Greg Giraldo
Encyclopedia
Greg Giraldo was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 stand-up comedian, television personality, and retired lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...

. Giraldo was best known for his appearances on Comedy Central
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated....

's televised roast specials, and for his work on that network's television shows Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn
Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn
Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn is a comedic talk show that aired on Comedy Central. The show featured roundtable discussions, inviting various guests of many views, mixing mostly comics/entertainers expressing themselves with journalists and political figures. Quinn's regular guests consisted mainly...

, Lewis Black's Root of All Evil
Lewis Black's Root of All Evil
Lewis Black's Root of All Evil is an American television series that premiered on March 12, 2008 on Comedy Central, and was hosted by comedian Lewis Black. The series producer was Scott Carter from Real Time With Bill Maher; and the writer was David Sacks from The Simpsons...

, and the programming block Stand-Up Nation, the last of which he hosted.

Early life

Giraldo was born in The Bronx
The Bronx
The Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. It is also known as Bronx County, the last of the 62 counties of New York State to be incorporated...

 and was raised in Queens
Queens
Queens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....

. He attended Regis High School
Regis High School (New York City)
Regis High School is a private Jesuit university-preparatory school for academically gifted Roman Catholic young men located on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Annual class enrollment is limited to approximately 135 male students from the New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut tri-state area...

. He was the oldest of three children (brother John and sister Elizabeth) to immigrant parents from Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

 (father) and Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 (mother), and was raised Roman Catholic. He went on to earn a bachelor's degree from Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

  in 1987 and a law degree from Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...

 in 1990. While at Columbia, he was an active member of the Psi Upsilon
Psi Upsilon
Psi Upsilon is the fifth oldest college fraternity in the United States, founded at Union College in 1833. It has chapters at colleges and universities throughout North America. For most of its history, Psi Upsilon, like most social fraternities, limited its membership to men only...

Fraternity.

Before becoming a comedian, Giraldo worked as a lawyer, spending less than a year as an associate for Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates , founded in 1948, is a prominent law firm based in New York City. With over 2,000 attorneys, it is one of the largest and highest-grossing law firms in the world. Forbes magazine calls Skadden "Wall Street's most powerful law firm"...

 before changing his occupation. In August of 2000, Giraldo was featured in an Esquire magazine article, which profiled several members of the Harvard Law School Class of 1990, who ended up choosing different career paths other than the legal profession.Despite his prior career, Giraldo rejected that persona and very rarely discussed his days as a lawyer.

Career

Giraldo performed regularly at the Comedy Cellar
Comedy Cellar
The Comedy Cellar is a comedy club in Manhattan, where many top New York comedians perform. It was founded in 1982 by then standup comedian, and current television writer/producer Bill Grundfest...

 in Manhattan. Giraldo was a regular panelist on Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn
Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn
Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn is a comedic talk show that aired on Comedy Central. The show featured roundtable discussions, inviting various guests of many views, mixing mostly comics/entertainers expressing themselves with journalists and political figures. Quinn's regular guests consisted mainly...

. Additionally, he was the star of the short-lived Common Law, and also starred in several pilots, including The Greg Giraldo Show and Gone Hollywood for Comedy Central
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated....

. The New York Times has praised Giraldo as "a talented comedian with a winning personality." In 2004, he was featured in the spoken-word Lazyboy
Lazyboy
Lazyboy is a musical project started by Aqua member Søren Nystrøm Rasted, also known as Lazy B in the UK. It is not to be confused with the British musical project also known as Lazyboy, which consists of Dan Carey and Rob da Bank...

 song, "Underwear Goes Inside the Pants
Underwear Goes Inside the Pants
"Underwear Goes Inside the Pants" is a song by Lazyboy, which is a musical project combining spoken word with hip-hop beats and other musical styles, with vocals on this track by stand-up comedian Greg Giraldo...

."

