John Pinette

 ( 1964 Births ) 

An early break for Pinette occurred in 1991 when he was asked to open for Frank Sinatra, doing so on and off for a year and a half. Originally hired to perform three sets, Sinatra invited him to dinner and chose to keep him on for more shows, including one at the Desert Inn in Las Vegas.

That same year, he was cast in the reality show The Grudge Match as the referee on the series and had regular roles on the final season of teen sitcom Parker Lewis Can't Lose and Married... With Children second-generation spin-off Vinnie & Bobby, starring Matt Le Blanc, with both airing in 1992.

Pinette was a recurring guest on The Tonight Show and The View, and in 1998 played the carjacking victim in the final episode of the sitcom Seinfeld.

Pinette was named Stand-Up Comedian of the Year by the American Comedy Awards in 1999 and received a Gemini Awards nomination for his televised performance at Montreal's Just for Laughs Comedy Festival in 2000. He held the record for the highest-selling one-person show series in the history of Just for Laughs for 16 years, being surpassed by Sugar Sammy in 2016.

Pinette appeared in the films Duets, Simon Sez, The Last Godfather, Dear God, and Junior, and played Nathaniel Bumpo in Artisan Entertainment's 2004 film The Punisher, starring Thomas Jane and John Travolta.

In 2004, Pinette joined the touring cast of the Musical theatre Hairspray in the role of Edna Turnblad, remarking to The Globe and Mail that "The irony is having to work my ass off six days a week on the treadmill in order to play a fat old woman." He later went on to the Broadway theatre production in 2005, and continued in the role until May 28, 2006. In his 2006 concert I'm Starvin, he said it was the first musical theater production he had been in since high school.

Pinette was on board the cruise ship MS Monarch (formerly Monarch of the Seas) during a grounding incident off the coast of St. Maarten, referencing it in his 2005 DVD special I Say Nay Nay.

Pinette's stand-up material was featured in Comedy Central's 2004 animated series Shorties Watchin' Shorties. In 2007, Pinette performed at the 42nd annual Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon. He performed at the Edinburgh Comedy Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 2008, and toured in cities in 2010 beginning in April. During this tour, Pinette recorded a Comedy Central special titled John Pinette: Still Hungry. The taping took place at the Vic Theatre in Chicago and the world premiere of Still Hungry was on July 29, 2011, on Comedy Central.

Pinette was a host of the E4 Laughs at Edinburgh podcasts, showcasing comedians from the Edinburgh Festival in 2008.

In 2012, Pinette was one of the comedy acts in Ron White's Comedy Salute to the Troops on CMT.

He was the host of All You Can Eat, a TV series taking a humorous look at American cuisine. The show debuted on the H2 network in the United States in late June 2013.

In August 2013, Pinette cancelled a nationwide tour of Canada whereupon he checked into a rehabilitation facility after developing a dependency on prescription pain medication, telling his fans on Twitter the following January that he was "physically spent" after "losing a bunch of weight and several small surgical procedures" and would be taking three-and-a-half months off to recover. He later resumed touring the U.S. comedy circuit in March, performing shows in California.

When explaining his approach to stand-up comedy onstage, in interviews, and on social media, Pinette often, though sometimes only partially, restated a mantra: "I talk about my life, it's the funniest thing I can think of. For some reason, people enjoy seeing me lose my cherub-like demeanor."

Pinette cited Jackie Gleason, Jonathan Winters, Buddy Hackett, and Bill Cosby as the main comedians that shaped him as a comic. In response to critics of his chosen subject, he stated in 1998: "Why should that be any different from a comic that says, 'I was an alcoholic,' or, 'I was in a bad relationship'? I want to talk about being a big guy... it's not a fat joke. It's a joke about living the way you live."

Chortle founder Steve Bennett described the experience of watching Pinette's I Say Nay Nay set at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2008 by saying: "it is not until you leave the show and get your breath back that you realise that you have learned nothing, no boundary has been pushed, no preconception questioned. There is no theme, no grand point other than to make the audience laugh hard and laugh solidly, and Pinette hammers this point home masterfully."

The Guardian wrote in 2012: "Yes, Pinette is indeed a fat man making fat jokes, which may seem to you a touch predictable, yet the joy of his comedy is in his superb technique", describing him as "a comic fantasist instead of an observer".

In preparation to meet the demands of his Broadway role in Hairspray, Pinette lost 100 pounds from his high (something he purportedly effectuated several times across his life) and wore a fat suit on stage. In his comedy show Still Hungry, Pinette detailed how he was diagnosed with a wheat allergy.

When asked in 1998 by the Las Vegas Sun what would be on his plate if he could build his own buffet, in reference to the central theme of his then-touring comedy show Show Me The Buffet, Pinette responded: "There's a lot of life out there; you can grab and move."

As of October 2006, he had moved to Pennsylvania to live part-time in close proximity to his family, in-between periods he spent touring.