Jim Florentine to bring New Year’s Eve laughs to Mt. Airy

Comedian Jim Florentine will perform at 11 p.m. Thursday at Mount Airy Casino Resort, Gypsies, 312 Woodland Road, Paradise Township.

Aside from stand-up comedy, Florentine’s also an actor, writer, voice artist and performer. A native of Brooklyn, New York, he co-hosts VH1 Classic’s heavy-metal talk-show series “That Metal Show” alongside Eddie Trunk and now label-mate Don Jamieson.

Between 2001 and 2010, Florentine released five volumes in the “Terrorizing Telemarketers” album series. The CDs feature a series of recorded telephone conversations, often with Florentine receiving calls from telemarketers, wherein he turns the tables on often aggressive salespeople by being difficult and creating awkward situations.

After the release of “Terrorizing Telemarketers Vol. 2” in late 2001, Jimmy Kimmel and Adam Carolla took a liking to Florentine’s prank calls and hired him for a show to debut in June 2002 on Comedy Central called “Crank Yankers.” Florentine played Special Ed, a mentally challenged teenager, and Bobby Fletcher, a despicable, alcoholic slob who is the older cousin of Ed.

After the first season of “Crank Yankers,” Eminem flew Florentine out to his Detroit studio to do prank calls together for the then-upcoming season of “Crank Yankers.” At the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards, Eminem and Florentine did a bit together, where Eminem beat up Special Ed, who kept annoying him (and tore his leg off). “Crank Yankers” lasted three years on Comedy Central, moving to MTV2 in 2006 for one season.

Following the “Terrorizing Telemarketers” series, Florentine released two comedy albums on Metal Blade Records: 2011’s “Cringe N Purge” and 2012’s “Awful Jokes From My First Comedy Notebook.” The concept for the latter arose when Florentine stumbled across his first comedy notebooks from when he first started doing comedy in the early 1990s. Deciding to share them with his fans, Florentine went into a recording studio and read his awful jokes directly out of his notebook.

In the film world, Florentine appeared in 2010’s “A Little Help,” starring Jenna Fischer (Pam Beesley of “The Office”) and Chris O’Donnell (“Scent of a Woman”). He played Brian, Fischer’s love interest in the film. Florentine recently appeared as One-Night-Stand Guy in “Trainwreck,” starring Amy Schumer. He’s also appeared on Comedy Central’s satirical sketch comedy “Inside Amy Schumer.”

Florentine has released two hidden-camera DVDs called “Meet the Creeps,” where he and Don Jamieson pull outrageous pranks on people. The DVD has got in the hands of some Comedy Central executives and they brought “Meet The Creeps” to the network’s broadband channel called Motherload. After two successful seasons, Comedy Central did a “Meet the Creeps” pilot for the network. The pilot was deemed too mean-spirited and the show never made it on the network.

Doors open at 10 p.m. Tickets, which include two free drink tickets, are $39.99. The event is for ages 21 and up.

For information or tickets, call 877-682-4791 or visit mountairycasino.com.

http://www.poconorecord.com/article/20151224/ENTERTAINMENTLIFE/151229724/0/SEARCH

###

Mount Airy Casino Resort
312 Woodland Road
Mount Pocono, PA 18344
570-243-4857 Direct