Joe Lipari | |
|---|---|
 Rodin Museum, homage to Robin Williams | |
| Born | October 5, 1979 Passaic, New Jersey, US |
| Nickname | JR |
| Occupation | Humorist |
| Nationality | Sicilian American |
| Alma mater | School of Visual Arts (BFA), National University (California) (MFA), New York Film Academy |
| Notable works | Brooklyn Nets, Dream Job(2012), Fangoria Radio, New York Islanders |
| Website | |
| www | |
Joe Lipari, also known as J.R. Lipari, (born October 5, 1979) is an American humorist, zen practitioner and agnostic minister.
Born in Passaic, New Jersey, the first of three children, Lipari is a distant relative of Fred Allen. [1]
After high school Lipari joined The United States Army and became a member of the 3rd Infantry Division. An expert marksman, Lipari worked as a military advisor to defense contractors like Honeywell. As an advisor, Lipari was a member of the development of the Land Warrior system.[ citation needed ] After two years in the military Lipari blew out his knee and is now a Disabled Veteran.
Prior to leaving the Army, Lipari attended classes at Troy State University, Bergen County Community College, Santa Monica College, The Connecticut School of Broadcasting, The New York Film Academy (where he was a student of Vojtěch Jasný) and received camera training at Panavision in Hollywood (from Jay Holben) [1] before earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts focused in Advertising, Design & Visual Storytelling, with honors, at School of Visual Arts.
Lipari is a two time graduate of the Strala Yoga 200 hour teacher training program. [2]
Ordained by Universal Life Church, Lipari is an agnostic minister who performs wedding ceremonies for couples of various gender and sexual identities. [1] Lipari is also a founding member of the Church of Universal Suffrage.
In February 2003 Lipari first tried stand-up at Caroline's on Broadway, in New York City. [3]
Lipari received training as a comedy writer and improvisor at The People's Improv Theater in New York City.
From April 2004 through June 2007 Lipari worked as a writer/producer for Starlog and Fangoria and as the on-air producer for Fangoria Radio (hosted by Dee Snider and Debbie Rochon) on Sirius Satellite Radio. [4] After leaving Fangoria, Lipari worked as a freelance writer and producer and as a production assistant/camera operator for MTV's reality shows The Hills and The City . [5]
In 2005 Lipari started performing at Gotham Comedy Club.
In 2009 and 2010, Lipari and Scout Durwood hosted Something Awesome, a live show that was "Part stand-up, part burlesque and all awesome". The show was a late Friday night show at Comix Comedy Club in New York City's Meat Packing District. [6] Greg Giraldo encouraged Lipari to write a script based on the show. The resulting script was made into a short film, Dream Job.
After doing stand-up about becoming a yoga teacher at New York City's Gotham Comedy Club, Lipari was approached by a casting associate who was looking for a "sarcastic yogi". Lipari was subsequently cast in Eat, Pray, Love , starring Julia Roberts. [7]
Lipari wrote, produced and directed the 2012 short film, Dream Job, [8] as a thesis project for The New York Film Academy's one-year filmmaking program. Dream Job was an official selection at The Friars Club Comedy Film Festival, [9] and Hollywood Shorts [10] and was runner-up for an Audience Award at the 16th annual PictureStart Film Festival. [11]
In 2012, Lipari began teaching a DIY : No Budget Filmmaking workshop at the Improv Olympic in Hollywood (I.O. West) and The People's Improv Theater in New York City. [12] [13]
In the summer of 2012 Lipari began work at Motive NYC with long-time collaborator Chris Valentino. While at Motive, Lipari oversaw the production of the McDonald's/Coca-Cola Fountain Joy app and motion graphics projects for House Hunters International. Lipari left Motive after it joined the Lively Group to work on 30 for 30 on ESPN and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 . [5]
In 2014 Lipari accepted a position as VP of PR & Marketing for Serious Audio Video in Union City, NJ. [14] [15] Commercial Integrator Magazine selected Lipari as one of the Top Industry Influencers Under 40 in 2016. [16]
New Year's Weekend 2015, Lipari took part in the Guinness World Records record breaking 60-hour Variety Show at New York City's Metropolitan Room. [17]
In 2017 Lipari worked on season 2 of Marvel/Netflix show Jessica Jones and accepted a position as a Senior Creative Manager for BSE Global where he led the creative department for the Brooklyn Nets, New York Islanders, Brooklyn Boxing, Barclays Center, Webster Hall and Nassau Coliseum. [5]
After traveling to Japan in 2019 Lipari was recruited by Troops to Teachers to fill teaching vacancies in some of New York City's communities.