Giraldo performed more than a dozen times on Late Night with Conan O'Brien
Late Night with Conan O'Brien
Late Night with Conan O'Brien is an American late-night talk show hosted by Conan O'Brien that aired 2,725 episodes on NBC between 1993 and 2009. The show featured varied comedic material, celebrity interviews, and musical and comedy performances. Late Night aired weeknights at 12:37 am...

, Late Show with David Letterman
Late Show with David Letterman
Late Show with David Letterman is a U.S. late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on CBS. The show debuted on August 30, 1993, and is produced by Letterman's production company, Worldwide Pants Incorporated. The show's music director and band-leader of the house band, the CBS Orchestra, is...

, and Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and appeared regularly on The Howard Stern Show. He has also appeared as a member of the panel in the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 show The Marriage Ref
The Marriage Ref
The Marriage Ref is a TV reality show and panel game hosted by comedian Tom Papa and produced by Jerry Seinfeld, in which a rotating group of celebrities decides the winners of real-life marital disputes. The show premiered on NBC on Sunday, February 28, 2010 on the final night of the Olympics...

. He had two half-hour specials on Comedy Central Presents
Comedy Central Presents
Comedy Central Presents is a half-hour long stand-up show that features various stand-up comedians in each episode.-DVDs:Starting in 2008, Comedy Central started releasing "Best of" compilation DVDs, with uncensored audio...

, wrote segments for Last Call with Carson Daly
Last Call with Carson Daly
Last Call with Carson Daly is an American late night talk show that is broadcast on NBC. The show is hosted by Carson Daly, the half-hour show featuring celebrity interviews, documentary-style coverage of a topic, and musical performances. Last Call airs weeknights at 1:35 a.m. Eastern / 12:35 a.m....

, and was a panelist on Comedy Central's 100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time special. In 2004 his stand up material was featured in Comedy Central's animated series Shorties Watchin' Shorties
Shorties Watchin' Shorties
Shorties Watchin' Shorties was a television show broadcast on Comedy Central that is now on DVD. The show is made up of various short animated clips with audio from comedians' stand up routines. It also features two "shorties," a pair of babies voiced by Nick DiPaolo and Patrice O'Neal who watch...

.

Giraldo said on Late Night with Conan O'Brien on July 7, 2005, that he had quit drinking alcohol but was now addicted to SweeTarts. His series Friday Night Stand-Up with Greg Giraldo began on Comedy Central in late 2005 and ran until 2006. His CD Good Day to Cross a River was released in 2006 by Comedy Central Records
Comedy Central Records
Comedy Central Records is a record label founded by Jack Vaughn and Comedy Central that puts out comedy albums by comedians that have appeared on their network....

.

Giraldo appeared in Comedy Central's annual roast
Roast (comedy)
A roast is an event in which an individual is subjected to a public presentation of comedic insults, praise, outlandish true and untrue stories, and heartwarming tributes, the implication being that the roastee is able to take the jokes in good humor and not as serious criticism or insult, and...

s, roasting Chevy Chase
Chevy Chase
Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase is an American comedian, writer, and television and film actor, born into a prominent entertainment industry family. Chase worked a plethora of odd jobs before moving into comedy acting with National Lampoon...

, Pam Anderson, William Shatner, Jeff Foxworthy, Flavor Flav
Flavor Flav
William Jonathan Drayton, Jr. , better known by his stage name Flavor Flav, is an American rapper and television personality who rose to prominence as a member of the rap group Public Enemy...

, Bob Saget
Bob Saget
Robert Lane "Bob" Saget is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and television host. Although he is best known for his roles as Danny Tanner in Full House, host of America's Funniest Home Videos and Future Ted Mosby on How I Met Your Mother, Saget is also known outside of television for his blue...

, Joan Rivers
Joan Rivers
Joan Rivers is an American comedian, television personality and actress. She is known for her brash manner; her loud, raspy voice with a heavy New York accent; and her numerous cosmetic surgeries...

