Federman was born in Los Angeles, one of six children. He grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland, and moved to Plantation, Florida at age 10. He played the drums and at age 14 began performing in a band at local weddings. He taught himself ventriloquism and performed at various school (South Plantation High School) functions as well as local churches and service organizations. He delivered his high school's sports results on Miami radio station WWOK and made his local television debut on WPLG's Youth and the Issue debating the death penalty. In 1976, Federman worked as an extra in John Frankenheimer's Black Sunday, shot at the Miami Orange Bowl.
In the fall of 1977, Federman was accepted into the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University where he studied with legendary acting coach Stella Adler. He performed his own show, Comedy Tonight, at the Eisner and Lubin Auditorium, with future Broadway star Donna Murphy.
Federman with electric ukulele, circa 1987
After attending NYU, Federman brought his one-man show to the 13th Street Theater. There he performed in rotation with Brother Theodore. He also starred in the theater's long-running production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, in which he played six roles. Soon he was performing stand-up comedy at various New York Comedy Clubs, most notably The Comic Strip (now known as Comic Strip Live) and Catch a Rising Star. It was during these years that he incorporated music into his act. He closed his sets by playing hard rock tunes from Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Iron Butterfly, and The Rolling Stones on his electric ukulele.
Federman made his national television debut on the syndicated stand-up program Comedy Tonight in 1986. He also appeared in two home videos: New Wave Comedy and the Dodge Comedy Showcase.
Federman began booking television commercials and appeared in dozens of national spots for clients, including Eureka Vacuums, Holiday Inn, U.S. Navy, Wendy's, Taboo, Eagle cars (with Greg Kinnear), McDonald's, Glad Bags, Sprite, Total Raisin Bran, Ford, U.S. Olympic Team, Suzuki Samurai, Sizzler, Del Monte, U.S. Cellular, Coors, and 7–11. He gained some prominence as the first "not exactly" guy in the long-running Hertz Rent A Car campaign. Federman began landing small television parts on Baywatch, Amen, Dear John, A Different World, Doogie Howser, M.D., and NewsRadio. He had recurring roles on L.A. Law (3 episodes) and Living Single (3 episodes).
In 1994, Federman made his debut on The Tonight Show and has subsequently appeared many times on the program. He also appeared on Late Fridays, Comedy Showcase, and Premium Blend. In 2004, he taped his own 1/2-hour stand-up special for the series, Comedy Central Presents.
In 2006, Federman landed the recurring role of "Johnson" on the short-lived CBS sitcom Courting Alex. He co-wrote and starred in Max and Josh, a short film that premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Volkswagen Relentless Drive Award.[3]
In 1990, while shooting a television commercial campaign for McDonald's (directed by Henry Winkler), Federman recorded a series of tie-in radio commercials. This launched his voice-over career. Since then his distinctive voice has been heard on hundreds of radio and television spots. He was the voice of the talking ham and cheese sandwich in the long-running Florida Orange Juice campaign.
In 2007, Federman voiced a series of Labatt Beer commercials, portraying a fish, a deer, a boulder, and a slab of ice. This ad was eventually pulled and re-edited when viewers complained of the implied vulgarity.
In 2015, Federman voiced a camel (Phil) in a GEICO insurance commercial.
In 2000, Federman began co-authoring (with Marshall Terrill) a new, authorized biography of NBA basketball legend Pete Maravich. Working closely with the Maravich family, the book, Maravich, was released on January 3, 2007. It became an Amazon Sports Bestseller.
In 2007, Federman edited a highlight montage entitled The Ultimate Pistol Pete Maravich MIX. This mixture of basketball clips from both Maravich's NCAA and NBA careers was posted on YouTube, Yahoo Video, and Google Video. It garnered over one million hits in its first month and was featured in both Sports Illustrated and Dime magazines.
Music and composing
In the 1990s Federman was a founding member of the group Truck Stop Harrys, along with Tudor Sherrard and Matthew Porretta.
Federman co-wrote several songs for the film Dill Scallion and was the music director and keyboardist for Maria Bamford's critically acclaimed The Special Special Special.
Beginning in 2014, Federman became the piano player and music coordinator for Never Not Funny's annual internet telethon, Pardcast-A-Thon.
New York City: 2009–2010
In 2009, Federman moved to New York to help launch NBC's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. He was the show's head monologue writer in its first season and left in January 2010.
In July 2010, Federman was part of the last comedians to tour and perform for U.S. combat troops throughout Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
One of Federman's stand-up jokes about Woody Allen ("I’ve come to really admire Woody Allen. It’s been 14 years, and he’s still married to the same daughter.") was voted the No. 4 joke of the year in 2010 by a survey in The New York Post.
Hollywood: 2011–present
In June 2011, Federman headlined the Ukulele Festival of Great Britain along with James Hill.
In 2014, Federman appeared with singer Kenny Rogers in a national GEICO commercial. In the spot, Rogers sings a portion of his song "The Gambler" during a poker game.
From March 2015 until December 2017, Federman co-hosted the podcast Human Conversation with comedian Erin McGathy. The two discussed various, oft-delightful, and meandering topics, without the aid of technology. Human Conversation was suspended when Erin McGathy moved to Ireland.
Federman launched a new podcast in September 2018 entitled, The History of Standup. Along with co-host Andrew Steven, the two chronicle the history of stand-up comedy from Vaudeville to Netflix. In 2019 they completed a second season that focused on "venues, scenes, and events." Some guests that have appeared on The History of Standup include Margaret Cho, Mike Birbiglia, Tig Notaro, Lily Tomlin, Demetri Martin, Shecky Greene, Judd Apatow, Pete Holmes, Jimmy Pardo, journalist Julie Seabaugh, and comedy historian Kliph Nesteroff.
Producing
In 2018, Federman co-produced the Emmy-winning HBO documentary, The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling. He also produced an award-winning web series with Don Rickles entitled, Dinner With Don, as well as Judd Apatow's 2017 Netflix stand-up special, The Return.
In 2022, Federman produced the two-part HBO documentary George Carlin's American Dream.
Published articles
In November 2011, Federman wrote an article documenting Ronald Reagan's pivotal role during the SAG strike of 1960 that established residual payments for film actors. It was published in The Atlantic.
In January 2013, Federman wrote an article on Pete Maravich's untimely death in 1987. Entitled "A Miracle Heart" the article was published by Slam Magazine.
In September 2015, Federman wrote a long-form article entitled "From Sullivan to CK: a History of Modern American Standup" for Splitsider magazine.
In 2016 Federman penned two articles for Vulture magazine. One, on the enduring impact of comedian Richard Pryor's 1979 concert film - and the other on the many comedy rooms that Federman played over his thirty-plus years performing stand-up comedy.
In 2021 Federman wrote an article for Vulture entitled "The Wild Career of Jackie Mason."
The Chronicles of Federman
The Chronicles of Federman is a three-volume retrospective of rare audio recordings of Wayne Federman's stand-up career (1984–2015). It was produced by Aspecialthing Records and released in 2016. The liner notes were written by Judd Apatow.
Federman, Wayne (15 March 2021). The History of Stand-Up: From Mark Twain to Dave Chappelle (2021). Amazon Digital Services LLC - KDP Print US. ISBN979-8706637026.
Federman, Wayne; Terrill, Marshall (2008). MARAVICH: The Authorized Biography of Pistol Pete (2009). Tyndale House Publishers. ISBN978-1589975354.
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