Chris Gethard Biography

Chris Gethard was born in West Orange, New Jersey. Gethard is the author of Weird NY, a book detailing the ghost stories and urban legends of New York, and A Bad Idea I'm About to Do, a collection of stories from Gethard's life, which has been highlighted on This American Life. Previously, Gethard served as an editorial assistant for the popular Weird NJ and Weird US publications.

He is an avid fan of The Smiths and has two tattoos related to the band—Morrissey's signature on his right shoulder (based on an actual signature he got in marker on his arm), and "It takes strength to be gentle and kind," a lyric from "I Know It's Over," on his right biceps.

In addition to his books, Gethard is an improvisational actor who works largely out of Manhattan's Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. He began taking classes at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in 2000 while he was a student at Rutgers University. He is in the longform improvisation team The Stepfathers. He organizes a monthly show entitled "The Nights of Our Lives". He has also been part of the UCB Theater's national touring company. An early noted work was entitled Darryl, a one-man show where he portrayed troubled baseball player Darryl Strawberry.

Gethard also wrote the web series The Most Awkward Boy in the World which starred fellow Stepfathers member Zach Woods. Gethard was featured on Variety magazine's "Ten Comics to Watch in 2010" list.

Gethard has appeared in multiple CollegeHumor.com videos. He has also appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Hope and Faith, Comedy Central's Crossballs, and Catie Lazarus's Employee of the Month" podcast.

In April 2010, he was tapped as the lead, alongside Horatio Sanz and Chris Parnell, in the Comedy Central sitcom Big Lake. In May 2012, during the collegehumor allnighter Gethard announced he would be opening a strawberry farm in upper New Jersey. Gethard released his first comedy album, My Comedy Album, on April 22, 2014 on New Jersey's Don Giovanni Records.

Gethard currently hosts The Chris Gethard Show, a talkshow that airs on New York City public-access and is streaming around the world on Gethard's website. The show began as a live piece at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in 2009. Gethard then went to Los Angeles to pitch a network version of the show, but ended up return to New York City to produce it for public-access because he wanted to retain the chaotic, cheap feel of early MTV talk shows. The show has since grown to consist of both stage and filmed performances. It has developed a reputation for outrageous spectacle, often featuring awkward viewer calls, high-concept group segments and Gethard subjecting himself to abuse, including an episode where he hired a kickboxer to hit him if he failed to answer simple questions about his friends. As a child, Gethard admired comedians who seemed to be able to do whatever they wanted, such as Howard Stern, Andy Kaufman and David Letterman. This interest influenced the style of The Chris Gethard Show and Gethard's comedic persona.

The show is entirely self-funded and none of the performers are paid for their time. Though this largely surfaced as result of the style of Upright Citizens Brigade shows and the aesthetic of the show, Gethard has stated that he would not be opposed to the show being picked up by a television network. He met with a number of network producers, but the show was not picked up, the primary concern being its unpredictable nature and frequent swearing. In early 2014, Comedy Central ordered a pilot from TCGS, to be co-produced by Funny or Die, leading to a brief hiatus from the weekly program. The pilot has since been taped, and was not picked up by Comedy Central. The show returned to MNN from April to January 2015. In its final MNN episode it was announced that the show had been picked up by Fusion, and will air 10 episodes in April. In 2013, Gethard was propositioned by the Independent Film Channel to write a pilot based on his book, A Bad Idea I'm About to Do. In addition to writing his pilot, IFC gave Gethard a year to market for them at festivals and produce web content. Gethard walked from Los Angeles to Bonnaroo relying only on the good will of others to help him. He has a series of YouTube videos that document his trip. The videos include trips in vans and driving a firetruck.

The Chris Gethard Show is well known for its audience interaction. One show featured a woman calling in to inquire about the purpose of the show. Gethard invited her to join them and she became a regular for four months. After this the notion of random, unknown fans becoming regular cast members became popular. The show has continued this trend, having a new "random" as a cast member for 15 episodes.

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