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Andy Borowitz | |
|---|---|
 Borowitz at New York City in 2007 | |
| Born | (1958-01-04)January 4, 1958 (age 67) Shaker Heights, Ohio, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Harvard College |
| Occupation(s) | Comedian,satirist |
| Known for | The Borowitz Report,The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air |
| Spouses | |
| Website | www |
Andy Borowitz (born January 4, 1958)[1] is an American writer, comedian, satirist, and actor. Borowitz is aNew York Times-bestselling author who won the firstNational Press Club award for humor. He is known for creating the NBC sitcomThe Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and the satirical columnThe Borowitz Report.
Borowitz was born to a marginally observantReform Jewish family[2] inShaker Heights, Ohio,[3] and graduated fromShaker Heights High School.[4]
In 1980, Borowitz graduatedmagna cum laude fromHarvard College, where he lived inAdams House and was president of theHarvard Lampoon.[5] He also wrote for theHasty Pudding Theatricals. Borowitz studied with playwrightWilliam Alfred and wrote his undergraduate thesis onRestoration comedy.
After graduating from Harvard, Borowitz moved toLos Angeles to work for producerBud Yorkin atTandem Productions, the company Yorkin co-founded with producerNorman Lear. From 1982 through 1983, he wrote for the television seriesSquare Pegs, starringSarah Jessica Parker. From 1983 through 1984, he wrote for the television seriesThe Facts of Life. He wrote for various television series through the 1980s.
During his marriage to writer and producerSusan Borowitz (1982–2005), the two co-createdThe Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,[6] which ran for six seasons onNBC and launched the acting career ofWill Smith.[7] The series won NAACP's Image Award for Outstanding Comedy Series in 1993.[4]
In 1998, Borowitz co-produced the filmPleasantville, starringReese Witherspoon,Tobey Maguire,William H. Macy,Joan Allen, andJeff Daniels.[7] It was nominated for threeAcademy Awards, including Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Costume Design, and Best Music, Original Dramatic Score.
In 2004 Borowitz appeared inWoody Allen'sMelinda and Melinda, starringWill Ferrell, and inMarie and Bruce, starringJulianne Moore andMatthew Broderick.Marie and Bruce was co-written byWallace Shawn and director Tom Cairns. In 2007 he appeared in the filmFired!
In the late 1990s, Borowitz began e-mailing humorous news parodies to friends. In 2001, he foundedThe Borowitz Report, a site that posts one 250-wordnews satire every weekday. The site led to greater fame and widespread attention for Borowitz as a political satirist.The Wall Street Journal devoted a page-one story to him and his site in 2003 and readership ultimately grew to the millions. In 2005, the newspaper syndicatorCreators Syndicate began syndicatingThe Borowitz Report to dozens of major newspapers, including theLos Angeles Times,The Seattle Times, andThe Philadelphia Inquirer. It is also one of the longest-running features at theNewsweek website. He has served as a commentator on theNational Public Radio programsWeekend Edition Sunday andWait Wait… Don't Tell Me!, the latter on November 12, 2006. Borowitz is also a regular contributor to humor newspaperFunny Times.
In 2007, he started blogging for theHuffington Post. His posts were featured on the home page of the blog and quickly became one of its most popular features. His popularity surged during the 2008 campaign, leadingThe Daily Beast to call him "America's satire king".[8]
In 2009,The Borowitz Report began aTwitter feed, which was voted the number-one Twitter account in the world in aTime magazine poll in 2011. Eventually, he abandoned the feed.[9]
On July 18, 2012, Borowitz announced thatThe New Yorker had acquiredThe Borowitz Report website, the first time that the magazine had ever made such an acquisition. In its first 24 hours as aNew Yorker feature,The Borowitz Report garnered the most page views on the entireNew Yorker website.[citation needed]
In 2002, Borowitz joined the staff ofCNN'sAmerican Morning and soon appeared on the program three mornings a week. In 2004, he covered theDemocratic National Convention for the channel, paired with comedianLewis Black ofThe Daily Show. He has made numerous appearances on other television programs includingCountdown with Keith Olbermann,Best Week Ever onVH1 andLive at Gotham onComedy Central.
In 2010, Borowitz appeared on thePBS showNeed to Know.Tom Shales, television critic forThe Washington Post, singled out Borowitz for praise, calling him "one of the wittiest Web wags".[10]
Borowitz's success as a television performer led to his becoming a strong draw as a stand-up comedian, and he started headlining at major comedy clubs across the country, includingCarolines on Broadway, where he hosts a monthly show calledNext Week's News. Other major comedians who have appeared with him in that show includeAmy Sedaris andSusie Essman.
For four consecutive years starting in 2004, he performed atThe Comedy Festival inAspen,Colorado.
In September 2007, he headlined an edition of Next Week's News at theBumbershoot[11] festival inSeattle,Washington, performing to standing-room-only audiences and critical acclaim in the press, including theSeattle Post-Intelligencer. He also performed to a sold-out house at the 2007New York Comedy Festival, which featured other prominent comedians includingDenis Leary,Bill Maher, andSarah Silverman.
