Jimmy Fallon

James Fallon
Fallon at CES 2009, January 2009
Born	James Thomas Fallon, Jr. September 19, 1974 (1974-09-19) (age 34) Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, comedian, musician, talk show host
Years active	1991–present
Spouse(s)	Nancy Juvonen (2007 — present)

James Thomas "Jimmy" Fallon, Jr. (born September 19, 1974) is an American comedian, actor, musician, and talk show host known for his work on Saturday Night Live. He currently hosts NBC's late night talk show Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

Early life

Childhood

Fallon is an Irish-American who was born in Camden, New York, the son of Gloria and James Thomas Fallon, Sr.,^[1] who was a Vietnam veteran.^[2] His family later settled in Saugerties, New York, while his father worked at IBM in nearby Kingston.^[3] As a child, he and his sister, Gloria, would reenact the "clean parts" of Saturday Night Live that his parents had taped for him.^[4] Fallon was such a fan of Saturday Night Live that he made a weekly event of watching it in his dormitory during college. Fallon has also been a long time fan of Bob Saget. ^[4] In his teens he impressed his parents with different impersonations, the first being of James Cagney.^[5][6] He was also musically inclined, and started playing guitar at age 13. He would go on to mix comedy and music in contests and shows. ^[6]

Education

Fallon attended St. Mary of the Snow, a Roman Catholic parochial school, and Saugerties High School. He graduated in 1992 and attended The College of Saint Rose in Albany, New York. He was a Computer Science major, but switched to Communications in his senior year, dropping out 15 credits shy of a degree.^[3][7] "I was a Computer Science major. I got out once it got really hard. I made it up to C++. Then I couldn't do the math — it got really confusing. I switched to Communications, which is a ridiculous major — let's be honest," he recalls.^[8] On Saturday May 9, 2009, Fallon received a BA in Communications from The College of Saint Rose (Albany, NY) after presenting college officials with his impressive portfolio, which satisfied all requisites for his degree. In addition to receiving a BA, Fallon spoke at the school's 86th commencement. That night, on Saturday Night Live he held up his degree during the closing of the show. He had made an appearance as the character Barry Gibb with host Justin Timberlake. On Twitter he publicly displayed his degree. Additionally, he showed excerpts from the ceremony on his late night show May 11, 2009.

Career

Stand-up

Fallon gives credit to troll dolls for his big break. He was given a troll doll with a graduation cap in his senior year of high school. His mother heard about an impression contest at Bananas comedy club in Poughkeepsie, NY. Fallon came up with a stand-up routine that was a commercial for troll dolls. He would impersonate various celebrities auditioning to be the spokesperson. He became the winner of the contest and after college he began to do stand-up tours across the country. When he was in Los Angeles, he took improv classes with The Groundlings. ^[5]

Early work

Jimmy's first TV experience was on a show called "Metroland's Loose Camera", a show produced by Don Metzner, an Albany, New York car dealer. It aired on the local Fox affiliate. Jimmy was originally rejected for the cast but his direct appeal to Metzner got him a second chance. He was the clear standout on the show. He wrote almost every skit and performed in almost every one. His most famous, "Donkey Boy" can be seen on YouTube. He became friends with Metroland Magazine's publisher Peter Iselin and eventually the two became roommates in Hollywood. Peter introduced Jimmy to his first manager. It was next that he auditioned for Lorne Michaels from SNL.

Fallon appeared in the feature film The Scheme (originally entitled The Entrepreneurs). His one line in Father's Day was cut but he can still be seen in the background. In 1998 Fallon appeared briefly on the show Spin City in the second season as a man selling photographs. By late 1998, Fallon was studying at the Groundlings Theater in Los Angeles, making $7.50 a set at The Improv Theater, when he was summoned to New York to audition for the long-running late night sketch comedy show, Saturday Night Live. Fallon did his impersonations of Jerry Seinfeld,^[9] French Stewart, Pat O'Brien, Chris Rock, Hilary Swank, Gilbert Gottfried, and Adam Sandler, many of which drew laughter from producer Lorne Michaels. Fallon also did musical impersonations of Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, Adam Duritz of Counting Crows, Alanis Morissette, and Robert Smith of The Cure.^[4].

