Randy Chestnut
Encyclopedia
Randall Jay Chestnut is an American
stand-up comedian
, writer
, and actor
.
He is noted for his wide-ranging subject matter, physicality, and sarcasm. Among other topics, he often focuses on American politics
. Once, when asked what he'd do if he were mayor of Madison, Wisconsin
, he replied,
.
in 1971. His early years were spent moving from state to state, living in Texas
, Massachusetts
, Maine
, Florida
, and Wisconsin. After graduating from high school in Baraboo, Wisconsin in 1989, he spent his late teens and early twenties moving from job to job before trying his hand at comedy. Beginning his career in Madison, Wisconsin at the Funny Business Comedy Club - later called The Comedy Club On State - Chestnut spent nearly two years as an amateur, honing his stagecraft and developing his material. When asked, Chestnut claims his comedy is
By 1999, he had grown as a performer, and won his first and only comedy competition. Although he was voted Funniest Person In Madison (Wisconsin) in 1999, he found the experience distasteful, and avoids competitions to this day. Also in 1999, Chestnut was invited to perform in the first of two Comics Come Home special events sponsored by Charter Communications
and Comedy Central
, the proceeds of which were to benefit the Chris Farley Foundation. The second invitation came in 2000. Other performers included Bob Saget
, Jim Breuer
, Victoria Jackson
, Tom Arnold
, Kevin Farley
, John P. Farley
, Tim Kazurinsky
, and Sue Murphy.
George W. Bush
and the Bush administration met with increasingly hostile responses from American audiences due to a post-9/11 rise in nationalism. Combined with failing comedy clubs due to a declining economy
, his unwavering, negative critiques led to a decline in bookings. Chestnut admits to being antagonistic and inflammatory, and includes stories of altercations with audience members in his act. He persevered, however, and swinging public opinion due to popular disenchantment with the Occupation of Iraq once again made him a sought-after comedian.
In May 2004, Chestnut recorded his first CD at The Comedy Club On State, entitled I Was Funny... Now Pay Me, written and performed by himself, and produced by Austin Katt. A series of delays kept the CD from being released, including the suicide of close friend Eric Harnisch. Chestnut was devastated by the loss, and canceled shows in order to help lay his friend to rest. He helped plan the wake and funeral
, hosted the wake, was a pallbearer
, and wrote Harnisch's epitaph
,
Things grew worse for Chestnut in early 2005 when he developed shingles and the rare postherpetic neuralgia
(PHN) complication. The chronic pain due to PHN limited him in his ability to perform, and he was eventually forced to take on a day job to maintain the health insurance
necessary to cover the medical expenses that had nearly ruined him financially. He spent 2005 and 2006 in and out of the comedy circuit.
In mid-2008, he again took a hiatus from comedy to look after his wife and his two stepchildren after his wife had a hysterectomy
.
in 2006. Along with his wife, Chestnut also inherited two stepchildren, Gabriel and Samara.
In addition to PHN, Chestnut suffers from sleep apnea
. He is being treated for both.
Much of his political material is harshly critical of Republican
and neoconservative ideas, in addition to promoting largely liberal
ideas, despite claiming to be both nonpartisan
and equally disdainful of liberals and Democrats
. He is also fiercely anti-corporate in his act.
Chestnut is also noted for his scathing attacks on the Blue Collar Comedy phenomena, claiming that it is destroying the art of stand-up comedy and "dumbing down
" American audiences. These attacks are part of a larger complaint by Chestnut that, in his opinion, America is being and/or has been "dumbed down" by corporate propaganda
, and he often lists his comedy influences as examples of what is "right" with stand-up comedy.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
stand-up comedian
Stand-up comedy
Stand-up comedy is a comedic art form. Usually, a comedian performs in front of a live audience, speaking directly to them. Their performances are sometimes filmed for later release via DVD, the internet, and television...
, writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
, and actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
.
He is noted for his wide-ranging subject matter, physicality, and sarcasm. Among other topics, he often focuses on American politics
American politics
American politics is an area of study within the academic discipline of political science. It is primarily, but not exclusively, studied by researchers in the United States...
. Once, when asked what he'd do if he were mayor of Madison, Wisconsin
Madison, Wisconsin
Madison is the capital of the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Dane County. It is also home to the University of Wisconsin–Madison....
, he replied,
I'd do photo ops with Marilyn Manson and underprivileged children while my contributors continued to dump toxic waste in the rivers of Third World nations, then go home and do lines off the bare back of my 19-year-old Malaysian concubine. You know, like a real politician.Throughout his career, his material has also focused on his support of LGBT rights and his criticism of religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
.
