Jim Florentine
Encyclopedia
James "Jim" Florentine is an American
stand-up comedian, actor, writer, comedian, voice artist, and performer. He is best known for hosting the That Metal Show
on Vh1 Classic
as well as performing Special Ed and Bobby Fletcher on Crank Yankers
.
Currently, he is touring the country performing solo and with Don Jamieson
and is part of The Killers of Comedy tour.
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 3 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 (Scary Movie 4
), 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's 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
, Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn, The Opie and Anthony
Show, 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. 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 3 appearances on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on ABC. He also appeared on The Late Late Show
with 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.
His brand new live comedy CD/DVD Cringe 'n' Purge has cracked the top 5 on the Billboard Current Comedy Chart and is also available on iTunes with three additional bonus tracks. The album peaked at #3 on the iTunes comedy charts alongside comedic stars Patton Oswalt, Doug Benson, Louis C.K. and more!
It was recorded live in Orlando, FL and released on October 25th on Metal Blade Records.
; he voiced Special Ed and Bobby Fletcher in Crank Yankers
, and reprised his role as Special Ed in Eminem's Making the Ass.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
stand-up comedian, actor, writer, comedian, voice artist, and performer. He is best known for hosting the That Metal Show
That Metal Show
That Metal Show is a talk show hosted by Eddie Trunk with co-hosts Jim Florentine and Don Jamieson. It premiered on VH1 Classic on November 15, 2008. New episodes air on VH1 Classic on Saturday nights and are rebroadcast throughout the week....
on Vh1 Classic
VH1 Classic
VH1 Classic is a television network, launched on May 8, 2000. It is operated as part of MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom and primarily features music videos and concert footage from the 1970s through the mid-1990s, though it formerly included a wider range of genres and time periods...
as well as performing Special Ed and Bobby Fletcher on Crank Yankers
Crank Yankers
Crank Yankers is an American TV show produced by Adam Carolla, Jimmy Kimmel and Daniel Kellison that featured actual prank calls made by show regulars and celebrity guests, and re-enacted onscreen by puppets for a visual aid to show the viewer what is happening in the call...
.
Currently, he is touring the country performing solo and with Don Jamieson
Don Jamieson (Comedian)
Don Jamieson is a stand-up comedian and is also well-known as one of the hosts of That Metal Show on VH1 Classic.-Biography:...
and is part of The Killers of Comedy tour.
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
Jimmy Kimmel
James Christian "Jimmy" Kimmel is an American television host and comedian. He is the host of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, a late-night talk show that airs on ABC. Prior to that, Kimmel was best known as the co-host of Comedy Central's The Man Show and Win Ben Stein's Money...
and Adam Carolla
Adam Carolla
Adam Carolla is an American radio personality, television host, comedian, and actor. He currently hosts The Adam Carolla Show, a talk show distributed as a podcast on the ACE Broadcasting Network...
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
Crank Yankers
Crank Yankers is an American TV show produced by Adam Carolla, Jimmy Kimmel and Daniel Kellison that featured actual prank calls made by show regulars and celebrity guests, and re-enacted onscreen by puppets for a visual aid to show the viewer what is happening in the call...
. 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
Eminem
Marshall Bruce Mathers III , better known by his stage name Eminem or his alter ego Slim Shady, is an American rapper, record producer, songwriter and actor. Eminem's popularity brought his group project, D12, to mainstream recognition...
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 3 seasons on Comedy Central
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated....
. 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
Stand-up comedy
Stand-up comedy is a comedic art form. Usually, a comedian performs in front of a live audience, speaking directly to them. Their performances are sometimes filmed for later release via DVD, the internet, and television...
series that aired on HBO on October 3, 2008. The series spotlights new and established talent, including Artie Lange
Artie Lange
Arthur Steven "Artie" Lange, Jr. is an American actor, comedian and radio personality best known for his tenures with the The Howard Stern Show and the comedy sketch series MADtv....
, Bill Burr
Bill Burr
William "Bill" Burr is an American stand-up comedian, radio host and actor.-Life and career:Burr was born in Canton, Massachusetts. His father was a dentist, and Bill worked as a hygienist for a short time. He began stand-up at age 23 after attending Emerson College. In 1995, he moved to New...
