Jimmy Tingle

Jimmy Tingle was born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The social, political, and economic diversity of that city laid the groundwork for his development as a performer and satirist. He started performing in 1980 during the early stand-up comedy scene in Boston and quickly rose through the ranks from open-mic performer to paid engagements, headlining at comedy clubs, theaters, and colleges nationwide. He is now regarded as one of the top social commentators and humorists in the country.

Tingle was the American correspondent for Sir David Frost's show for PBS and the BBC, The Strategic Humor Initiative. He completed two seasons with 60 Minutes II on CBS as the humorist/commentator in the Andy Rooney spot. He worked as a contributor and satirist for MSNBC and has appeared on The Tonight Show, Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn, Larry King Weekend, The Late Show with Conan O'Brien, The Late Late Show with Tom Snyder, and The American Comedy Awards, as well as his own HBO comedy special.

Tingle appeared as a television talk show host in Chris Rock's film Head of State. Other film credits include the role of the neighborhood bartender in Next Stop Wonderland, a priest in Boondock Saints, and a restaurant owner in By the Sea. Tingle also starred in the Emmy Award-winning documentary on art censorship Damned in the USA, produced by Channel Four in England in partnership with Channel 13 in New York.

He co-starred in the PBS "Travels" series special America with the Top Down, and appeared in But Seriously and But Seriously 94, Showtime documentaries featuring prominent social satirists from Lenny Bruce to the present.

Tingle's theatrical credits include writing and starring in his own one-man show "Jimmy Tingle's Uncommon Sense: The Education of an American Comic." Directed by Larry Arrick, the play received stellar reviews during a nine-week engagement at the American Place Theater in New York City and continued to succeed brilliantly at the Hasty Pudding Theater in Cambridge, Mass., becoming the longest running one-person show in that theater's history.

"Jimmy Tingle's Uncommon Sense" made its Los Angeles debut at the Coast Playhouse in 1998 and was nominated by LA Weekly for "best male solo performance" for their 20th Annual Theater Awards. His latest one-man show, "Jimmy Tingle in the Promised Land," debuted at Jimmy Tingle's Off-Broadway Theater in Somerville, Mass. in 2002.

He has twice been voted "Best of Boston" by Boston Magazine in the stand-up comedy category and was voted "Best Activist with a Funny Bone" by the Improper Bostonian.

He recently received a master's in public administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and was a featured student commencement speaker at the 2010 graduation.