Gil Christner
Encyclopedia
Gil Christner is an American
actor
, writer
and comedian
living and working in Los Angeles
.
, majoring in Theater Arts
, where he first met fellow character actor
Walter Olkewicz
. After working in the theater scene in Denver, he moved in the late 1970s to San Francisco, where he performed stand-up comedy
, improv
, and in film
s.
Christner performed at all of the San Francisco comedy club
s such as the Holy City Zoo
, the Other Cafe and the Punchline. In 1977 he won the 2nd San Francisco International Comedy Competition
, tying with Dana Carvey
. He also appeared many times at the Comedy Day Celebration, created by his friend Jose Simon
. Along with stand up appearances, he also worked in many improv groups with such people as Robin Williams
, Lorenzo Matawaran and Paula Poundstone
.
and film, as well as writing and working behind the camera. One of his first starring roles was in the Cinemax
experimental comedy Shadoevision
, created by Shadoe Stevens
. He also was one of the stars of the Golden Horseshoe Jamboree, the live stage show at the Golden Horseshoe Saloon
in Disneyland's
Frontierland
for several years.
, political satire
s, and short sketches
for morning drive time
radio programming. Christner moved, along with the entire Cutler operation, to Premiere Radio Networks
in 1997 when Premiere bought out Cutler.
, Desperate Housewives
, My Name Is Earl
, The Bernie Mac Show
, 3rd Rock from the Sun
, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The West Wing, Chicago Hope
, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and Coach
. He has also appeared in such films as The Holiday
, Mystery Men
, Suburbia
and More American Graffiti
.
's worldwide advertising campaign
"Take Back Control," featuring that company's servers and software. He played the clueless boss (ironically also named Gil), whose Rube Goldberg
solutions to office problems invariably ended in disaster, only to be saved by IT worker Kevin Christy with IBM products. Christner and Christy appeared in over 20 national television ads, as well as on the internet (including multiple pages on IBM's own website), on radio, and in newspapers and magazines, all in over 30 countries. The campaign ran for several years and won major advertising awards.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
, writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
and comedian
Comedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...
living and working in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
.
Early life
Christner attended Colorado State UniversityColorado State University
Colorado State University is a public research university located in Fort Collins, Colorado. The university is the state's land grant university, and the flagship university of the Colorado State University System.The enrollment is approximately 29,932 students, including resident and...
, majoring in Theater Arts
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
, where he first met fellow character actor
Character actor
A character actor is one who predominantly plays unusual or eccentric characters. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a character actor as "an actor who specializes in character parts", defining character part in turn as "an acting role displaying pronounced or unusual characteristics or...
Walter Olkewicz
Walter Olkewicz
Walter Olkewicz is an actor who played Marko in Wizards and Warriors and Coach Wordman in Making the Grade. He also guest starred in many TV shows including Night Court, Seinfeld, ER, and Who's The Boss...
. After working in the theater scene in Denver, he moved in the late 1970s to San Francisco, where he performed stand-up comedy
Stand-up comedy
Stand-up comedy is a comedic art form. Usually, a comedian performs in front of a live audience, speaking directly to them. Their performances are sometimes filmed for later release via DVD, the internet, and television...
, improv
Improvisation
Improvisation is the practice of acting, singing, talking and reacting, of making and creating, in the moment and in response to the stimulus of one's immediate environment and inner feelings. This can result in the invention of new thought patterns, new practices, new structures or symbols, and/or...
, and in film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
s.
Christner performed at all of the San Francisco comedy club
Comedy club
A comedy club is a venue, typically a nightclub, bar, or restaurant where people watch or listen to performances, including stand-up comedians, improvisational comedians, impersonators, magicians, ventriloquists and other comedy acts...
s such as the Holy City Zoo
Holy City Zoo
The Holy City Zoo was a small but influential comedy club in San Francisco that operated from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s. It was considered the Cradle of Comedy Civilization for many comedians who passed through San Francisco during that era....