Early life and career
Randy Chestnut was born in Dallas, TexasTexas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
in 1971. His early years were spent moving from state to state, living in Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, and Wisconsin. After graduating from high school in Baraboo, Wisconsin in 1989, he spent his late teens and early twenties moving from job to job before trying his hand at comedy. Beginning his career in Madison, Wisconsin at the Funny Business Comedy Club - later called The Comedy Club On State - Chestnut spent nearly two years as an amateur, honing his stagecraft and developing his material. When asked, Chestnut claims his comedy is
imported at great expense from a left-handed cobbler in Sussex, England, who answers to the name "King Cat Crocodile, Hector The Fuel Injector."In reality, he writes his own, although his early material was co-written with a fellow comedian. The two ceased writing together once it became clear their respective styles were growing apart and becoming more and more distinct.
By 1999, he had grown as a performer, and won his first and only comedy competition. Although he was voted Funniest Person In Madison (Wisconsin) in 1999, he found the experience distasteful, and avoids competitions to this day. Also in 1999, Chestnut was invited to perform in the first of two Comics Come Home special events sponsored by Charter Communications
Charter Communications
Charter Communications is an American company providing cable television, high-speed Internet, and telephone services to more than 4.7 million customers in 25 states. By revenues, it is the fourth-largest cable operator in the United States, behind Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Cox Communications...
and Comedy Central
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated....
, the proceeds of which were to benefit the Chris Farley Foundation. The second invitation came in 2000. Other performers included Bob Saget
Bob Saget
Robert Lane "Bob" Saget is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and television host. Although he is best known for his roles as Danny Tanner in Full House, host of America's Funniest Home Videos and Future Ted Mosby on How I Met Your Mother, Saget is also known outside of television for his blue...
, Jim Breuer
Jim Breuer
Jim Breuer is an American stand-up comedian, actor and radio host. He is most noted for his time as a cast member on Saturday Night Live and starring in the 1998 cult "stoner comedy" Half Baked, alongside Dave Chappelle....
, Victoria Jackson
Victoria Jackson
Victoria Jackson is an American comedian, actress, satirist and singer best known as a cast member of the NBC television sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 1986 to 1992....
, Tom Arnold
Tom Arnold (actor)
Thomas Dwaine "Tom" Arnold is an American actor and comedian. He has appeared in many films, perhaps most notably True Lies . He was the host of The Best Damn Sports Show Period for four years.-Early life:...
, Kevin Farley
Kevin Farley
Kevin Peter Farley is an American actor, production designer, singer, dancer, occasional composer and aspiring stand-up comic.-Early life:...
, John P. Farley
John P. Farley
John Patrick Farley is an American actor and comedian.Farley was born in Madison, Wisconsin, the son of Mary Anne , a housewife, and Thomas "Tom" Farley, Sr., who owned an oil company. He was raised in an Irish Catholic family. He is the youngest brother of actors Chris Farley and Kevin Farley...
, Tim Kazurinsky
Tim Kazurinsky
Timothy J. Kazurinsky is an American actor, comedian and writer best known as a cast member on Saturday Night Live and for his role as Carl Sweetchuck in the Police Academy films...
, and Sue Murphy.
Post–September 11, 2001–2008
Trouble began for Chestnut when his criticism and jokes about PresidentPresident
A president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...
George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
and the Bush administration met with increasingly hostile responses from American audiences due to a post-9/11 rise in nationalism. Combined with failing comedy clubs due to a declining economy
Economy
An economy consists of the economic system of a country or other area; the labor, capital and land resources; and the manufacturing, trade, distribution, and consumption of goods and services of that area...
, his unwavering, negative critiques led to a decline in bookings. Chestnut admits to being antagonistic and inflammatory, and includes stories of altercations with audience members in his act. He persevered, however, and swinging public opinion due to popular disenchantment with the Occupation of Iraq once again made him a sought-after comedian.
In May 2004, Chestnut recorded his first CD at The Comedy Club On State, entitled I Was Funny... Now Pay Me, written and performed by himself, and produced by Austin Katt. A series of delays kept the CD from being released, including the suicide of close friend Eric Harnisch. Chestnut was devastated by the loss, and canceled shows in order to help lay his friend to rest. He helped plan the wake and funeral
Funeral
A funeral is a ceremony for celebrating, sanctifying, or remembering the life of a person who has died. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember the dead, from interment itself, to various monuments, prayers, and rituals undertaken in their honor...
