Steven Alexander Wright (born December 6, 1955) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and film producer. He is known for his distinctly lethargic voice and slow,
deadpan
Deadpan, dry humour, or dry-wit humour is the deliberate display of emotional neutrality or no emotion, commonly as a form of comedic delivery to contrast with the ridiculousness or absurdity of the subject matter. The delivery is meant to be blun ...
delivery of
ironic
Irony (), in its broadest sense, is the juxtaposition of what on the surface appears to be the case and what is actually the case or to be expected; it is an important rhetorical device and literary technique.
Irony can be categorized into ...
,
philosophical
Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...
and sometimes nonsensical
joke
A joke is a display of humour in which words are used within a specific and well-defined narrative structure to make people laughter, laugh and is usually not meant to be interpreted literally. It usually takes the form of a story, often with ...
s,
paraprosdokian
A paraprosdokian () is a figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence, phrase, or larger discourse is surprising or unexpected in a way that causes the reader or listener to reframe or reinterpret the first part. It is frequently used f ...
s,
non sequiturs,
anti-humor
Anti-humor is a type of indirect and alternative humor that involves the joke-teller's delivering something that is intentionally not funny, or lacking in intrinsic meaning. The practice relies on the expectation on the part of the audience of so ...
, and
one-liners with contrived situations.
Wright was ranked as the 15th Greatest Comedian by ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...
'' in its 2017 list of the 50 Greatest Stand-up Comics. His accolades include the
Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film
The Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film is an award presented at the annual Academy Awards ceremony. The award has existed, under various names, since 1957.
From 1936 until 1956 there were two separate awards, "Best Short Subject, One- ...
for starring in, writing, and producing the short film ''
The Appointments of Dennis Jennings
''The Appointments of Dennis Jennings'' is a 1988 American short comedy film, starring, co-written and co-produced by Steven Wright, which won the Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film at the 61st Academy Awards in 1988.
Plot
Dennis Jennings (S ...
'' (1988) and two
Primetime Emmy Awards nominations as a producer of ''
Louie'' (2010–15). He is known for his supporting role as Leon in the Peabody Award–winning tragicomedy web series ''
Horace and Pete
''Horace and Pete'' is an American web series created, written, and directed by Louis C.K., who describes it as a tragedy. In addition to C.K., the series stars Alan Alda, Steve Buscemi, Edie Falco and Jessica Lange. Dealing with the themes of ...
''.
Early life and career
Wright was born at
Mount Auburn Hospital
Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. It was founded by Civil War nurse and administrator Emily Elizabeth Parsons as the first hospital in Cambridge in 1866. It was reopened in 1886 a ...
in
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston ...
, and grew up in
Burlington, Massachusetts,
one of four children of Lucille "Dolly" (née Lomano) and Alexander K. Wright.
He was raised
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
. His mother was Italian-American, and his father of Scottish descent.
Wright's father worked as an electronics technician who "tested a lot of stuff" for NASA during the
Apollo
Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label= Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label ...
spacecraft program. When that program ended, he worked as a truck driver.
Wright attended
Middlesex Community College in
Bedford, Massachusetts
Bedford is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population of Bedford was 14,383 at the time of the 2020 United States Census.
History
''The following compilation comes from Ellen Abrams (1999) based on information ...
, for two years to earn his
associate degree, then continued his education at
Emerson College.
He graduated from Emerson in 1978
[ and began performing stand-up comedy the following year] at the Comedy Connection in Boston. Wright cites comic George Carlin
George Denis Patrick Carlin (May 12, 1937 – June 22, 2008) was an American comedian, actor, author, and social critic. Regarded as one of the most important and influential stand-up comedians of all time, he was dubbed "the dean of countercu ...
and director and former standup comic Woody Allen
Heywood "Woody" Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American film director, writer, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades and multiple Academy Award-winning films. He began his career writing ...
as comedic influences.
