John Oliver (entertainer)

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John Oliver
John Oliver Occupy Wall Street 2011 Shankbone.JPG
Oliver at Occupy Wall Street, October 2011
Birth name John William Oliver
Born (1977-04-23) 23 April 1977 (age 36)
Birmingham, England
Nationality British
Years active 2001–present
Genres Political satire
Spouse Kate Norley
Notable works and roles The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Community, The Bugle, Mock The Week
Website http://www.iamjohnoliver.com

John William Oliver[1] (born 23 April 1977) is a British[2] comedian and actor. He is best known for his work on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart[3] and the satirical comedy podcast, The Bugle.

He plays a recurring character, Professor Ian Duncan, on the television series Community. He has worked extensively with Andy Zaltzman; their body of work includes hundreds of hours of satirical podcasts and radio broadcasts, including series such as Political Animal, The Department, and The Bugle. In 2013, it was announced that Daily Show host Jon Stewart would be taking a three month leave from the show to direct his first film titled Rosewater and that Oliver would be replacing him as host for the summer months.[4]

He is a permanent resident of the United States and lives in New York City.

Contents

Early life[edit]

Oliver was born in Birmingham [5] and educated in Bedford at the Mark Rutherford School.[6] His parents were teachers from Liverpool and Oliver is a big Liverpool F.C. fan.[7] In 1998 he graduated from Christ's College, Cambridge,[1] where he studied English[8] and was Vice-President of the Cambridge Footlights for 1997–98, when the President was Richard Ayoade.

Career[edit]

Stand-up[edit]

According to Edward Helmore in The Guardian: "His style leans toward the kind that Americans like best from the British - exaggerated, full of odd accents and mannerisms, in the vein of Monty Python." [9]

Oliver first appeared at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2001 as part of The Comedy Zone, a late-night showcase of newer acts. He performed his debut solo show in 2002 and returned in 2003. In 2004 and 2005, he collaborated with Andy Zaltzman on a double act and co-hosting Political Animal, with various acts performing political material. Jon Stewart was apparently told about Oliver by a friend, the English comic Ricky Gervais, whom Oliver did not know.[10] After relocating to New York City for The Daily Show, Oliver began performing stand-up in small clubs around the city, later moving on to headline shows in larger venues.[11] Oliver's first stand-up special—entitled John Oliver: Terrifying Times—debuted on Comedy Central on 20 April 2008 and was later released on DVD.[12]

Mock The Week[edit]

Immediately prior to joining The Daily Show, Oliver was making regular appearances on British television as a panelist on the satirical news quiz Mock The Week. He was the most frequent guest on the first two series in 2005 and 2006, appearing in 7 out of 11 episodes.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart[edit]

Oliver and Wyatt Cenac at the launch of Earth (The Book).

John Oliver joined The Daily Show with Jon Stewart as its Senior British Correspondent in July 2006. "I've always striven to be both an entertainer and an irritant. I think that's why I feel so at home on The Daily Show," quipped Oliver in a January 2009 interview.[13] The writers of The Daily Show won an Emmy in 2009 for "Best Comedy Writing In A Comedy or Variety Series".[14] Oliver began guest-hosting the show on 10 June 2013 while host Jon Stewart is taking an extended hiatus to film the movie Rosewater. He is scheduled to guest-host the program for a total of eight weeks in the summer of 2013.

The Bugle[edit]

Main article: The Bugle

Since October 2007 Oliver has co-hosted The Bugle, a weekly satirical comedy podcast, with Andy Zaltzman. Originally produced by The Times of London, it is now independent. Its 200th episode aired on 13 July 2012.[15]

During his remarks about the death of Osama bin Laden in episode 152 of The Bugle, Oliver coined the term "fuckeulogy." Osama bin Laden, Muammar Gaddafi and Kim Jong Il were all fuckeulogized by Oliver upon their deaths in 2011.

Other work[edit]

 This section is in a list format that may be better presented using prose. You can help by converting this section to prose, if appropriate. Editing help is available. (July 2012)

Oliver wrote and presented the current BBC America campaign to have viewers use closed captioning (subtitles). Shown in brief segments before shows, "The following program contains accents you would have heard a lot more if you hadn't thrown our tea into Boston Harbour," says one. "Not even British people can follow the British accent 100 percent of the time. Therefore you, like me, might want to use closed-captioning." Oliver has begun using some of these jokes in his current stand-up routine.[16]

Wyatt Cenac, John Oliver and Rory Albanese after performing stand-up comedy at Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in April 2009

John Oliver was a semi-regular panellist on the first two series of Mock the Week and frequently appeared on Fighting Talk.

Oliver appeared briefly in the series Green Wing as a car salesman.

In 2008 Oliver was given his first film role, playing Dick Pants in The Love Guru.[17]

Oliver performed various roles in the 2009 Comedy Central series Important Things with Demetri Martin.

Oliver appears in a recurring capacity on the NBC comedy Community as Dr. Ian Duncan, a psychology professor.[18] However, he declined becoming a regular cast member of the series because he did not want to leave The Daily Show for it.[19]

John Oliver, along with fellow The Daily Show writer Rory Albanese, signed a blind script deal with Paramount in 2009.[20]

In 2009, Oliver made a cameo appearance as the actor Rip Torn in the music video for the Fiery Furnaces single "Even in the Rain", which is based around the story of the making of the film Easy Rider.[21]

John Oliver hosts a stand-up series entitled John Oliver's New York Stand-Up Show, which features himself and several other comedians. It premiered 8 January 2010 on Comedy Central.[22]

Oliver voiced Vanity Smurf in The Smurfs film.[23]

Oliver voiced Wax Sherlock Holmes on Gravity Falls in the episode "Headhunters".