In 2008, he hosted a series of sold-out shows at New York City's92nd Street Y called "Countdown to the Election". The show earned rave reviews and featured such guests asArianna Huffington,Mo Rocca,Jonathan Alter,Joy Behar, andJeffrey Toobin.
He continued to tour the country performing stand-up, including a performance at theUniversity of California, Santa Barbara in April 2008. The university newspaper,Daily Nexus, reported that Borowitz played to a packed house and had the audience "erupting with laughter".[12]
ComedianMike Birbiglia praised Borowitz in a May 2009 profile inHarvard Magazine: "Andy just picked up stand-up comedy as a hobby, and he's as good at it as anybody."[4]
On November 28, 2010,CBS News Sunday Morning aired a retrospective of his career as a comedian and writer, calling him "one of the funniest people in America".[13]
On June 28, 2011, he performed at New York City'sCentral Park Summerstage and drew a crowd estimated at 5,000, setting a new record for turnout at a Summerstage spoken-word event.
In 1998, Borowitz began contributing humor toThe New Yorker magazine. He quickly became one of the magazine's most prolific humor contributors, writing dozens of essays including "Emily Dickinson, Jerk of Amherst",[14] selected as one of the funniest humor pieces in the magazine's history and included inThe New Yorker's humor collectionFierce Pajamas. Two more humor pieces of his appeared in the magazine's 2008 collectionDisquiet, Please! He has also performed at The New Yorker Festival's humor revues atThe Town Hall in New York City with such otherNew Yorker contributors asWoody Allen,Steve Martin, andCalvin Trillin. Additionally, he has joinedThe New Yorker College Tour, where he has performed with improv groupThe Second City andDavid Sedaris.
In addition to writing forThe New Yorker, Borowitz has written for many other magazines, includingVanity Fair andThe Believer, and was a primary contributor to the cult magazineArmy Man.
In 2009, Borowitz was chosen by theNational Book Foundation to host theNational Book Awards in New York City. Previous hosts have included such comedians and writers asSteve Martin andGarrison Keillor. His performance earned him a return engagement for the 2010 awards ceremony.
In 2011,Library of America chose Borowitz to edit an anthology of American humor,The 50 Funniest American Writers. Encompassing American humor fromMark Twain toThe Onion, the book was set to be released on October 13, 2011. It became a best seller on the day of its publication, reaching number eight onAmazon.com and becoming the number-one humor book in the United States. It also became the first book in the 32-year history of the Library of America to become aNew York Times andWall Street Journal bestseller. BothBarnes & Noble and Amazon.com named it a Best Book of 2011, and Amazon.com named it the number-one Entertainment Book of the Year. In a feature about the book,The Washington Post noted its popular success, calling Borowitz "America's finest fake-news creator and sharpest political satirist".[15]
In 2012, Borowitz wrote his first autobiographical work,An Unexpected Twist, anAmazon Kindle single. The essay recounts Borowitz's near-death experience in 2008 while undergoing emergency abdominal surgery in New York City. A mixture of dark comedy, hospital drama and love story, the book became a bestseller on its first day of release, placing number one on Amazon's Kindle Single chart. It became the first nonfiction Kindle Single to makeThe Wall Street Journal bestseller list, debuting at number six.[16]
In his book review forThe New York Times,Dwight Garner wrote, "Andy Borowitz is the funniest human on Twitter, and that's not mean praise. His first original e-book—the current best-selling Single—is a seriocomic memoir called An Unexpected Twist, about a blockage in his colon that nearly killed him. This funny book has a sneaky emotional gravity. As the time of his illness, he'd been married only a few months, and his small book becomes a rather large love story."[17]
In his review of the book, journalistSeth Mnookin wrote, "Borowitz has become one of the most lauded satirists in the country—think of him as a literary Jon Stewart. His name graces the cover of one of the most successful Library of America volumes ever (The 50 Funniest American Writers* (*According to Andy Borowitz)). He was voted by Time magazine readers as having the #1 Twitter feed in the world. He even hosted the National Book Awards—twice… It's no surprise that Borowitz is able to mine his situation for humor. What makesAn Unexpected Twist even more satisfying is his ability to highlight some of the surreal and infuriating aspects of modern American medical care without hitting the reader over the head with them."[18]
On June 25, 2012, Amazon namedAn Unexpected Twist the Best Kindle Single of 2012.
Since 1999, Borowitz has been the primary host ofThe Moth, a New York-based storytelling group. He sings with the literary rock bandRock Bottom Remainders, a group with a rotating cast of players includingDave Barry,Matt Groening,Roy Blount Jr.,Stephen King,Amy Tan,Robert Fulghum,Barbara Kingsolver, andScott Turow. He has taughtscreenwriting in the United States and Europe and is on the guest faculty of theMaurits Binger Film Institute inAmsterdam.
In October 2012, he became the host of the BBC comedy seriesNews Quiz USA. The hit comedy series has millions of listeners on BBC Radio 4 in the U.K. and is broadcast on the public radio station WNYC in New York.
He was married toSusan Borowitz, the co-creator ofThe Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. After their divorce he marriedOlivia Gentile,[19] the author ofLife List: A Woman's Quest for the World's Most Amazing Birds. He has three children and lives in Hanover, New Hampshire.[20]
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comedian Andy Borowitz in 1958 (age 61)
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