Lipari performs at The Improv, [18] The Ice House [19] Gotham Comedy Club, Carolines on Broadway, The People's Improv Theater and I.O. West. [20]
After being frustrated with the customer service at an Apple Store, in September 2009, Lipari jokingly paraphrased a quote from the book/movie Fight Club, which referred to use of firearms, on his Facebook page. In under 2 hours, NYPD SWAT arrived at his door and, after searching his apartment, they brought Lipari to the station to be questioned by Homeland Security. [21]
Lipari spent a year in court clearing his name of all charges, even turning down multiple plea bargains. Eventually The City of New York dropped all charges, including making terrorist threats and disorderly conduct. Since then Lipari has received offers from lawyers pushing him to sue New York City for wrongful imprisonment, but he has no plans to sue. When Emily Epstein from Metro New York pressed him as to why, he replied "I'd rather be rich on my own accord, not by suing the people who are just trying to keep us safe." [22]
His story was first covered by This American Life [21] in September 2010. It was also a cover story for Metro New York [22] and featured in Britain's daily newspaper The Guardian . [23] Lipari appears in the documentary Terms and Conditions May Apply . Lipari also appeared on the Fox News special "Policing America". [24]
In light of the NSA/Edward Snowden controversy, Lipari created the failed White House petition to designate June 9 "Everyone Is a Suspect Day". [25]
Improvisational theatre, often called improvisation or improv, is the form of theatre, often comedy, in which most or all of what is performed is unplanned or unscripted, created spontaneously by the performers. In its purest form, the dialogue, action, story, and characters are created collaboratively by the players as the improvisation unfolds in present time, without use of an already prepared, written script.
The Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB) is an improvisational and sketch comedy group that emerged from Chicago's ImprovOlympic in 1990. The original incarnation of the group consisted of Amy Poehler, Matthew Walsh, Matt Besser, Ian Roberts, Adam McKay, Rick Roman, Horatio Sanz and Drew Franklin. Other early members included Neil Flynn, Armando Diaz, Ali Farahnakian and Rich Fulcher.
The Second City is an improvisational comedy enterprise. It is the oldest improvisational theater troupe to be continuously based in Chicago, with training programs and live theaters in Toronto and New York. Since its debut in 1959, it has become one of the most influential and renowned in the English-speaking world. In February 2021, ZMC, a private equity investment firm based in Manhattan, purchased the Second City.
Matthew Gregory Besser is an American actor, comedian, director, producer, writer, and one of the four founding members of the Upright Citizens Brigade sketch comedy troupe, who had their own show on Comedy Central from 1998 to 2000. He hosts the improvisation-based podcast Improv4humans, previously on the Earwolf network, but now solely operated by himself and Brett Morris.
Matthew Paul Walsh is an American comedian and actor. He is best known for his role as Mike McLintock in Veep for which he received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations. He is a founding member of the Upright Citizens Brigade sketch comedy troupe, with which he co-starred in its original television series and the 2015 reboot. He also previously starred in short-lived comedy programs such as Dog Bites Man and Players, and was a correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. He has also appeared in films such as Road Trip (2000), Bad Santa (2003), School for Scoundrels (2006), Role Models (2008), The Hangover (2009), and The Do-Over (2016).