In 1982 executive producer of ''The Tonight Show
''The Tonight Show'' is an American late-night talk show that has aired on NBC since 1954. The show has been hosted by six comedians: Steve Allen (1954–1957), Jack Paar (1957–1962), Johnny Carson (1962–1992), Jay Leno (1992–2009 and 201 ...
'' Peter Lassally
Peter Lassally (born 1932) is a German-born American former executive who served as the executive producer of ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'', ''Late Night with David Letterman'', the ''Late Show with David Letterman'' and the ''Late ...
saw Wright performing on a bill with other local comics at the Ding Ho comedy club in Cambridge, a venue Wright described as "half Chinese restaurant and half comedy club. It was a pretty weird place."[ Lassally booked Wright on ]NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
's ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' was an American late-night talk show hosted by Johnny Carson on NBC, the third iteration of the ''Tonight Show'' franchise. The show debuted on October 1, 1962, and aired its final episode on May 22, ...
'', where the comic so impressed host Johnny Carson and the studio audience that less than a week later Wright was invited to appear on the show again.[
]
Stand-up success
Wright's 1985 comedy album '' I Have a Pony'' was released on Warner Bros. Records
Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...
, received critical acclaim and was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album. The album's success landed him an HBO special, in the ''On Location:'' series, taped at ''Wolfgang's'' in San Francisco, as a live performance, for ''A Steven Wright Special.''
By then Wright had firmly developed a new brand of obscure, laid-back performing and was rapidly building a cultlike following and an onstage persona characterized by an aura of obscurity, with his penchant for non sequiturs and impassive, slow delivery adding to his mystique. The performance became one of HBO's longest-running and most requested comedy specials and propelled him to great success on the college-arena concert circuit.
In 1989, Wright and fellow producer Dean Parisot
Aldo Luis "Dean" Parisot (born July 6, 1952) is an American film and television director. He won the 1988 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film for ''The Appointments of Dennis Jennings'', which was co-written by and starred comedian Ste ...
won an Academy Award
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
for their 30-minute short film ''The Appointments of Dennis Jennings
''The Appointments of Dennis Jennings'' is a 1988 American short comedy film, starring, co-written and co-produced by Steven Wright, which won the Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film at the 61st Academy Awards in 1988.
Plot
Dennis Jennings (S ...
'', directed by Parisot, written by Mike Armstrong and Wright, and starring Wright and Rowan Atkinson. Upon accepting the Oscar, Wright said, "We're really glad that we cut out the other sixty minutes." In 1992 Wright had a recurring role on the television sitcom ''Mad About You
''Mad About You'' is an American television sitcom starring Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt as a married couple in New York City. It initially aired on NBC from September 23, 1992, to May 24, 1999, winning numerous awards including four Golden Glob ...
''. He also supplied the voice of the radio DJ in writer-director Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, writer, producer, and actor. His films are characterized by stylized violence, extended dialogue, profanity, dark humor, non-linear storylines, cameos, ensembl ...
's film ''Reservoir Dogs
''Reservoir Dogs'' is a 1992 American crime film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino in his feature-length debut. It stars Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Chris Penn, Steve Buscemi, Lawrence Tierney, Michael Madsen, Tarantino, and Edward B ...
'' that year. "Dean Parisot's wife Sally Menke
Sally JoAnne Menke (December 17, 1953 – September 27, 2010) was an American film editor, who worked in cinema and television. Over the span of her 30-year career in film, she accumulated more than 20 feature film credits.
She had a long-time c ...
is Quentin Tarantino's editor">ilmeditor, so when she was editing the movie and it was getting down toward the end where they didn't have the radio DJ yet, she thought of me and told Quentin and he liked the idea," Wright explained in 2009.[
In 1995, Wright provided voiceover work for TBS's Disaster Area cartoon block.
Numerous lists of jokes attributed to Wright circulate on the Internet, sometimes of dubious origin. Wright has said, "Someone showed me a site, and half of it that said I wrote it, I didn't write. Recently, I saw one, and I didn't write any of it. What's disturbing is that with a few of these jokes, I wish I had thought of them. A giant amount of them, I'm embarrassed that people think I thought of them because some are really bad."
