Colin Quinn

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Colin Quinn bigraphy, stories - American comedian

Colin Quinn : biography

June 6, 1959 –

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.

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, Greg Giraldo, 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.comedycentral.com

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". 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 "" 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.

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

Year Title Role Notes
1987 Three Men and a Baby Gift shop Clerk
1988 The|Cosby Show}} Davey Herbeck Television series1 episode
1992 The|Ben Stiller Show}} Guest Television series1 episode
1993 Who’s the Man? Frankie Flynn
1995 The|Larry Sanders Show}} Cully Television series1 episode
1995.1|1995-2000}} Saturday Night Live Various Television series97 episodes
1996 The|Christmas Tree|The Christmas Tree (film)}} Tom Television film
1996 Celtic Pride Writer
1997 Pulp Comics: Jim Breuer Cop Television film
1998 A Night at the Roxbury Dooey
2002-2004 Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn Himself/Host Television series
2003 Crooked Lines Annoying customer
2003 Windy City Heat Talk show guest Television film
2005 Inked Himself Television series
2006 Home Himself
2008 Harold Reedy
2010 Grown Ups Dickie Bailey
2011 Colin Quinn Long Story Short Himself Television film
2012 That’s My Boy Strip Club DJ
2013 Grown Ups 2 Dickie Bailey