, the Other Cafe and the Punchline. In 1977 he won the 2nd San Francisco International Comedy Competition
San Francisco International Comedy Competition
The San Francisco International Comedy Competition is a stand-up comedy contest held each September in San Francisco, California, and neighboring areas of Northern California....
, tying with Dana Carvey
Dana Carvey
Dana Thomas Carvey is an American actor and stand-up comedian, best known for his work as a cast member on Saturday Night Live and for playing the role of Garth in the Wayne's World movies.-Early life:...
. He also appeared many times at the Comedy Day Celebration, created by his friend Jose Simon
Jose Simon
Jose Simon was an American comedian and musician who founded Comedy Day in San Francisco and aided that city's reemergence of stand-up comedy starting in the 1970s....
. Along with stand up appearances, he also worked in many improv groups with such people as Robin Williams
Robin Williams
Robin McLaurin Williams is an American actor and comedian. Rising to fame with his role as the alien Mork in the TV series Mork and Mindy, and later stand-up comedy work, Williams has performed in many feature films since 1980. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance...
, Lorenzo Matawaran and Paula Poundstone
Paula Poundstone
Paula Poundstone is an American stand-up comedian.- Early life :Poundstone was born in Huntsville, Alabama, and her family moved to Sudbury, Massachusetts. Poundstone attended Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, but dropped out to pursue a show business career...
.
Move to Los Angeles
Since a move to Los Angeles in the early 1980s, he has appeared numerous times in televisionTelevision
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
and film, as well as writing and working behind the camera. One of his first starring roles was in the Cinemax
Cinemax
Cinemax, sometimes abbreviated as simply "Max", is a collection of premium television networks that broadcasts primarily feature films, along with softcore erotica, original action series, documentaries and special behind-the-scenes features. Cinemax is operated by Home Box Office, Inc., a...
experimental comedy Shadoevision
Shadoevision
Shadoevision was an episode of "The Cinemax Comedy Experiment" that first aired in 1986, and was repeated on Weird TV in 1995. It was hosted, created and produced by Shadoe Stevens.-Cast:* "Djony Dakota," "Burke," and Dr...
, created by Shadoe Stevens
Shadoe Stevens
Shadoe Stevens is an American radio host, voiceover actor, and television personality. He was the host of American Top 40 from 1988 to 1995...
. He also was one of the stars of the Golden Horseshoe Jamboree, the live stage show at the Golden Horseshoe Saloon
Golden Horseshoe Saloon
-External links:*...
in Disneyland's
Disneyland Park (Anaheim)
Disneyland Park is a theme park located in Anaheim, California, owned and operated by the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts division of the Walt Disney Company. Known as Disneyland when it opened on July 18, 1955, and still almost universally referred to by that name, it is the only theme park to be...
Frontierland
Frontierland
Tokyo Disneyland's instance is known as Westernland, as "frontier" does not adequately translate into the Japanese language. The Mark Twain sails this park's Rivers of America...
for several years.
Cutler Comedy Networks
During the 1990s Christner was producer and head writer at Cutler Comedy Networks, creating parody songsParody music
Parody music, or musical parody, involves changing or recycling existing musical ideas or lyrics — or copying the peculiar style of a composer or artist, or even a general style of music. Although the result is often funny, and this is the usual intent — the term "parody" in musical terms also...
, political satire
Political satire
Political satire is a significant part of satire that specializes in gaining entertainment from politics; it has also been used with subversive intent where political speech and dissent are forbidden by a regime, as a method of advancing political arguments where such arguments are expressly...
s, and short sketches
Sketch comedy
A sketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes, called "sketches," commonly between one and ten minutes long. Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians, either on stage or through an audio and/or visual medium such as broadcasting...
for morning drive time
Drive time
Drive time is the daypart analog to prime time for radio broadcasting. It consists of the morning hours when listeners wake up, get ready, and/or head to work or school, and the afternoon hours when they are heading home and before their evening meal. These are the periods where the number of...
radio programming. Christner moved, along with the entire Cutler operation, to Premiere Radio Networks
Premiere Radio Networks
Premiere Networks is an American radio network. It is the largest syndication company in the United States based on popularity of programming...
in 1997 when Premiere bought out Cutler.