After his 1990 comedy special ''Wicker Chairs and Gravity'', Wright continued to do stand-up performances, but was largely absent from television, doing only occasional guest spots on late-night talk shows. In 1999 he wrote and directed the 30-minute short '']One Soldier
''One Soldier'' is a black-and-white short film (30 min) from 1999 starring and directed by Steven Wright. Also starring is Sandi Carroll.
The film tells the story of a confused soldier (played by Wright) who narrates throughout the movie his biz ...
'', saying it's "about a soldier who was in the Civil War, right after the war, with all these existentialist thoughts and wondering if there is a God and all that stuff."
In May 2000, Wright and other Ding Ho alumni, including Lenny Clarke
Lenny or Lennie may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Lenny (given name), a list of people and fictional characters
* Lennie (surname), a list of people
* Lenny (singer) (born 1993), Czech songwriter
Arts and entertainment Music
* ''L ...
, Barry Crimmins, Steve Sweeney, Bill Sohonage and Jimmy Tingle, appeared at a reunion benefit for comic Bob Lazarus
Bob Lazarus (January 4, 1956 – January 4, 2009) was an American stand-up comedian and film actor.
Lazarus graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.[leukemia
Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ...]
.[Baltrusis, Sam (April 8, 2008)]
"Steven Wright headlines Ding Ho reunion benefit"
. LoadedGunBoston.com; accessed April 5, 2022.
In 2006 Wright produced his first stand-up special in 16 years, ''Steven Wright: When the Leaves Blow Away'', originally aired on Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy programmin ...
on October 21, 2006. On September 25, 2007, Wright released his second album, '' I Still Have a Pony'', a CD release of the material from ''When The Leaves Blow Away''. It was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album.
Awards and honors
Wright was awarded an Oscar in 1989 for Best Short Live-Action Film for ''The Appointments of Dennis Jennings
''The Appointments of Dennis Jennings'' is a 1988 American short comedy film, starring, co-written and co-produced by Steven Wright, which won the Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film at the 61st Academy Awards in 1988.
Plot
Dennis Jennings (S ...
'', which he co-wrote (with Michael Armstrong) and starred in. He received two Emmy nominations as part of the producing team of '' Louie'', first in 2014
File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...
and again in 2015.
On December 15, 2008, Wright became the first inductee to the Boston Comedy Hall of Fame.
In a 2005 poll to find ''The Comedian's Comedian'', he was voted among the top 50 comedy acts by fellow comedians and comedy insiders. He was named No. 23 on Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy programmin ...
's list of the 100 greatest stand-up comics.
Other interests
While not well known for works outside of the comedy realm, Wright is a musician and has recorded several non-comedy songs with his friend and occasional actor Mark Wuerthner. He also has an interest in painting.
Beginning in 2008, Wright occasionally appeared on ''The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson
''The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by Scottish actor and comedian Craig Ferguson. This was the third iteration of the ''Late Late Show'' franchise, airing from January 3, 2005, to December 19, 2 ...
'' as a visiting celebrity, often dropping by to help with the fan-mail segment. He joined a small cadre of Hollywood comedy celebrities who supported the show.
Filmography
Film
Television
Discography
Albums
Specials
Appearances
References
External links
*
*
*
Wright-House.com: Jokes attributed to Steven Wright, with actual authors identified
video clip of Steven Wright from ''When the Leaves Blow Away''
an
interview
- Dead-Frog.com
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, Steven
1955 births
20th-century American comedians
21st-century American comedians
20th-century American male actors
21st-century American male actors
American humorists
American male film actors
American male television actors
American male voice actors
American people of Italian descent
American people of Scottish descent
American stand-up comedians
Comedians from Massachusetts
Directors of Live Action Short Film Academy Award winners
Emerson College alumni
Living people
Male actors from Cambridge, Massachusetts
Middlesex Community College (Massachusetts) alumni
People from Burlington, Massachusetts
Warner Records artists