(Chappelle Show), Patrice O'Neal (Scary Movie 4
Scary Movie 4
Scary Movie 4 is the fourth film of the Scary Movie franchise, directed by David Zucker, written by Jim Abrahams, Craig Mazin and Pat Proft, and produced by Craig Mazin and Robert K. Weiss. It is distributed by The Weinstein Company via its Dimension Films unit in the U.S. and Television, and...
), and Andrew Dice Clay
Andrew Dice Clay
Andrew Dice Clay is an American comedian and actor who played the lead role in the film The Adventures of Ford Fairlane.Clay has been in several movies and has released a number of stand-up albums...
. Lemmy, leader of the heavy metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
band Motörhead, serves as the musical director.
Later that year, That Metal Show which Florentine hosts made its debut on VH1 Classic. It's described as "The Tonight Show for AC/DC fans". He is also co-hosting along with Eddie Trunk
Eddie Trunk
Eddie Trunk is an American music historian, radio personality, talk show host, and author best known as the host of several hard rock and heavy metal themed radio and television shows.- Current work :...
and Don Jamieson.
Florentine has been seen on The Apprentice
The Apprentice (U.S. TV series)
The Apprentice is an American reality television show hosted by real estate magnate, businessman and television personality Donald Trump, created by Mark Burnett and broadcast on NBC...
, Comedy Central's Mother Load, HBO's Inside the NFL
Inside the NFL
Inside the NFL is a weekly cable television sports show that focuses on the National Football League. It originally aired on HBO from 1977 through 2008...
, Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn, The Opie and Anthony
Opie and Anthony
Opie and Anthony are the hosts of The Opie & Anthony Show, a talk radio program airing in the United States and Canada on XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio. Since the merger of the two satellite companies, this is now called Sirius/XM...
Show, The Howard Stern Show, Spike TV
Spike TV
Spike is an American cable television channel. It launched on March 7, 1983 as The Nashville Network , a joint venture of WSM, Inc...
's Video Game Awards, MTV Music Video Awards, Jimmy Kimmel Live
Jimmy Kimmel Live
Jimmy Kimmel Live! is an American late-night talk show, created and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and broadcast on ABC.The nightly hour-long show made its debut on January 26, 2003, following Super Bowl XXXVII. Jimmy Kimmel Live! is produced by Jackhole Productions in association with ABC Studios...
, Last Call with Carson Daly
Last Call with Carson Daly
Last Call with Carson Daly is an American late night talk show that is broadcast on NBC. The show is hosted by Carson Daly, the half-hour show featuring celebrity interviews, documentary-style coverage of a topic, and musical performances. Last Call airs weeknights at 1:35 a.m. Eastern / 12:35 a.m....
, Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn
Colin Quinn
Colin Edward Quinn 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.-Early years:Quinn was...
on Comedy Central, VH1's The List, and Louie Anderson
Louie Anderson
Louie Perry Anderson is an American stand-up comedian. Anderson created the cartoon series Life with Louie, has written three books, and was the initial host of the second revival of the game show Family Feud, from 1999 to 2002....
's Comedy Showcase
Comedy Showcase
Comedy Showcase is a series of one-off comedy specials featuring some of Britain's fledgling comedy talent. Its format is reminiscent of the much earlier Comedy Playhouse....
. He also voiced the redneck
Redneck
Redneck is a historically derogatory slang term used in reference to poor, uneducated white farmers, especially from the southern United States...
radio host Bobbie Ray in the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories is a 2006 sandbox-style action video game developed by Rockstar Leeds in association with Rockstar North. It was published by Rockstar Games for the PlayStation Portable in late 2006 and later for the PlayStation 2 in March 2007. The game is the eighth...
.
He has a series of prank call CDs known as Terrorizing Telemarketers Volumes 1-5. 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
Inside the NFL
Inside the NFL is a weekly cable television sports show that focuses on the National Football League. It originally aired on HBO from 1977 through 2008...
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
Don Jamieson (Comedian)
Don Jamieson is a stand-up comedian and is also well-known as one of the hosts of That Metal Show on VH1 Classic.-Biography:...
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 3 appearances on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on ABC. He also appeared on The Late Late Show
The Late Late Show (CBS TV series)
The Late Late Show is an American late-night television talk and variety show on CBS hosted by Craig Ferguson since 2005. It immediately follows Late Show with David Letterman and is produced by Letterman's Worldwide Pants Incorporated...
with Craig Kilborn
Craig Kilborn
Craig Kilborn is an American actor and talk show host. He was the original host of The Daily Show, a former anchor on ESPN's SportsCenter, and Tom Snyder's successor on CBS' The Late Late Show. On June 28, 2010, he launched The Kilborn File after a six-year absence from television...
