Jim Norton (born July 19, 1968) is a professional comedian who was born and raised in New Jersey. He has opened for Andrew Dice Clay, and is known for his extremely raunchy brand of humor.
Career
Norton decided he wanted to be a comedian at age 12 when he saw Richard Pryor's special Richard Pryor: Live in Concert. He became a comedian in the early 90s. Jim Florentine helped Norton receive his first paying gig as a stand-up. Norton lived with Florentine for several years as they were both breaking through as comics.
Radio
Norton became a regular on the Opie and Anthony Radio Show on WNEW, and was arrested with Lewis Black in connection with a stunt performed on the show involving the Voyeur Bus which drove through the streets of Manhattan with naked women dancing in front of the windows.
Television
For over a year, Norton was a regular guest on the Comedy Central TV show Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn. He also was selected to be in the final twenty contestants for the second season of Last Comic Standing, but had to back out due to contractual obligations. Norton has been on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno four times.
In 2004, Norton was voted the best comedian and breakthrough performer of the year on the Cringe Humor website, dedicated to some of the top New York comedians. Norton frequently performs at the Comedy Cellar, and sometimes performed at the weekly alternative standup "Eating It" show at the Luna Lounge before the bar closed in 2005. He is friends with many other comedians, including Rich Vos, Jim Florentine, Bill Burr, Colin Quinn, Robert Kelly, and Patrice O'Neal. Norton was the Best Man at Rich Vos' second wedding in 2005, when Vos married Bonnie McFarlane. Dom Irrera has said that Norton is one of the best comedians performing today.
Norton was described as having "comedic integrity" by Colin Quinn in the final episode of Tough Crowd. Quinn stated that comedic integrity was "The ability to critique all the hypocrisies in society, but also to be real enough to admit that you're as guilty as everyone else in the game." Found in his bio, Judi Brown of the Aspen Comedy Festival said, "He's so brutally honest. He's very refreshing in a business where a lot of people are phony."
In 2006, Norton landed the role of Rich on the HBO show Lucky Louie. Rich is a foul-mouthed, perverted, straight shooting character that lives with his mother and deals pot to High School students for a living, breaking the traditional sitcom model of a supporting character.
Selected works
Norton is currently featured as the third mic on the Opie and Anthony show on XM Satellite Radio and CBS Radio.
His half-hour HBO stand-up special aired on October 21, 2005, as part of the HBO Stand-up Series One Night Stand.
His first CD was released in 2004 entitled Yellow Discipline. His latest CD, Trinkets I Own Made From Gorilla Hands was released in April 2005.
Political Views
Several times on his radio show and on stage he has pointed about that he is a staunch Republican and supports George W. Bush's policies. However in recent months, he has backtracked and wished openly for liberals to regain power back in government so that the FCC was not so gung ho on going after programming they deem offensive.
Trivia
Norton is an avid autograph collector. He commented 6/2006 on the CBS radio show of his disdain for the New York Yankees. He was upset that Derek Jeter would not sign a photograph he had of himself with the Yankee shortstop. Also he criticized how Ron Guidry and Jim Leyritz acted towards him. He felt completely betrayed by the team players who were there (with notable exceptions to Joe Torre and Jason Giambi) and stated he was not going to be a Yankee fan anymore and was considering to support the Red Sox Nation instead. The event was at a special charity dinner event for the Derek Jeter Kids Foundation, where XM Satellite Radio paid $20000.00 donation for their table to the event, which had about 700 people.
Norton also criticized about Gene Simmons (of KISS fame) about not getting an autograph from him at a taped event. This was done on an XM Satellite only radio show on 7/2005.