Saturday Night Live

Fallon's impersonations helped land him on Saturday Night Live as a featured player in the 1998-1999 season,^[10] and he was promoted to full cast member in the summer of 1999.^[4] Among his signature bits were his song parodies, which he performed when Colin Quinn was doing Update and continued to showcase on special occasions after he had replaced him. Fallon eventually became known for breaking character by laughing and looking into the camera in nearly every sketch he appeared in, a trait that fellow cast-member Tracy Morgan reportedly found offensive.^[11] He became co-anchor of Weekend Update with Tina Fey with the October 7, 2000 season premiere.^[12] Fallon left SNL in 2004 and began pursuing a film career.

Recurring characters

• Dave, a young man in the Will Ferrell/Rachel Dratch recurring sketch, "The Lovers", often used as a pawn in Roger and Virginia's matchmaking.
• Jarret (from Jarret's Room), a stoner who hosts his own Internet webcam show.
• Jeffrey's clerk, one of the clerks (the other being a male host for the show) of an upscale department store.
• Joey Mack, an obnoxious radio DJ who mocks his celebrity guests.
• Kip Bloder, brother to Chris Parnell's Wade Bloder.
• The Leather Man, an intense man who owns a shop filled with leather clothes.
• Nick Burns, a sarcastic tech support representative who helps office workers with computer problems (and is almost always exposed as not knowing as much as he should by one of the workers). He frequently used the catchphrase "Moooooove!" when ousting people from their desk so he could fix the problem.
• Pat Sullivan, nicknamed "Sully", one of the Boston Teens, boyfriend of Rachel Dratch's "Zazu" character.
• Patrick Fitzwilliam, a surly Irishman who hosts a show called Top O' The Morning with his friend, William Fitzpatrick (played by Seth Meyers)
• Randy Goldman, from "Wake Up Wakefield", Megan's (Maya Rudolph) crush who doesn't know she exists.
• Rodney "The Zipper" Calzoun, the MC at the Rialto Grande
• Señor Guadalupe Ramirez, one of the guitar players on the recurring sketch, "The 'How Do You Say, Ah, Yes' Show"
• Wade, one of the members of the boy band 7 Degrees Celsius
• Barry Gibb, in the skit called "The Barry Gibb Talk Show", he hosts along with his brother Robin Gibb (played by Justin Timberlake).
• Tha Mars Monsta, Yo!, a lovable creature similar to an elephant in its good nature and likewise in its stature, featured in your wildest dreams.
• Carson Daly, whom he impersonated with a monotone delivery and the catch phrase "I am a massive tool."^[13]
• Deep Nasta, the Second President of the Audience

Other work

Fallon at the Tribeca Film Festival, April 2007

Fallon has appeared in Taxi, Anything Else, Almost Famous, Fever Pitch, Band of Brothers, Doogal and Factory Girl. He occasionally does stand up comedy at the Comedy Club in New York City.

In 2002, Fallon released the comedy album The Bathroom Wall. In a mixed review, Rolling Stone praised the album's songs, calling the album the "second-best Prince parody ever, after Beck's 'Debra'." However the magazine panned the album's comedy routines, ultimately giving it two-out-of-five stars.^[14] The album was nominated for a Grammy in 2003 for Best Spoken Comedy Album. Fallon co-hosted the 2001 MTV Movie Awards with Kirsten Dunst on June 7, 2001.^[15] Fallon has played Neo in Sex and the Matrix, a comedic two-in-one parody of Sex and the City and The Matrix.^[16] He hosted the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards alone that year.^[17] His opening number included parodies of videos by Eminem, Avril Lavigne, Nelly, The White Stripes, Dave Matthews and Enrique Iglesias. It was named the best most memorable MTV moment of that year. This show climaxed with a performance by Guns N' Roses. Fallon had to be censored when he excitedly referred to them as "Guns N' Fucking Roses."

Fallon also hosted the 2005 MTV Movie Awards and played Anakin Skywalker in comedic parody of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith's Mustafar scene, in which Anakin and Padme have their last conversation. Fallon was named one of People magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People in 2002, an honor Fallon found embarrassing.^[18]

Following the Boston Red Sox's World Series clinching game over the St. Louis Cardinals in 2004, Fallon ran onto the field at Busch Stadium with Drew Barrymore to film a scene for their movie Fever Pitch.

