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Colin Quinn (b. June 1959) is an Irish-American comedian, best known for his
five years in the cast of Saturday Night Live.
Colin Quinn's gravelly accent and 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 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.
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 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.
 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," a line from a 1993 hit
country song from Collin Raye. During his time on SNL, Quinn often struggled to
read from cue cards or a teleprompter. 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 . The role was
taken by Seth Green.
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
Impersonations on SNL
Dale Jarrett
Elvis Costello
Gerry Adams
Leon Panetta
Robert De Niro in
the now infamous "Joe Pesci Show" sketch where the real Robert De Niro and Joe
Pesci make a surprise appearance.
Post-SNL
career
After leaving SNL, Quinn had a sketch comedy show on NBC called The Colin Quinn
Show that lasted for only three episodes in 2002, after being canceled due to
critical fans, and mediocre ratings.
Quinn became host of Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn on Comedy Central in 2003. 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 Oneal) with Quinn as host, discussing various political issues. These
conversations often seemed heated and almost violent, but tended to be affectionate
at heart. Quinn gave many comedians exposure on the show, which ran for roughly 250
episodes over a two-year period. Quinn often complained on-air about the show's
ratings, and made many self-deprecating comments about the state of his career.
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. Colin used to appear on a top ten podcast on MySpace
with friend and fellow comedian Robert Kelly but suddenly stopped citing reasons
that he thought it resembled too closely of a radioshow. Colin Quinn is also a
regular guest on The Opie & Anthony Show. Recently Colin 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.
Source : Some of the information on this page came
from a Wikipedia article and is licensed under the GNU Documentation
License. ©2008 www.geneticmatrix.com.
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Colin
Quinn - Manifestor - Biography
