Reno (comedian)

Last updated
Reno
Birth nameKaren Reno
Born1956 (age 67–68)
United States
Medium Stand-up, television, film
NationalityAmerican
Genres Observational comedy, satire, political satire, sarcasm
Subject(s) American culture, sex, everyday life, human behavior, American politics, pop culture

Reno is an American stand-up comedian and actress known for such films as Quiz Show , The Manchurian Candidate , The Hard Way and Kinsey . [1]

"The comic grew up as Karen Reno, but dropped the first name when she began performing, perhaps to rank up there with such single-named celebs as Cher and Madonna (well, why not?)," wrote Joe Brown in The Washington Post . "An untamed peroxide blonde, with dark roots, Reno was an Hispanic orphan adopted as an infant by a white middle-class couple on Long Island, and the experience gave her an outsider's perspective and anger. 'I just felt left out,' she says. 'If I walked down the street and looked at the houses, I wanted to cry. ... I wasn't one of the groovy kids. The only time I had a good time was when I was being funny.'"

She started her career performing in San Francisco troupes such as Lilith and Strange Fruit. As a solo act, she performed at so-called "alternative spaces" in San Francisco and New York such as the Pyramid Club, King Tut's Wah-Wah Hut, and P.S. 122 in New York's East Village. It was while on stage at the latter venue that she was approached by an HBO talent scout, which led to the 1995 special Reno: In Rage and Rehab. The special was adapted from her Off-Broadway show that featured material including her addiction to crystal meth. [2]

Reno has been frequently described as "a Latina lesbian with radical political leanings" noted for having a cult following as well as being "queen of wild tangents." [3]

Reno Finds Her Mom was a 1998 "semidocumentary about her search for the birth mother who abandoned her." Directed by Lydia Dean Pilcher, it was described by Chicago Reader as spanning styles "from comic-book graphics to gritty film noir." In the film, "Reno gets harebrained advice from fairy godmother Lily Tomlin, while Mary Tyler Moore appears as Reno’s mother, an icy WASP straight out of Ordinary People . The real-life stuff is even more absorbing, especially when Reno confronts the arrogant adoption agency that guards the secret of her origins. Reno’s meeting with her mother proves anticlimactic–the woman refused to be filmed–but the real payoff comes from watching Reno howl with delight at each revelation. In the end she discovers how little her past matters: she can never go home." [4]

She also hosted her own 2001 reality documentary television series on Bravo entitled Citizen Reno which was produced by Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner. [5] [6]

She also starred in the 2002 concert film Reno: Rebel without a Pause directed by Nancy Savoca. [7] Her stage persona was described as "a combination of Richard Lewis, Ethel Merman, and a raving derelict," according to The A.V. Club's Scott Tobias. [8]

Reno has remained in relative obscurity due to her often incendiary political commentary. "I'm way too underground for people to give a shit, I guess," she told Salon , "although the whole time I've been performing I've been purposefully excluded from the main shows -- like Dave Letterman, the night before I was supposed to go on his show, someone called and said I would freak him out.

"I only go so far as people want me to. It's very important to be funny: If you're not funny, you're a politician, and no one trusts politicians." [9]

Related Research Articles

<i>Nashville</i> (film) 1975 American satirical musical comedy-drama film by Robert Altman

Nashville is a 1975 American satirical musical comedy-drama film directed and produced by Robert Altman. The film follows various people involved in the country and gospel music industry in Nashville, Tennessee, over the five-day period leading up to a gala concert for a populist outsider running for president on the Replacement Party ticket.

<i>Rowan & Martins Laugh-In</i> American comedy television series

Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In is an American sketch comedy television program which ran for 140 episodes from January 22, 1968, to March 12, 1973, on the NBC television network, hosted by comedians Dan Rowan and Dick Martin. It originally aired as a one-time special on September 9, 1967, and was such a success that it was brought back as a series, replacing The Man from U.N.C.L.E. on Mondays at 8 pm (ET). It quickly became the most popular television show in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lily Tomlin</span> American actress (born 1939)

Mary Jean "Lily" Tomlin is an American actress, comedian, writer, singer, and producer. Tomlin started her career in stand-up comedy and sketch comedy before transitioning her career to acting onstage and on-screen. In a career spanning over fifty years, Tomlin has received numerous accolades, including seven Emmy Awards, a Grammy Award, and two Tony Awards. She was also awarded the Kennedy Center Honor in 2014 and the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elaine May</span> American screenwriter, film director, actress, and comedian (born 1932)

Elaine Iva May is an American comedian, filmmaker, playwright, and actress. She first gained fame in the 1950s for her improvisational comedy routines with Mike Nichols, before transitioning her career regularly breaking the mold as a writer and director of several critically acclaimed films. She has received numerous awards, including a BAFTA Award, a Grammy Award, and a Tony Award. She was honored with the National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama in 2013, and an Honorary Academy Award in 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jane Wagner</span> American writer, director and producer (born 1935)

Jane Wagner is an American writer, director and producer. She is Lily Tomlin's comedy writer, collaborator, and wife.

Rhona Cameron is a Scottish comedian, writer and TV presenter. She rose to prominence via the stand-up comedy circuit, and was a regular on British television in the 1990s.