Personal life[edit]

John Oliver currently lives in New York with his wife Kate Norley, an Iraq War veteran who served as an Army medic.[24] Oliver has said that they met at the 2008 Republican National Convention where he was doing a piece for The Daily Show and Norley was campaigning with Vets for Freedom after she and other veterans hid Oliver, the other correspondents, and the camera crew from security.[25][26] The two married in October 2011.

Oliver is a fan of Liverpool F.C.[27] and the New York Mets baseball team.[28]

Oliver's status as an immigrant placed certain constraints on what he could do in his adopted country, but also provided him with comedy material as he poked fun at the opacity and occasional absurdity of the process of attaining US citizenship. Oliver was one of the many writers on the picket lines during the Writers' Guild strike which brought The Daily Show to a halt,[29] but he appeared on the show upon its resuming production on 7 January 2008. During a sketch, he pointed out that he is in the U.S. on a visa which requires him not to strike while the show is in production and violation of the terms of the visa would be grounds for deportation. When asked about his immigration status in early 2009, Oliver said, "It's an ongoing, and slightly unsettling, battle to be honest. I tried engraving 'Give me your tired, your poor, and your aspiring comic performers' into the base of the Statue of Liberty, but apparently that's not legally binding."[13] In an episode of The Bugle released 31 October 2009, Oliver announced that he "finally got approved for [his] green card," noting that now he can "get arrested filming bits for The Daily Show".[30]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "Reporter 8/7/98: Congregations of the Regent House on 26 and 27 June 1998". Cambridge University Reporter. Retrieved 23 February 2011. 
  2. ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2013/jun/07/john-oliver-the-daily-show
  3. ^ "Made in Manhattan: John Oliver on taking satire stateside". The Independent. 7 April 2010. Retrieved 7 July 2012. 
  4. ^ Lily Rothman (2013-06-03). "What is Rosewater? The movie taking Jon Stewart away from The Daily Show?". Time Entertainment. Retrieved 2013-07-06. 
  5. ^ http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/comedy/features/made-in-manhattan-john-oliver-on-taking-satire-stateside-1937408.html
  6. ^ "Interview with John Oliver – The Guardian". London. 23 July 2007. Retrieved 21 April 2009. 
  7. ^ Bill Young (7 March 2011). "Ten Minutes with John Oliver". Tellyspotting. Retrieved 7 July 2012. 
  8. ^ "Oliver’s Twist on These ‘Terrifying Times’". The Tech (Online Edition). MIT. Retrieved 1 March 2013. 
  9. ^ "Interview with John Oliver". The Guardian. 22 July 2007. Retrieved 7 July 2012. 
  10. ^ Made in Manhattan: John Oliver on taking satire stateside - Features - Comedy - The Independent
  11. ^ "Oliver twisted – Time Out New York Issue 593". 8 February 2007. Retrieved 21 April 2009. 
  12. ^ "John Oliver: Terrifying Times". comedycentral.com. Retrieved 27 March 2009. [dead link]
  13. ^ a b "John Oliver: Comic Crumpet". SuicideGirls.com. 13 January 2009. Retrieved 14 January 2009. 
  14. ^ "John Oliver – The Wellmont Theatre – Montclair – NJ – Oct 1, 2010". Retrieved 6 December 2010. 
  15. ^ Coates, Sam; Elliott, Francis; Watson, Roland. "The Bugle – Audio Newspaper For A Visual World". The Times (London). Retrieved 7 May 2010. 
  16. ^ "Translated from the British". TVWeek. 21 May 2007. Retrieved 19 April 2008. 
  17. ^ "Oliver's movie break". Chortle.co.uk. 5 September 2007. Retrieved 23 May 2009. 
  18. ^ "Rating NBC's new fall shows: 'Parenthood,' a 'Trauma,' a 'Community,' '100 Questions,' and oh 'Mercy'!". Entertainment Weekly. 4 May 2009. Retrieved 4 May 2009. 
  19. ^ "Interview with John Oliver of "The Daily Show" and "Community"". Time Out New York. 23 July 2009. Retrieved 14 May 2010. 
  20. ^ "'Daily Show' duo in Paramount deal". The Hollywood Reporter. 5 August 2009. Retrieved 6 August 2009. [dead link]
  21. ^ "Video Premiere:The Fiery Furnaces: "Even in the Rain"". Pitchfork. 3 December 2009. Retrieved 7 January 2010. 
  22. ^ "Comedy Central gives John Oliver his own stand-up comedy series". Los Angeles Times. 18 November 2009. Retrieved 19 November 2009. 
  23. ^ "Smurfs casting update: 'SNL' cast and John Oliver join voice cast". Entertainment Weekly Online. 28 April 2010. Retrieved 3 May 2010. 
  24. ^ Slonim, Jeffrey (3 October 2010). "The Daily Show's John Oliver Is Engaged". People. Retrieved 23 February 2011. 
  25. ^ "John Oliver Radio Interview". 3 June 2009. Retrieved 30 November 2009. 
  26. ^ "John Oliver Interview part 1". Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. 22 August 2012. Retrieved 24 August 2012. 
  27. ^ "'Daily Show' Correspondent John Oliver Fears We're in the End Times". 10 April 2007. Retrieved 19 April 2008. 
  28. ^ Wright, Tom (16 October 2009). "The Bugle #93". The Times (London). Retrieved 17 October 2009. 
  29. ^ "John Oliver, Writer". 15 October 2007. Retrieved 19 April 2008. 
  30. ^ Wright, Tom (31 October 2009). "The Bugle #94: Does the EU really want El Presidente Blair?". The Times (London). Retrieved 31 October 2009. 

External links[edit]

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