Dennis Miller facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Dennis Miller
Miller in 2005
Birth name	Dennis Michael Miller
Born	(1953-11-03) November 3, 1953 (age 71) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Medium	Stand-up, television, film, radio
Education	Point Park University (BA)
Genres	Political satire, observational comedy, wit, sarcasm, sketch comedy
Subject(s)	American politics, culture, conservatism, libertarianism, pop culture, current events
Spouse	Carolyn (Ali) Espley ​ (m. 1988)​
Children	2

Dennis Michael Miller (born November 3, 1953) is an American political commentator, stand-up comedian, talk show host, writer, and former sportscaster.

Miller is listed as 21st on Comedy Central's 100 greatest stand-up comedians of all time, and was ranked as the best host of SNL's Weekend Update by Vulture.com.

Early life

Miller was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and grew up in the suburb of Castle Shannon. He is of Scottish descent. Miller's parents separated and he was raised by his mother, Norma, a dietitian at a Baptist nursing home. Miller is reluctant to speak about his father, usually just saying he "moved on when I was very young." He is the eldest of Norma's five children, and in his early life often looked after the rest of his siblings.

Miller attended Saint Anne School, a Catholic elementary school. He was a shy kid. Miller's childhood pastimes included street football, backyard baseball, basketball at St. Anne's, and much television. At St. Anne's, he managed the Catholic Youth Organization basketball team for boys 15–16 years old. Miller's first inspiration to pursue a comedy career came as a child when he was taken to see comedian Kelly Monteith at a Pittsburgh club. After the show Monteith was kind enough to answer the young Miller's questions about being a comedian, leaving him thinking "Man, I'm going to work hard at this; ...seems like fun."

Miller went to Keystone Oaks High School. His two earliest childhood comedy heroes were Jonathan Winters and Tim Conway. By high school he had already developed a reputation for humor. At Keystone Oaks, Miller was a member of the Physical Fitness Club, and in his senior year he worked on the Keynote newspaper and served on the student council, but lost his bid for senior class president. During his senior year, he served as co-emcee for the Keystone Oaks May Pageant, themed "Once Upon A Rumble Seat". Despite Miller's reputation for humor, his actual personality at this time was one that was reserved, lacking self-confidence, and hidden under a layer of comedy. He graduated from high school in 1971 with the intent of studying to become a sports writer.

At Point Park University Miller became a member of Sigma Tau Gamma fraternity. Miller likened his social status at this period as being lower than Booger of Revenge of the Nerds.

Miller majored in journalism. In the fall of his senior year at the university, he began writing for the South Hills Record, mixing humor into his sports reporting. When the paper changed its payment structure to pay around an eighth of a penny per column inch, he quit. He graduated from Point Park in 1976 with a degree in journalism. He later reflected, "I'm just not that interested in other people's business and that's a tragic flaw in a journalist."

Career

After college, Miller moved through several occupations, including a clerk at Giant Eagle deli, a janitor, a delivery man for a florist, and an ice cream scooper at the Village Dairy. A spur to quit the ice cream scooping job was when the prettiest girl he had attended high school with came in and he was the one who had to take her order, which filled him with embarrassment. Miller later stated that at the time he feared that if he stayed in such jobs, his life would become a Franz Kafka novella, and it stiffened his resolve to start pursuing a comedy career.

Leaving the ice cream parlor, Miller joined the staff at Point Park's Recreation Room, where he was in charge of the bowling alley, video games, and running the air-hockey league. Air-hockey regulars nicknamed him "Clarence" after NHL Commissioner Clarence Campbell, or called him "Commish." When Miller's brother Jimmy was around, they referred to him as "Commush". A patron from that time recalled that Miller sat on pool tables telling jokes and honing his comedy to those in the rec room, which was the only place the commuters gathered.

Stand-up

In 1979, after seeing a Robin Williams comedy special on HBO, Miller began to pursue his dream of being a stand-up comedian.