Nora Dunn is an American actress and comedian. Dunn first garnered widespread popularity during her tenure as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 1985 to 1990. Following her departure from SNL, she played Dr. Reynolds in The Nanny from 1998 to 1999, and she has originated the role of Muriel in Home Economics since 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louise Beavers</span> American actress (1900–1962)

Louise Beavers was an American film and television actress who appeared in dozens of films and two hit television shows from the 1920s to 1960. She played a prominent role in advancing the lives of Black Americans through her work and collaborated with fellow advocates to improve the social standing and media image of the Black population.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David O. Russell</span> American filmmaker (born 1958)

David Owen Russell is an American film director, screenwriter and producer. His early directing career includes the dark comedy films Spanking the Monkey (1994), Flirting with Disaster (1996), Three Kings (1999), and I Heart Huckabees (2004). He gained critical success with the biographical sports drama The Fighter (2010), the romantic comedy-drama Silver Linings Playbook (2012), and the dark comedy crime film American Hustle (2013). The three films were commercially successful and acclaimed by critics, earning Russell three Academy Award nominations for Best Director, as well as a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination for Silver Linings Playbook and a Best Original Screenplay nomination for American Hustle. Russell received his seventh Golden Globe nomination for the semi-biographical comedy-drama Joy (2015).

<i>Moment by Moment</i> 1978 film by Jane Wagner

Moment by Moment is a 1978 American romantic drama film written and directed by Jane Wagner and starring Lily Tomlin and John Travolta. It was produced by Robert Stigwood and released by Universal Pictures on December 22, 1978.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephanie Miller</span> American comedian and political commentator (born 1961)

Stephanie Catherine Miller is an American political commentator, comedian, and host of The Stephanie Miller Show, a Progressive talk radio program produced in Los Angeles, California, by WYD Media Management and syndicated nationally by Westwood One. In 2017, Talkers Magazine ranked her the 23rd-most important radio talk show host in the U.S. Miller has leveraged her talk show via various platforms including online, as well as via her Sexy Liberal Tour live comedy show.

<i>The Incredible Shrinking Woman</i> 1981 film

The Incredible Shrinking Woman is a 1981 American science-fiction comedy film directed by Joel Schumacher, written by Jane Wagner and starring Lily Tomlin, Charles Grodin, Ned Beatty, John Glover, and Elizabeth Wilson. This film parodies the 1957 science-fiction film The Incredible Shrinking Man, and credited as based on Richard Matheson's 1956 novel, The Shrinking Man. The original music score was composed by Suzanne Ciani.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spring Byington</span> American actress (1886–1971)

Spring Dell Byington was an American actress. Her career included a seven-year run on radio and television as the star of December Bride. She was a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract player who appeared in films from the 1930s to the 1960s. Byington received a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Penelope Sycamore in You Can't Take It with You (1938).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miss Coco Peru</span> American actor

Miss Coco Peru is the drag persona of American actor, comedian and drag performer Clinton Leupp, known for her role in the 1999 independent film Trick and for her series of live theater performances. Recognizable by her "trademark copper-toned flip hairdo", Peru also starred in Richard Day's Girls Will Be Girls (2003) and was one of six performers featured in the Logo original stand-up comedy series Wisecrack (2005). She has also appeared in a number of other supporting and guest-starring roles in film and television.

<i>Desert Hearts</i> 1985 film by Donna Deitch

Desert Hearts is a 1985 American romantic drama film directed by Donna Deitch. The screenplay, written by Natalie Cooper, is an adaptation of the 1964 lesbian novel Desert of the Heart by Jane Rule. Set in Reno, Nevada in 1959, it tells the story of a university professor awaiting a divorce who finds her true self through a relationship with another, more self-confident woman. The film stars Helen Shaver and Patricia Charbonneau with a supporting performance by Audra Lindley.

<i>The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe</i> 1991 film by John Bailey

The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe (1985) is a one-woman stage show written by Jane Wagner. The original Broadway production starred Lily Tomlin, won the Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience, and was turned into a film in 1991.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Janelle Monáe</span> American singer and actress (born 1985)

Janelle Monáe Robinson is an American singer, songwriter, rapper and actress. She has received ten Grammy Award nominations, and is the recipient of a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Children's and Family Emmy Award. Monáe has also been honored with the ASCAP Vanguard Award, as well as the Rising Star Award (2015) and the Trailblazer of the Year Award (2018) from Billboard Women in Music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Naomi Grossman</span> American actress, writer, and producer (born 1975)

Naomi Grossman is an American actress, writer, and producer best known for her role as Pepper in the second and fourth season of the FX horror television series American Horror Story.

<i>Grandma</i> (2015 film) 2015 film by Paul Weitz

Grandma is a 2015 American comedy-drama film written, directed, and produced by Paul Weitz. It stars Lily Tomlin as Elle, a lesbian poet and widow whose teenage granddaughter visits her to ask for money for an abortion. Over the space of a day, they visit numerous people from Elle's past to call in favors in an effort to raise the money.

Reno: Rebel without a Pause is a 2002 comedy concert film directed by Nancy Savoca.

References

  1. ↑ "Reno". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times . 2015. Archived from the original on January 13, 2015.
  2. ↑ Brown, Joe. "RENO'S RAILLERY ALL THE RAGE". The Washington Post. Retrieved 3 January 2022.
  3. ↑ Brown, Janelle (18 July 2002). "Reno". Salon.
  4. ↑ ""Chicago Lesbian & Gay International Film Festival"". Chicago Reader. 5 November 1998. Retrieved 3 January 2022.
  5. ↑ "Citizen Reno". The New York Times . Archived from the original on July 25, 2015.
  6. ↑ "Citizen Reno". TV Guide .
  7. ↑ Holden, Stephen (May 2, 2003). "FILM IN REVIEW; 'Reno: Rebel Without a Pause'". The New York Times.
  8. ↑ Tobias, Scott (25 November 2003). "Reno: Rebel Without A Pause". AV Club. Retrieved 3 January 2022.
  9. ↑ Brown, Janelle (18 July 2002). "Reno". Salon.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.