After the release of Terrorizing Telemarketers Volume 2 in late 2001, Jimmy Kimmel and Adam Carolla took a liking to Florentine's prank calls and hired him for a show to debut in June 2002 on Comedy Central called Crank Yankers. Florentine played Special Ed, a mentally retarded teenager, and Bobby Fletcher, a despicable, alcoholic slob who is the older cousin of Ed.

After season 1, Eminem took a liking to Florentine's characters and flew him out to his Detroit studio to do prank calls together for the upcoming season of Crank Yankers. The following year in 2004, Eminem and Florentine did a bit together on the MTV Music awards show where Eminem beat up Special Ed, who kept annoying him (and tore his leg off). Crank Yankers lasted three seasons on Comedy Central. The show moved over to MTV2 in 2006 for one season. Florentine's Special Ed character that he created is still played at various sporting events at stadiums across the USA.

Florentine was featured on the series premiere of Down and Dirty with Jim Norton, a stand-up comedy series that aired on HBO on October 3, 2008. The series spotlights new and established talent, including Artie Lange, Bill Burr (Chappelle Show), Patrice O'Neal, and Andrew Dice Clay. Lemmy, leader of the heavy metal band Motörhead, serves as the musical director.

Later that year, That Metal Show which Florentine hosts made its debut on VH1 Classic. It is described as "The Tonight Show for AC/DC fans". He is also co-hosting along with Eddie Trunk and Don Jamieson.

Florentine has been seen on The Apprentice, Comedy Central's Mother Load, HBO's Inside the NFL, The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn, The Opie and Anthony Show, Opie with Jim Norton, The Howard Stern Show, Spike TV's Video Game Awards, MTV Music Video Awards, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Last Call with Carson Daly, Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn on Comedy Central, VH1's The List, and Louie Anderson's Comedy Showcase. He also voiced the redneck radio host Bobbie Ray in the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories.

He has a series of prank call CDs known as Terrorizing Telemarketers Volumes 1–5.[2] The CDs feature a series of recorded telephone conversations, often with Florentine receiving calls from telemarketers, wherein he turns the tables on often aggressive salespeople by being deliberately difficult and creating awkward situations.

In 2004, he worked one season on HBO's Inside the NFL performing various comedy sketches. The show won an Emmy that season and Florentine has proudly said in various interviews that when he was single he kept it on his night stand and it would close the deal anytime he had a date over. He called it his "Mariano Rivera".

At the same time, Florentine released two hidden camera DVDs called Meet The Creeps where he and his partner Don Jamieson pull outrageous pranks on people. The DVD has got in the hands of some Comedy Central executives and they brought Meet The Creeps to their broadband channel called Motherload. After the two successful seasons, Comedy Central did a Meet The Creeps pilot for the network. The pilot was deemed too mean spirited and the show never made it on the network.

Between 2004 and 2008, he made three appearances on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on ABC. He also appeared on The Late Late Show Craig Kilborn. In 2007, Florentine appeared on the last episode of The Apprentice in season 4 doing his edgy stand-up comedy at a conservative charity event. He asked Trump's partner George if he wears a diaper. He has not appeared on The Apprentice since.

He is an occasional guest on the late-night Fox News Channel show Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld.

Later in 2010, Florentine appeared in the feature film A Little Help as Brian.

In 2011, Florentine launched his weekly podcast called Comedy, Metal, Midgets. It is one of the most popular comedy podcasts landing in the top 20 every week. https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/jim-florentine-podcast/id427360363.

On October 25, 2011, Florentine released his stand-up CD on Metal Blade Records called Cringe N Purge. It landed at #3 on the iTunes charts and #5 on the Comedy Billboard Charts.

In June 2012, Florentine hosted the OMA Awards for MTV that aired worldwide. In August 2012 That Metal Show that Jim co hosts on VH1 Classic will be going into its 11th season. Florentine also opened for the band Metallica at Orionfest festival which attracted over 50,000 fans.

On September 4, 2012, Florentine released his second CD on Metal Blade Records called Awful Jokes From My First Comedy Notebook. That CD also landed at #3 on the iTunes Charts and No. 10 on the Comedy Billboard Charts. Jim is only the third comedian ever to have two CDs land in the top 10 in the same year. The concept for this CD was that Jim stumbled across his first comedy notebooks from when he first started doing comedy back in the early 1990s. He could not believe how bad his early jokes were and decided to share them with his fans and went into a recording studio and read his awful jokes directly out of his notebook. The CD has received critical acclaim in the comedy world for taking a huge risk. http://www.comedy-reviews.com/2012/09/jim-florentines-awful-jokes-from-my.html.

On April 17, 2013, radio personality Marc Maron posted a lengthy interview with Florentine on his What the Fuck podcast series.

On September 15, 2013 Florentine's voice will be heard on Adult Swim's Aqua TV Show Show and will soon be seen on the upcoming season of "Californication." He was recently on Girls and Inside Amy Schumer.

Filmography

Year Film Role Notes
1998 White Chicks, Incorporated Bill
2002 Rock Bottom Miller Davis
2003 Secret War Getty
2004 Grace and the Storm Gio
2005 Eminem's Making the Ass Special Ed / Little Em' Voice only
2006 Beer League Crispino
2010 A Little Help Brian

Television work

Year Film Role Notes
1997 Apt. 2F Comic
2003–2007 Crank Yankers Special Ed / Bobby Fletcher
2008–present That Metal Show Self
2014 Californication Jim

Video games

Discography

DVDs

References

  1. ↑ "Exit Interview: Jim Florentine". Philadelphia (magazine). 2008. Retrieved 2011-01-04.
  2. ↑ Reviews

External links