In Pittsburgh, Miller began a comedy career by performing at open-mic nights. He backed out of his first two attempts to perform at an open mic due to stage fright and anger with himself over the question of whether the drive to perform was a need for approval from others. When he finally made his début at the Oak's Lounge on Sleepy Hollow Road in Castle Shannon, most of Miller's family was in the audience to cheer him on.

In a later interview, Miller spoke of the stage presence he developed for his stand-up act to address his fears. (He emphasized that the comedy business will always be frightening as any error could spiral into the end of a career.) To compensate for his early fears, Miller said, "I got up there and acted like the guy I always wanted to be to get through it. ...It's a part of me, but it's not the real me." He kept his hands in his pockets to appear unfazed, or adjusted his cuffs during an audience laugh to give the appearance of indifference to approval. Miller pointed out that part of his act is to show a "hipper-than-thou" persona, but then purposely undermine it at regular intervals for comedic effect.

He began appearing onstage at the Oak's Lounge in Castle Shannon while working at the Giant Eagle deli in Kennedy. Miller lived without a car and without much money in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, hitching rides or taking buses. He continued to do stand-ups in Oakland and at places like Brandy's in the Strip District and the Portfolio on Craig Street, eventually saving up $1,000 which he used to try to fast-track his comedy career by moving to New York City. Once there, Miller had to bribe a landlord to give him a room for $200, then had to pay the security deposit of $250 and the first month's rent of $250. Thus, he spent $700 of his $1,000 savings on his first day in New York, for a sparse, bunker-like room.

While in New York he submitted a joke for a magazine contest for humor writing that was judged by an all-star panel including Rodney Dangerfield, Bill Cosby, David Brenner, Martin Mull, Art Buchwald, and Buck Henry. Of around 15,000 entries, Miller tied for second and his joke and picture appeared in the June 1979 issue of the magazine. Miller won $500 in first annual humor competition.

For the first year and a half of his comedy career, Miller had heavily relied on props during his act, but he felt this limited him and switched to using purely language.

Miller gained more exposure when he tried out for the New York Laff-Off Contest. The contest had 40 slots but 32 of them had already been filled by the top regulars who appeared at the three comedy venues sponsoring the competition. Some 350 people tried out for the remaining eight slots, some of whom had appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, The Merv Griffin Show, or The Mike Douglas Show. Many of the comedians Miller was up against had hours of crafted material, while he had fine-tuned around ten minutes. To his surprise and delight, Miller earned one of the remaining slots. For the competition itself he appeared at the Improv and received a standing ovation, moving him on to the finals. While he lost the Laff-Off, he was seen by dozens of talent agents, resulting in bookings at colleges and other clubs.

While he was working in New York City, Miller was listed in a piece called "The 10 Funniest People in America You'll Never See on TV".

While in New York City, Miller supported himself by working day jobs such as bartender and payroll clerk, and by night made the rounds of New York clubs The Comic Strip, The Improvisation, and Catch a Rising Star. After about a year, he returned to Pittsburgh.

Television

Having honed his stand-up comedy act, Miller transitioned to television. Miller's big break came in 1985, when he was discovered by Lorne Michaels at The Comedy Store. He was a cast member of Saturday Night Live from 1985 to 1991, and he subsequently hosted a string of his own talk shows on HBO, CNBC, and in syndication.

Miller began his fictional news reports with "Good evening, and what can I tell ya?" and closed with "Guess what, folks? That's the news, and I... am... outta here!" Fans of SNL became accustomed to his snarky delivery, high-pitched giggle, and frequently primped hair—idiosyncrasies that were spoofed by Dana Carvey, Tom Hanks, and Jimmy Fallon, all of whom have impersonated Miller on the show.

Miller left SNL after the 1990–91 season despite being happy with his role on the show, and despite loving writing political gags for it, because he had turned 38 and his 18-month-old son Holden had made him want to strive for things to "make the boy proud."

In 1992, after leaving SNL, Miller hosted an eponymous late-night talk show in syndication that lasted seven months.