, hosted the wake, was a pallbearer
Pallbearer
A pall-bearer is one of several funeral participants who helps carry the casket of a deceased person from a religious or memorial service or viewing either directly to a cemetery or mausoleum, or to and from the hearse which carries the coffin....
, and wrote Harnisch's epitaph
Epitaph
An epitaph is a short text honoring a deceased person, strictly speaking that is inscribed on their tombstone or plaque, but also used figuratively. Some are specified by the dead person beforehand, others chosen by those responsible for the burial...
,
His wit was exceeded only by his intelligence, his intelligence only by his selflessness, his selflessness only by his kindness, his kindness only by his extraordinary life, and his life only by those he touched with it.Further delays in releasing the CD were created when conflicts arose between Chestnut and several comedy booking agents over cancellations due to the sudden loss of his close friend. Eventually, he decided that the CD I Was Funny... Now Pay Me had grown too old - the material too dated - for mass release.
Things grew worse for Chestnut in early 2005 when he developed shingles and the rare postherpetic neuralgia
Postherpetic neuralgia
Postherpetic neuralgia is a neuralgia caused by the varicella zoster virus. Typically, the neuralgia is confined to a dermatomic area of the skin and follows an outbreak of herpes zoster in that same dermatomic area...
(PHN) complication. The chronic pain due to PHN limited him in his ability to perform, and he was eventually forced to take on a day job to maintain the health insurance
Health insurance
Health insurance is insurance against the risk of incurring medical expenses among individuals. By estimating the overall risk of health care expenses among a targeted group, an insurer can develop a routine finance structure, such as a monthly premium or payroll tax, to ensure that money is...
necessary to cover the medical expenses that had nearly ruined him financially. He spent 2005 and 2006 in and out of the comedy circuit.
In mid-2008, he again took a hiatus from comedy to look after his wife and his two stepchildren after his wife had a hysterectomy
Hysterectomy
A hysterectomy is the surgical removal of the uterus, usually performed by a gynecologist. Hysterectomy may be total or partial...
.
Personal life
In 2008, he married Noelle Cedarleaf, just days before her hysterectomy. The two had met onlineONLINE
ONLINE is a magazine for information systems first published in 1977. The publisher Online, Inc. was founded the year before. In May 2002, Information Today, Inc. acquired the assets of Online Inc....
in 2006. Along with his wife, Chestnut also inherited two stepchildren, Gabriel and Samara.
In addition to PHN, Chestnut suffers from sleep apnea
Sleep apnea
Sleep apnea is a sleep disorder characterized by abnormal pauses in breathing or instances of abnormally low breathing, during sleep. Each pause in breathing, called an apnea, can last from a few seconds to minutes, and may occur 5 to 30 times or more an hour. Similarly, each abnormally low...
. He is being treated for both.
Religion, politics, and social commentary
In his act, Chestnut often expresses his contempt for religion in all forms. While he claims to believe in a god in his act, it is unclear what form or function is expressed in that belief, or if the claim is even true. He was raised as a Roman Catholic, and is particularly contemptuous of the Catholic Church.Much of his political material is harshly critical of Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
and neoconservative ideas, in addition to promoting largely liberal
Liberalism in the United States
Liberalism in the United States is a broad political philosophy centered on the unalienable rights of the individual. The fundamental liberal ideals of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion for all belief systems, and the separation of church and state, right to due process...
ideas, despite claiming to be both nonpartisan
Nonpartisan
In political science, nonpartisan denotes an election, event, organization or person in which there is no formally declared association with a political party affiliation....
and equally disdainful of liberals and Democrats
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
. He is also fiercely anti-corporate in his act.
Chestnut is also noted for his scathing attacks on the Blue Collar Comedy phenomena, claiming that it is destroying the art of stand-up comedy and "dumbing down
Dumbing down
Dumbing down is a pejorative term for a perceived trend to lower the intellectual content of literature, education, news, and other aspects of culture...
" American audiences. These attacks are part of a larger complaint by Chestnut that, in his opinion, America is being and/or has been "dumbed down" by corporate propaganda
Corporate propaganda
Corporate propaganda are propagandist claims made by a corporation , nearly always for the purpose of manipulating market opinion to the benefit of their product or to divide public opinion with regard to controversial issues related to that corporation, and its associated business dealings....
, and he often lists his comedy influences as examples of what is "right" with stand-up comedy.