. 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
Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld
Red Eye w/Greg Gutfeld is a late-night/early-morning satirical talk show on the Fox News Channel, airing at 3:00 am ET Tuesday through Saturday. The show features panelists and guests discussing the latest news in politics, pop culture, entertainment, business, sports, and religion...
.
Later in 2010, Florentine appeared in the feature film A Little Help
A Little Help
A Little Help is a 2010 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Michael J. Weithorn. It follows the experiences of a dental hygienist following her unfaithful husband's sudden death...
as Brian.
Stand-up comedy
Florentine's primary occupation is a stand-up comedian and co-host of That Metal Show.His brand new live comedy CD/DVD Cringe 'n' Purge has cracked the top 5 on the Billboard Current Comedy Chart and is also available on iTunes with three additional bonus tracks. The album peaked at #3 on the iTunes comedy charts alongside comedic stars Patton Oswalt, Doug Benson, Louis C.K. and more!
It was recorded live in Orlando, FL and released on October 25th on Metal Blade Records.
Voice acting
Florentine's other occupation is a voice actorVoice acting
Voice acting is the art of providing voices for animated characters and radio and audio dramas and comedy, as well as doing voice-overs in radio and television commercials, audio dramas, dubbed foreign language films, video games, puppet shows, and amusement rides.Performers are called...
; he voiced Special Ed and Bobby Fletcher in Crank Yankers
Crank Yankers
Crank Yankers is an American TV show produced by Adam Carolla, Jimmy Kimmel and Daniel Kellison that featured actual prank calls made by show regulars and celebrity guests, and re-enacted onscreen by puppets for a visual aid to show the viewer what is happening in the call...
, and reprised his role as Special Ed in Eminem's Making the Ass.
Filmography
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | White Chicks, Incorporated | Bill | |
| 2002 | Rock Bottom Rock Bottom -Life:* The culmination of a descent to a place where a person has nothing left to lose in terms of possessions, status, wealth and perhaps even shelter, food and warmth as a result of self-destructive behaviour. Alcoholism and illegal drugs are some causes. Insomnia, paranoia... |
Miller Davis | |
| 2003 | Secret War Secret War The Laotian Civil War was a fight between the Communist Pathet Lao, often North Vietnamese of Lao ancestry, and the Royal Lao Government in which both the political rightists and leftists received heavy external support for a proxy war from the global Cold War superpowers... |
Getty | |
| 2004 | Grace and the Storm | Gio | |
| 2005 | Eminem's Making the Ass | Special Ed / Little Em' | Voice only |
| 2006 | Beer League Beer League Artie Lange's Beer League is a 2006 film written, produced, and starring Artie Lange. It was released in selected theaters on September 15, 2006 in the New Jersey, New York, Cleveland, and Philadelphia areas... |
Crispino | |
| 2010 | A Little Help A Little Help A Little Help is a 2010 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Michael J. Weithorn. It follows the experiences of a dental hygienist following her unfaithful husband's sudden death... |
Brian |
Television work
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | Apt. 2F | Comic | |
| 2003–2007 | Crank Yankers Crank Yankers Crank Yankers is an American TV show produced by Adam Carolla, Jimmy Kimmel and Daniel Kellison that featured actual prank calls made by show regulars and celebrity guests, and re-enacted onscreen by puppets for a visual aid to show the viewer what is happening in the call... |
Special Ed / Bobby Fletcher | |
| 2008–present | That Metal Show That Metal Show That Metal Show is a talk show hosted by Eddie Trunk with co-hosts Jim Florentine and Don Jamieson. It premiered on VH1 Classic on November 15, 2008. New episodes air on VH1 Classic on Saturday nights and are rebroadcast throughout the week.... |
Self |
Discography
- Terrorizing Telemarketers I (CD)
- Terrorizing Telemarketers II (CD)
- Terrorizing Telemarketers III (CD)
- Terrorizing Telemarketers IV (CD)
- Terrorizing Telemarketers V (CD)
- Jim Florentine LIVE: GET THE KIDS OUT OF THE ROOM (CD)
- Anger is a Gift (CD)
- Cringe and Purge (CD)
DVDs
- Meet The Creeps Volume 1 (DVD)
- Meet The Creeps Volume 2 (DVD)
- Meet The Creeps Volume 3 (DVD)