Mike Birbiglia is an American stand-up comedian, actor, storyteller, director, producer and writer. He is a frequent contributor to This American Life and The Moth, and has released several comedy albums and television specials. His feature-length directorial debut Sleepwalk with Me (2012), based on his one-man show of the same name and in which he also starred, won awards at the Sundance and Nantucket film festivals. He also wrote, directed, and starred in the comedy-drama Don't Think Twice (2016). His 2010 book Sleepwalk with Me and Other Painfully True Stories was a New York Times bestseller and a finalist for the 2011 Thurber Prize for American Humor. Birbiglia has appeared in films such as Your Sister's Sister (2011), Cedar Rapids (2011), and Trainwreck (2015), played a recurring role in Orange Is the New Black, Billions and has guest starred in episodes of Girls, Inside Amy Schumer, and Broad City. He also filled in for Jimmy Kimmel on his talk show for a week, as Kimmel caught COVID-19.
Debbie Ann Rochon is a Canadian actress and former stage performer, best known for her work in independent horror films and counterculture films.
iO, or iO Chicago, is an improv theater and training center in central Chicago, with a former branch in Los Angeles, called iO West and in Raleigh, North Carolina called iO South. The theater teaches and hosts performances of improvisational comedy. It was founded in 1981 by Del Close and Charna Halpern. The theater has many notable alumni, including Amy Poehler and Stephen Colbert.
The New York Musical Festival (NYMF) was an annual event held each summer from 2004 to 2019 in New York City's midtown theater district. It mounted more than 30 new musicals each year, more than half selected through an open-submission, double-blind evaluation process involving prominent theater artists and producers. The festival's artist staff invited the remaining shows. NYMF premiered some 447 musicals, engaging more than 8,000 artists and attracting over 300,000 attendees.
Theatre Strike Force is the University of Florida's premier improv and sketch comedy troupe. The group also goes by TSF. The style of improv performed by Theatre Strike Force is a combination long form and short form. They both teach and perform improvisational comedy. They have six house teams which include both forms of improv as well as a sketch team. There are four long form house teams which are cast every semester and usually have six to eight members. The TSF Short Form Team is cast every semester as well and usually has fifteen to nineteen members. TSF Sketch is the final house team and usually has twelve to sixteen members, cast each semester.
Kambri Crews is an American comedic storyteller based in New York City and author of The New York Times bestseller Burn Down the Ground: A Memoir, a book about her chaotic childhood with deaf parents. Crews was spotlighted as a top comedy choice in the May 19, 2008 edition of Time Out, which called her an "emerging monologist." Crews has also been referred to as a "world-class storyteller".
The Tenderloins are an American comedy troupe composed of James "Murr" Murray, Brian "Q" Quinn, and Sal Vulcano. The group stars in the television series Impractical Jokers, which premiered on December 15, 2011. The program airs on truTV and TBS in the U.S. and on Comedy Central in the UK, Ireland, and India.
Stone and Stone is an American comedy duo consisting of twin brothers, Adam and Todd Stone.
HUGE Improv Theater is a Minneapolis artist-led non-profit theater company founded in 2005 by improvisers Jill Bernard, Butch Roy, Nels Lennes, Joe Bozic and Mike Fotis, dedicated to long-form improvisational theater.
Alia Janine is an American comedian and former pornographic film actress.
The New York Musical Improv Festival (NYMIF) is a four-day festival held every year at the Magnet Theater in New York City.
Nadia Manzoor is a British writer, performer, and producer. She is best known for her autobiographical solo show Burq Off! and for her web series Shugs & Fats.
Helen Hong is an American stand-up comedian, actress, director, and producer. She has appeared in such works as Jane the Virgin, Parks and Recreation, and the Coen Brothers' Inside Llewyn Davis. She has a regular spot on NPR's Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! and hosts a trivia podcast called Go Fact Yourself. She formerly hosted the podcast Little Ethnic Girls. She has a recurring role on Nickelodeon's The Thundermans and had a recurring role as Mrs. Song in Starz's Blunt Talk. Hong is known for her comedic NowThis videos.
The Chris and Paul Show is an American sketch comedy duo composed of Christopher John O'Neill and Paul Valenti. They are known for their vaudeville-inspired physical comedy, which consists of largely pantomimed scenes with minimal or no dialogue. The duo began performing 1999, and are based in New York City. They have toured across the United States and in Europe. They gained wide exposure in 2019 as contestants on the NBC comedy competition television series Bring the Funny, in which they placed as finalists.