Dennis Miller Live

Beginning in 1994, Miller hosted Dennis Miller Live, a half-hour talk show on HBO. Miller hosted one guest per show, with whom he discussed the topic of the day. Early on, guests were all interviewed live via satellite, but soon most appeared live in the studio. There was also a call-in segment. Within the time available, Miller typically could accommodate only two or three calls. He gradually eliminated call-ins in the last few seasons of the show.

Miller and his writing staff won five Emmy Awards during the show's run, which aired 215 episodes over nine years. HBO cancelled the show in 2002.

CNBC show

NBC Entertainment president Jeff Zucker approached Miller with an offer to do a prime-time political show weeknights in CNBC's 9 p.m. (ET) slot. Miller accepted the offer and the show, produced by NBC Studios, began on January 26, 2004, called, simply, Dennis Miller.

In the beginning of the series, Miller had a chimpanzee on the show named Ellie, who was declared a "consultant." After a few appearances Ellie was replaced by a smaller, friendlier chimp named Mo. Mo was noted for swinging across the studio on a rope, doing somersaults on the sofa while giving the appearance of reading Variety, and for nuzzling Miller while he gave his monologue. Miller appeared to enjoy Mo's presence and his personality.

The hour-long show contained a daily news segment called "The Daily Rorschach," which were wordy riffs on news events, reminiscent of his role on SNL's Weekend Update and his HBO show. Reviewers felt Miller's riffs would benefit from a live audience, and the show incorporated a "nightclub-style audience of 100 or so" beginning on March 9, 2004. A sign giving out the toll-free telephone number to order tickets was held up by Mo.

For the first half of the show Miller interviewed someone about a particular news item. For its second half, the show also featured a panel discussion dubbed "The Varsity," which offered a wide variety of political viewpoints on current topics.

By April 2005, Miller's viewership had declined to 107,000 (a 59% drop from the year before). CNBC canceled the show in May 2005 as part of the network's move to refocus on financial news.

Radio career

In January 2007, Miller signed a deal with Westwood One to launch The Dennis Miller Show, a weekday three-hour talk radio program. The program debuted on March 26, 2007, and ran through February 27, 2015. The show aired on 250+ stations, airing on tape delay on some of those stations between 6–9 pm ET and 9 pm-12 am ET.

Miller's program included serious discussions about American culture, current events, politics, and their place in the global context. T

Most shows featured three guests (one per hour), mostly from the world of politics and entertainment, as well as calls from listeners. Guests included fellow comedians and SNL alumni, pundits and authors, presidential candidates, sports commentators, and entertainers. Miller generally took calls every hour, and in addition to comments about culture and politics, Miller encouraged humorous callers and often commented on their comedic delivery. A segment on Fridays was set aside for "Dennis Ex Machina", his term for a segment without a guest, where he allowed phone calls on any topic.

According to Talkers Magazine, as of spring 2011, Miller's show had an estimated 2,250,000 weekly listeners. Miller and Dial Global signed an agreement in early 2012 to continue his show for three years. Miller ended the radio show after his contract expired on March 27, 2015.

Other endeavors

Miller periodically performs stand-up at the Orleans Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. In recent appearances, he has done a mix of his old and new material, with some political jokes as well.

He has authored four books based on his stand-up comedy and television monologues: The Rants (1996), Ranting Again (1999), I Rant, Therefore I Am (2000), and The Rant Zone (2001).

Miller has appeared in several films, in both comedic and non-comedic roles. His movie credits include Madhouse, Disclosure, The Net, Never Talk to Strangers, ... of Blood, What Happens in Vegas and Murder at 1600. He played the Howard Stern-like talk-radio host Zander Kelly in Joe Dirt (2001) and appeared as himself in Thank You for Smoking (2006).

Comedic style

Miller has a laid-back style and an acerbic, brooding sense of humor. His specialty is the rant, which typically begin with "Now, I don't want to get off on a rant here, but..." and end with "...of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong."

Personal life

Miller married Carolyn "Ali" Espley, a former model from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, on April 24, 1988. Espley is best known as the girl in Kajagoogoo's 1983 "Too Shy" music video. The couple live in Santa Barbara, California, and have two sons, born 1990 and 1993.

See also

In Spanish: Dennis Miller para niños