Greg Giraldo

Greg Giraldo
Giraldo at his final performance, September 24, 2010 in New Brunswick, New Jersey
Born	December 10, 1965(1965-12-10) New York City, New York, United States
Died	September 29, 2010(2010-09-29) (aged 44) New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States
Medium	Stand-up, television
Nationality	American
Years active	1992–2010
Genres	Observational comedy, black comedy, surreal humor, roast comedian
Subject(s)	Current events, everyday life, self-deprecation, marriage, parenting, pop culture
Spouse	? (1989-?) Maryann Giraldo (?-2009) (divorced) 3 children
Notable works and roles	Stand-Up Nation Comedy Central Roasts Lewis Black's Root of All Evil

Greg Giraldo (December 10, 1965 – September 29, 2010) was an American stand-up comedian, television personality, and retired lawyer. Giraldo was best known for his appearances on Comedy Central's televised roast specials, and for his work on that network's television shows Lewis Black's Root of All Evil, and the programming block Stand-Up Nation, the last of which he hosted.

Early life

Giraldo was born in The Bronx and was raised in Queens. He attended Regis High School. He was the oldest of three children (brother John and sister Elizabeth) to immigrant parents from Colombia (father) and Spain (mother), and was raised Roman Catholic. He went on to earn a bachelor's degree from Columbia University in 1987 and a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1990. While at Columbia, he was an active member of the Psi Upsilon Fraternity.

Before becoming a comedian, Giraldo worked as a lawyer, spending less than a year as an associate for Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom before changing his occupation.

Giraldo said of his decision to leave the legal profession: "My family was disappointed. But I always wanted to do something creative. I've always had real trouble knowing what my actual desires and goals are. I've just been dragged along by fate. I can't even tell you why I thought to go to law school." In August 2000, Giraldo was featured in an Esquire magazine article, which profiled several members of the Harvard Law School Class of 1990, who ended up choosing different career paths other than the legal profession. Despite his prior career, Giraldo rejected that persona and very rarely discussed his days as a lawyer.

Career

Giraldo performed regularly at the Comedy Cellar in Manhattan. Giraldo was a regular panelist on Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn. Additionally, he was the star of the short-lived Common Law, and also starred in several pilots, including The Greg Giraldo Show and Gone Hollywood for Comedy Central. The New York Times has praised Giraldo as "a talented comedian with a winning personality." In 2004, he was featured in the spoken-word Lazyboy song, "Underwear Goes Inside the Pants."

Giraldo performed more than a dozen times on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Late Show with David Letterman, and Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and appeared regularly on The Howard Stern Show. He has also appeared as a member of the panel in the NBC show The Marriage Ref. He had two half-hour specials on Comedy Central Presents, wrote segments for Last Call with Carson Daly, and was a panelist on Comedy Central's 100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time special. In 2004 his stand up material was featured in Comedy Central's animated series Shorties Watchin' Shorties.

Giraldo said on Late Night with Conan O'Brien on July 7, 2005, that he had quit drinking alcohol but was now addicted to SweeTarts.^{[citation needed]} His series Friday Night Stand-Up with Greg Giraldo began on Comedy Central in late 2005 and ran until 2006. His CD Good Day to Cross a River was released in 2006 by Comedy Central Records.

Giraldo appeared in Comedy Central's annual roasts, roasting Chevy Chase, Pam Anderson, William Shatner, Jeff Foxworthy, Flavor Flav, Bob Saget, Joan Rivers, Larry the Cable Guy, and David Hasselhoff, as well as the TBS roast of Cheech & Chong.

Giraldo was a regular on Comedy Central's television series Lewis Black's Root of All Evil and was one of the advocates lobbying for his side to be considered the "root of all evil." He won in two of his nine appearances. Giraldo served as a judge during season seven of the NBC reality competition show Last Comic Standing.

In 2008, Giraldo appeared in venues across the United States as the headlining act of the Indecision '08 Tour, produced by Comedy Central. Midlife Vices, his only one-hour special for Comedy Central, was released in 2009.

Personal life

Giraldo was married twice, telling an interviewer in October 2009, "I got married when I was 23. And that didn't last very long at all." In that same interview, he said he had been living apart from his second wife for a year and was in separation proceedings, and that his oldest son was age nine. At the time of his death, he had three children and was divorced.

Death

On September 25, 2010, Giraldo overdosed on prescription medication. After he failed to appear for a scheduled performance at the Stress Factory, police officers found him in his hotel room at the Hyatt Hotel in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and rushed him to nearby Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital. TMZ reported that he had been in a coma for five days when his family had life support removed. He died on September 29, 2010.

Tributes

On September 29, 2010 on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Jon Stewart honored Giraldo by playing a clip of his stand-up, in a one-time segment deemed "Moment of Greg". On September 30, 2010, multiple comedians and celebrities expressed their sorrow for Giraldo's death on Twitter, and Comedy Central posted a series of clips from Greg Giraldo past works titled "The Best of Greg Giraldo" on their website. Seth MacFarlane, Anthony Jeselnik, and Jeff Ross paid tribute to Giraldo during the Comedy Central Roast of Donald Trump in March 2011.

On March 18, 2011, Comedy Central aired Give It Up for Greg Giraldo, a two-hour television special honoring his memory in which multiple comedians, including Jon Stewart, Nick Swardson, Colin Quinn, Jeffrey Ross, Denis Leary, Sarah Silverman, Dave Attell, Tom Papa, Lewis Black, Bill Burr, Daniel Tosh, Conan O'Brien, and Whitney Cummings, talked about his life and career. It also contained short clips of his roasts and other acts. Mike DeStefano, a comic who also appeared in the special, died 12 days before its airing.

Discography

• Good Day to Cross a River (2006) Comedy Central Records
• Midlife Vices (2009) Comedy Central Records

External links

• Greg Giraldo at the Internet Movie Database
• Greg Giraldo at The Comedy Hall of Fame
• Greg Giraldo's MySpace Site
• Greg Giraldo Official Website [site is no longer active]
• Archive of "Giraldo's World: Interview", The DePaulia, 2007, n.d.
• "Comedian Discusses Cornell and his Specialty in Candy" (interview), The Cornell Daily Sun, April 25, 2007
• "Court Jester: Greg Giraldo states his case" [1] (interview), Philly City Paper, October 9, 2007
• Greg Giraldo on Failure, Psychology Today, May 13, 2009
• Greg Giraldo at Find a Grave