Jim Gaffigan Popular Books

Jim Gaffigan Biography & Facts

James Christopher Gaffigan (born July 7, 1966) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and producer. His material often addresses fatherhood, laziness, food, religion, and general observations. He is regarded as a "clean" comic, using little profanity in his routines, although he does use it from time to time. He has released several successful comedy specials, including Mr. Universe, Obsessed, Cinco, and Quality Time, all of which have received Grammy nominations. Gaffigan's memoir Dad Is Fat (2013) and his most recent book Food: A Love Story (2014) were both published by Crown Publishers. He co-created and starred in the TV Land series The Jim Gaffigan Show, based on his life. He collaborates extensively with his wife, actress Jeannie Gaffigan, with whom he has five children. They are Catholic, a topic that frequently comes up in his comedy shows. Early life Gaffigan was born on July 7, 1966, in Elgin, Illinois, the youngest of six children born to charity worker and fundraiser Marcia Miriam (née Mitchell) and banker Michael Ambrose Gaffigan. Of Irish descent, his family's surname was Gavahan. His maternal grandfather was Iowa Supreme Court Justice Richard F. Mitchell. Gaffigan was raised in Chesterton, Indiana, and often jokes about growing up in a large family. His mother was accomplished at needlework and received a national award for original design and craftsmanship from the American Needlepoint Guild in 1985. She died of cancer in 1990 at age 53.Gaffigan's father was the president and CEO of the Mercantile National Bank of Indiana for 15 years until his retirement in 1991. A former seminarian, he was also actively involved in local charity work. He died of lung cancer in 1999. Gaffigan's father was the first in his family to attend college, and encouraged his children to seek careers that promised job security. However, at about the age of five, Gaffigan announced that he wanted to be an actor.As a teenager, Gaffigan watched Saturday Night Live. He attended La Lumiere School in La Porte, Indiana, where he played on the school's football team. He attended Purdue University for one year, where he was a member of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, before transferring to Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business, where he graduated in 1988 with a degree in finance. He played football at Georgetown and Purdue. Although he "hated" studying finance, he worked as a litigation consultant for a short time after graduating and "was horrible at it". Career Stand-up Gaffigan moved to New York in 1990 to pursue comedy, a move that was inspired by his admiration for fellow Hoosier David Letterman. He worked in advertising during the day and took acting classes at night. During this time, he was cast in Blockbuster Video's "Entertainment Squad" series of commercials. His career began in earnest when a friend from his acting class dared him to take a stand-up seminar that required a live set at the end. He fell in love with stand-up, and began playing comedy clubs nightly—after his evening acting classes—until the early hours of the morning. He was often found sleeping at his day job; his boss had to wake him up to fire him.For the first seven years of Gaffigan's stand-up career, he tried various styles, ranging from angry comedy to impressions and voices. Live comedy was in decline following its peak in the 1980s, and was further affected by the increased popularity of cable television. After periodically auditioning for The Late Show with David Letterman for six years, Gaffigan did a successful stand-up routine on the show in 1999, and his career took off.Gaffigan's style is largely observational. Some of his main topics are laziness, eating and parenthood. His famous Hot Pocket routine was inspired by a commercial he saw that he mistook for a Saturday Night Live sketch. He often performs soliloquies. For example, in high-pitched voice, he may portray someone giving negative feedback on his own performance. (After he made a diarrhea joke in his 2012 special "Mr. Universe", he used the voice to say, "Really, he's using diarrhea jokes?") He has said, "That inside voice is my connection with the audience".In an interview with the Duluth News-Tribune, he explained that he began developing the voice as a teenager, when he disarmed people by talking for them in their presence. He said he also used it to fend off hecklers earlier in his career, when comedy clubs were more "combative". He cursed early in his career, and added cursing to his comedy album Doing My Time at the request of his label, in the hopes of drawing more teens. He has now largely removed profanity from his routine, as he feels his subject matter doesn't lend itself to cursing and that it reduced the effort he put into crafting his jokes.In 2004, Gaffigan's stand-up material was featured in Comedy Central's animated series Shorties Watchin' Shorties. In October 2005, he filmed a live Comedy Central special that aired the following January, and became the comedy album/DVD Beyond the Pale. The routine consisted primarily of material regarding food and American eating habits, and the comedian unknowingly predicted a future menu item at Dunkin Donuts—the 'glazed donut breakfast sandwich'—while commenting on the future of America's eating habits. His 2009 album King Baby was also a television special filmed in Austin, Texas, at the end of his "The Sexy Tour". Comedy Central released King Baby on DVD. In a March 2009 interview on Anytime with Bob Kushell, Gaffigan defended his naming of the tour, stating that he thought it would be funny that parents would be unsure about whether to bring their teenage children to the show. Four years later, on March 14, 2013, Gaffigan was named the "King of Clean" by the Wall Street Journal.On February 25, 2012, Gaffigan taped a one-hour stand-up special—Mr. Universe—at the Warner Theater in Washington, D.C.; it was nominated for a Grammy. He announced that, based on the business model used by Louis C.K.'s Live at the Beacon Theater, the stand-up would be available online through his website for $5, with 20% of the total proceeds going to the Bob Woodruff Foundation, an organization that provides support to military veterans. In 2012, he was among the top-ten grossing comics in the US, according to Pollstar.Gaffigan filmed his 2014 comedy special titled Jim Gaffigan: Obsessed at Boston's Wilbur Theater on January 18, 2014. Obsessed premiered on Comedy Central on April 27 becoming the most watched stand-up comedy special of the year for the network. The accompanying album, also titled Obsessed, debuted at number 11 on the Billboard 200 and number 1 on the Billboard Comedy Album charts. 2015 saw him embark on a headlining tour, culminating in a winter show at Madison Square Garden.Gaffigan has performed stand-up to support charitable causes as well. In 2002, he was part of a United Service Organization event at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. Gaffigan performed at the.... Discover the Jim Gaffigan popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Jim Gaffigan books.