In 2006, Fallon starred in "Spontaneous Combustion", a Traktor-directed Pepsi television commercial with actress Parker Posey. In the ad, Fallon and Posey can be seen dancing and jumping around to the song Streamline by Newton. In October of that year, Fallon appeared on stage in The Secret Policeman's Ball, a charity gig filmed to raise awareness of Amnesty International at the Royal Albert Hall. Fallon made three appearances during the show, the first in a sketch in which he performed impressions of people such as David Bowie, Jerry Seinfeld and David Blaine in order to get past a doorman (Shaun Williamson) who claims Fallon isn't on the list. The doorman finally recognizes him for his role in Taxi, but still won't let him in. He later masqueraded as Russell Brand before being led off by Williamson, and made one final appearance in a cameo role as the front of a pantomime horse in the Al Murray "pub landlord" routine.

In 2007, Fallon wrote the song "Car Wash for Peace" and donated all proceeds to charity. He performed the song on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and The View and dedicated a MySpace page to the cause. Around the same time, a video circulated on various Internet sites called lonelyfallon32, in which Fallon parodied YouTube celebrity Jessica Rose (a.k.a. lonelygirl15) and later performed the song.

Fallon, along with his sister Gloria, wrote I Hate This Place: The Pessimist's Guide to Life for TV Books in 1999. A second book is anticipated but has not yet been released, to be titled "I Hate This Place 2: Tokyo Drift."^[4] Fallon has also written a children's book, illustrated by Adam Stower, entitled Snowball Fight.

Fallon also appeared on Diggnation's 185th show as the program's first-ever guest.^[19]

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon

Fallon succeeded fellow Saturday Night Live alumnus Conan O'Brien as the host of NBC's Late Night after O'Brien left the show to prepare to take over The Tonight Show from Jay Leno in 2009.^[20] The deal for the long-expected succession was confirmed April 24, 2008, with an official announcement made on May 12, 2008 at NBC's upfront presentation.^[21][22] The official press conference was released on Hulu.com.^[23]

The show titled Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, first aired on March 2, 2009 with guests Justin Timberlake, Robert De Niro, and musical guest Van Morrison. Guests on the show's first week included Tina Fey, Jon Bon Jovi, Cameron Diaz, Donald Trump and Drew Barrymore. On the June 18, 2009 show (right after the monologue), Jimmy asked fans to send tweets to request musical guests. The following weekend, requests for Joe Cameron were leading the votes. Joe Cameron successfully secured a performance on the Ellen Degeneres show in 2007, after a video grassroots campaign went viral, making him the first unsigned artist to perform on her show.

Personal life

Fallon married Drew Barrymore's producing partner Nancy Juvonen on December 22, 2007.^[24][25] On January 27, 2009 Fallon underwent LASIK laser eye surgery at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan. He chronicles the entire surgery on his video blog. Fallon says, "...it works, LASIK's is great and the surgery turned out to be great."^[26] On May 9, 2009 Fallon received a college degree from College of St. Rose in New York State. He dropped out 14 years previously. His degree from St. Rose was in communications which he showed off on SNL and his late night show.^[27] Jimmy Fallon collects miniatures.^[28]

Television

• Spin City: The Marrying Men (1998), uncredited
• Saturday Night Live (1998-2004)
• SNL Fanatic (2000)
• Sex and the Matrix (2000)
• Band of Brothers (2001)
• Night of Too Many Stars: An Overbooked Event for Autism Education (2006)
• Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (2009)
• Family Guy (2009)

Filmography

• Whip It! (2009) (post-production)^[29]
• The Year of Getting to Know Us (2008)
• Factory Girl (2006)
• Arthur and the Invisibles (2006) (voice)
• Doogal (2006) (voice)
• Fever Pitch (2005)
• Taxi (2004/I)
• The Entrepreneurs (2003)
• Anything Else (2003)
• Almost Famous (2000)

Discography

Albums

• The Bathroom Wall (2002)

Singles

• "Idiot Boyfriend" (2002)

Further reading

• Baldwin, Kristen (2002-05-10), "Update with Destiny". Entertainment Weekly. (653):26

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Jimmy Fallon

• Jimmy Fallon at the Internet Movie Database
• Food Bank For New York City public service announcement
• Official Jimmy Fallon MySpace Page
• Jimmy Fallon with Popular Radio Personality Rich Stevens
• JimmyFallon.net - Bathroom Wall
• JimmyFallon.com - The Forum
• NBC's Official Late Night with Jimmy Fallon Site
• Unofficial Jimmy Fallon Late Night & Bio Website
• Jimmy Fallon's Twitter Page
• Interview of Jimmy Fallon for New Beacon Theatre Documentary