Television appearances
Among the televisions shows Christner has appeared on are Reno 911!Reno 911!
Reno 911! is an American comedy television series on Comedy Central that ran from 2003 to 2009. It is a mockumentary-style parody of law enforcement documentary shows, specifically COPS, with comic actors playing the police officers. Most of the material is improvised, using a broad outline, and...
, Desperate Housewives
Desperate Housewives
Desperate Housewives is an American television comedy-drama series created by Marc Cherry and produced by ABC Studios and Cherry Productions. Executive producer Cherry serves as Showrunner. Other executive producers since the fourth season include Marc Cherry, Bob Daily, George W...
, My Name Is Earl
My Name Is Earl
My Name Is Earl is an American television comedy series created by Greg Garcia that was originally broadcast on the NBC television network from September 20, 2005, to May 14, 2009, in the United States...
, The Bernie Mac Show
The Bernie Mac Show
The Bernie Mac Show is an American sitcom featuring comic actor Bernie Mac and his wife Wanda raising his sister's three kids: Jordan, Bryana and Vanessa. The show aired for five seasons , concluding with a half-hour series finale on Fox....
, 3rd Rock from the Sun
3rd Rock from the Sun
3rd Rock from the Sun is an American sitcom that aired from 1996 to 2001 on NBC. The show is about four extraterrestrials who are on an expedition to Earth, which they consider to be a very insignificant planet...
, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The West Wing, Chicago Hope
Chicago Hope
Chicago Hope is an American medical drama series created by David E. Kelley that ran from September 18, 1994, to May 5, 2000. It takes place in a fictional private charity hospital.-Premise:The show stars Mandy Patinkin as Dr...
, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and Coach
Coach (TV series)
Coach is an American television sitcom that aired for nine seasons on ABC from 1989 to 1997. The series starred Craig T. Nelson as Hayden Fox, head coach of the fictional Division I-A college football team, the Minnesota State University Screaming Eagles...
. He has also appeared in such films as The Holiday
The Holiday
The Holiday is a 2006 American romantic comedy film written, produced and directed by Nancy Meyers. Distributed by Columbia Pictures and Universal Studios, it stars Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet as two lovelorn women from opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean, who temporarily exchange homes to...
, Mystery Men
Mystery Men
Mystery Men is a 1999 comedy film based on a Dark Horse comic book series feature in Flaming Carrot Comics by Bob Burden, directed by TV commercial director Kinka Usher. It stars William H. Macy, Ben Stiller, and Hank Azaria as a trio of lesser superheroes with fairly unimpressive superpowers who...
, Suburbia
Suburbia (film)
Suburbia, also known as Rebel Streets and The Wild Side, is a 1984 film written and directed by Penelope Spheeris about suburban punks who run away from home. The kids take up a minimalist, punk lifestyle by squatting in abandoned suburban tract homes...
and More American Graffiti
More American Graffiti
More American Graffiti is the 1979 sequel film to George Lucas's hit film American Graffiti. Whereas the first film followed a group of friends during the summer evening before they set off for college, this film shows us where the characters from the first film end up a few years later.Most of the...
.
IBM ad campaign
Christner is probably most recognized for IBMIBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
's worldwide advertising campaign
Advertising campaign
An advertising campaign is a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme which make up an integrated marketing communication...
"Take Back Control," featuring that company's servers and software. He played the clueless boss (ironically also named Gil), whose Rube Goldberg
Rube Goldberg
Reuben Garrett Lucius Goldberg was an American cartoonist, sculptor, author, engineer and inventor.He is best known for a series of popular cartoons depicting complex gadgets that perform simple tasks in indirect, convoluted ways. These devices, now known as Rube Goldberg machines, are similar to...
solutions to office problems invariably ended in disaster, only to be saved by IT worker Kevin Christy with IBM products. Christner and Christy appeared in over 20 national television ads, as well as on the internet (including multiple pages on IBM's own website), on radio, and in newspapers and magazines, all in over 30 countries. The campaign ran for several years and won major advertising awards.