Gregg Turkington
| Gregg Turkington | |
|---|---|
 Turkington as Neil Hamburger in Portland, Oregon |
|
| Born | 25 November 1967 Darwin, Australia |
| Occupation | Comedian/Musician |
| Years active | 1980s–present |
| Spouse | Simone Turkington |
Gregg Turkington (born 25 November 1967, Darwin, Northern Territory) is an Australian-born U.S. comedian, best known for his stand-up comedy character, Neil Hamburger. He has also participated in a number of avant-garde and post punk bands. Turkington founded Amarillo Records.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Personal life
Turkington was born in Darwin, Australia, of American parents, and grew up in Tempe, Arizona and San Francisco, California. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Simone Turkington. He has been a vegetarian for over two decades and supports animal welfare causes.
[edit] Music career
He rose to prominence in the mid-1980s as the co-publisher of underground zine Breakfast Without Meat, which brought punk respectability to "square" musical artists such as Tiny Tim, Jimmy Webb, the 101 Strings, and Richard Harris through feature articles. A frequent contributor to the zine was Derrick Bostrom of the Meat Puppets.
In the 1980s, Turkington also performed in obscure San Francisco bands such as Hello Kitty On Ice and Bean Church, and was rumoured to have been a founding member of Caroliner[citation needed].
In the early 1990s, Turkington operated the Amarillo Records label, which released works by many artists from San Francisco’s burgeoning post-punk avant-garde music scene. He was a member of Totem Pole of Losers and the Zip Code Rapists (with John Singer). He collaborated with Trey Spruance (Mr. Bungle) in the Three Doctors, Faxed Head, Secret Chiefs 3 and the Bon Larvis Band. Many of these bands appeared on 1996's landmark Amarillo Records compilation CD, You Gan’t Boar Like An Eabla When You Work With Turkrys, along with the likes of Sun City Girls, Thinking Fellers Union Local 282, U.S. Saucer, Harvey Sid Fisher, Dieselhed and Church of Satan founder Anton Szandor LaVey. He was also a tour manager for both Link Wray and Mr. Bungle. He contributed lead vocals to two tracks by the Secret Chiefs 3 for Sony Japan.
By the late 1990s, Turkington had abandoned Amarillo Records and all of his musical projects and moved to Melbourne, Australia. Since then, he has written the book Warm Voices Rearranged: Anagram Record Reviews with fellow Three Doctors alumnus Brandan Kearney (of World of Pooh, Caroliner, and Archipelago Brewing Co). He was also a contributing editor to the British version of Maxim in 2005 and 2006.
In 2005 and 2006, after ten years of inactivity, his musical duo Zip Code Rapists began doing sporadic shows again, performing in San Francisco, Minneapolis, Toronto, and Montreal.
He has provided various voices for the Cartoon Network animated series The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, and for other cartoons including Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Adventure Time. A parody screenplay entitled "Bicycle Built for Two" which was co-written with Tim Heidecker was published in McSweeney's #36 in December, 2010.
Turkington appears in the full-length independent drama The Comedy, directed by Rick Alverson and starring Tim Heidecker. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, 2012.
[edit] Neil Hamburger
Turkington is best known for creating anti-comedian Neil Hamburger. In 1993, Turkington released an album of prank phone calls with several tracks featuring an early version of the character and soon after began developing a stand-up comedian persona. The character constantly clears his throat while telling off-paced jokes that, for the most part, fail. Neil's unique brand of comedy has thrilled, perplexed and repulsed audiences worldwide. Since 1998, he has released a number of records on the Drag City record label.
In the 2000s, he appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Tom Green Live, Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, and Fox News' Red Eye. He also appeared in the short film Left For Dead In Malaysia, and had a brief cameo appearance in the 2006 film Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny. The Neil Hamburger character plays the role of Osric in the 2011 film, Hamlet A.D.D., a live action and animated version of William Shakespeare's Hamlet.[1] He was rumored to appear in his Neil Hamburger persona in Greg Mottola's 2011 ensemble comedy film Paul, but in fact, did not.[2]
[edit] Discography
[edit] with the Zip Code Rapists
- 1992 - Sing And Play The Three Doctors (Amarillo)
- 1994 - The Man Can't Bust Our Music! (EP Ectoplasm)
- 1994 - Sing And Play The Matador Records Catalog EP (Ecstatic Piss)
- 1995 - 94124 EP (Amarillo)
- 1995 - Live "In Competence" (Beast 666 Tapes)
- 2005 - Here At Last... Live!!! (Freedom From)
- 2009 - Sing And Play The Three Doctors (with 24 bonus tracks) (Eabla)
[edit] with The Easy Goings
- 1989 - The Easy Goings (Bee-Fast)
- 1993 - Cigarettes (Nuf Sed)
[edit] with the Three Doctors
[edit] as Totem Pole of Losers
- 1993 - Jesus, I Am Loving You (Amarillo)
[edit] with Faxed Head
- 1995 - Uncomfortable But Free (Amarillo)
- 1997 - Exhumed At Birth (Amarillo)
- 2001 - Chiropractic (Web of Mimicry)
- 2008 - From Coalinga to Osaka: Live In Japan 1995 (Web of Mimicry)
[edit] as The Golding Institute
- 1994 - Sounds of the American Fast Food Restaurants (Planet Pimp)
- 1997 - Sounds of the San Francisco Adult Book Stores (Planet Pimp)
- 1998 - Sounds of the International Airport Restrooms (Planet Pimp)
- 2006 - Final Relaxation (Ipecac)
[edit] as Neil Hamburger
- 1992 - Great Phone Calls - (Amarillo)
- 1996 - America's Funnyman (Drag City)
- 1998 - Raw Hamburger (Drag City)
- 1999 - Left for Dead in Malaysia (Drag City)
- 2000 - Inside Neil Hamburger (EP) (Drag City)
- 2000 - Fifty States, Fifty Laughs (Million Dollar Performances)
- 2002 - Laugh Out Lord (Drag City)
- 2003 - Live at Phoenix Greyhound Park DVD (Kung Fu)
- 2005 - Great Moments At Di Presa's Pizza House (Drag City)
- 2005 - The World's Funnyman DVD (Drag City)
- 2007 - Hot February Night (Off-Price Value Center)
- 2008 - Sings Country Winners (Drag City)