, Larry the Cable Guy
Larry the Cable Guy
Daniel Lawrence Whitney , better known by his stage name and character Larry the Cable Guy, is an American comedian, actor, and former radio personality....

, and David Hasselhoff
David Hasselhoff
David Michael Hasselhoff is an American actor, singer, producer and businessman. He is best known for his lead roles as Michael Knight in the popular 1980s US series Knight Rider and as L.A. County Lifeguard Mitch Buchannon in the series Baywatch...

, as well as the TBS
TBS (TV channel)
TBS , stylized in the logo as tbs, is an American cable television channel owned by Time Warner that shows a variety of programming, with a focus on comedy. TBS was originally known as WTCG, a UHF terrestrial television station that broadcast from Atlanta, Georgia, during the late 1970s...

 roast of Cheech & Chong.

Giraldo was a regular on Comedy Central's television series Lewis Black's Root of All Evil
Lewis Black's Root of All Evil
Lewis Black's Root of All Evil is an American television series that premiered on March 12, 2008 on Comedy Central, and was hosted by comedian Lewis Black. The series producer was Scott Carter from Real Time With Bill Maher; and the writer was David Sacks from The Simpsons...

and was one of the advocates lobbying for his side to be considered the "root of all evil." He won in two of his nine appearances. Giraldo served as a judge during season seven of the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 reality competition show Last Comic Standing
Last Comic Standing
Last Comic Standing is an American reality television talent show that has aired from 2003 through 2010.The goal of the program is to select a comedian from a group, who will receive a development contract with the NBC network, and a television special first to air on the cable-TV network Comedy...

.

In 2008, Giraldo appeared in venues across the United States as the headlining act of the Indecision '08 Tour, produced by Comedy Central. Midlife Vices
Midlife Vices
- DVD :# Pre-Show# You Got A.I.D.S. Yo# Handicapped Room# Energy Policy / Fat Kids# Old People / Race/Election# Divorce/Snacks / Kangaroo Fucking# Women / Old Drinking# Supreme Court Justice / Humbling Escort# Texting / Technology / Wall Punching...

, his only one-hour special for Comedy Central, was released in 2009.

Personal life

Giraldo was married twice, telling an interviewer in October 2009, "I got married when I was 23. And that didn't last very long at all." In that same interview, he said he had been living apart from his second wife for a year and was in separation proceedings, and that his oldest son was age nine. At the time of his death, he had three children and was divorced.

Death

On September 25th, 2010, Giraldo overdosed
Drug overdose
The term drug overdose describes the ingestion or application of a drug or other substance in quantities greater than are recommended or generally practiced...

 on prescription medication. After he failed to appear for a scheduled performance at the Stress Factory, police officers found him in his hotel room at the Hyatt Hotel in New Brunswick, New Jersey
New Brunswick, New Jersey
New Brunswick is a city in Middlesex County, New Jersey, USA. It is the county seat and the home of Rutgers University. The city is located on the Northeast Corridor rail line, southwest of Manhattan, on the southern bank of the Raritan River. At the 2010 United States Census, the population of...

, and rushed him to nearby Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital
Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital
Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital is the clinical campus of the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, New Jersey. It provides a full range of health care services as Central New Jersey's only Level 1 Trauma and academic medical center. The hospital is a member of the Robert...

. TMZ reported that he had been in a coma
Coma
In medicine, a coma is a state of unconsciousness, lasting more than 6 hours in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light or sound, lacks a normal sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. A person in a state of coma is described as...

 for five days when his family had life support
Life support
Life support, in medicine is a broad term that applies to any therapy used to sustain a patient's life while they are critically ill or injured. There are many therapies and techniques that may be used by clinicians to achieve the goal of sustaining life...

 removed. He died on September 29, 2010.

Tributes

On September 29, 2010 on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
The Daily Show
The Daily Show , is an American late night satirical television program airing each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central. The half-hour long show premiered on July 21, 1996, and was hosted by Craig Kilborn until December 1998...

, Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart is an American political satirist, writer, television host, actor, media critic and stand-up comedian...

 honored Giraldo by playing a clip of his stand-up, in a one-time segment deemed "Moment of Greg". On September 30, 2010, multiple comedians and celebrities expressed their sorrow for Giraldo's death on Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...

, and Comedy Central posted a series of clips from Greg Giraldo past works titled "The Best of Greg Giraldo" on their website. Seth MacFarlane
Seth MacFarlane
Seth Woodbury MacFarlane is an American animator, writer, comedian, producer, actor, singer, voice actor, and director best known for creating the animated sitcoms Family Guy, American Dad! and The Cleveland Show, for which he also voices many of the shows' various characters.A native of Kent,...

, Anthony Jeselnik
Anthony Jeselnik
Anthony Jeselnik is an American stand-up comedian and television writer.-Personal life:Jeselnik was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He earned a bachelors degree in English Literature from Tulane University, then moved to Los Angeles...

, and Jeff Ross paid tribute to Giraldo during the Comedy Central Roast of Donald Trump in March 2011.

On March 18, 2011, Comedy Central aired Give It Up for Greg Giraldo, a two-hour television special honoring his memory in which multiple comedians, including Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart is an American political satirist, writer, television host, actor, media critic and stand-up comedian...

, Nick Swardson
Nick Swardson
Nicholas Roger "Nick" Swardson is an American actor, stand-up comedian, and writer. He is best known for his recurring role as Terry Bernardino in the Comedy Central series Reno 911!, for his work in Happy Madison films, most notably the 2011 film Just Go With It, and for his new Comedy Central...

, Colin Quinn
Colin Quinn
Colin Edward Quinn is an American stand-up comedian and writer best known for his five years in the cast of Saturday Night Live, as the sidekick/announcer of MTV's late 1980s gameshow Remote Control and as host of Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn on Comedy Central from 2002–2004.-Early years:Quinn was...

, Jeffrey Ross
Jeffrey Ross
Jeff Ross is an American stand-up comedian, insult comic, actor, director and author.-Early life:...

, Denis Leary
Denis Leary
Denis Colin Leary is an Irish-American actor, comedian, writer and director. Leary is known for his biting, fast paced comedic style and chain smoking...

, Sarah Silverman
Sarah Silverman
Sarah Kate Silverman is a Jewish American comedian, writer, actress, singer and musician. Her satirical comedy addresses social taboos and controversial topics such as racism, sexism, and religion....

, Dave Attell
Dave Attell
Dave Attell is an American stand-up comedian and the host of Comedy Central's Insomniac with Dave Attell and The Gong Show with Dave Attell.-Stand-up beginning:...

, Tom Papa
Tom Papa
Tom Papa is an American comedian, actor and TV host known for his many TV and film appearances.-Early life:Papa was born November 10, 1967 in Passaic, New Jersey, and grew up in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey...

, Lewis Black
Lewis Black
Lewis Niles Black is an American stand-up comedian, author, playwright, social critic and actor. He is known for his comedy style, which often includes simulating a mental breakdown, or an increasingly angry rant, ridiculing history, politics, religion, trends and cultural phenomena...

, Bill Burr
Bill Burr
William "Bill" Burr is an American stand-up comedian, radio host and actor.-Life and career:Burr was born in Canton, Massachusetts. His father was a dentist, and Bill worked as a hygienist for a short time. He began stand-up at age 23 after attending Emerson College. In 1995, he moved to New...

, and Conan O'Brien
Conan O'Brien
Conan Christopher O'Brien is an American television host, comedian, writer, producer and performer. Since November 2010 he has hosted Conan, a late-night talk show that airs on the American cable television station TBS....

, talked about his life and career. It also contained short clips of his roasts and other acts. Mike DeStefano
Mike DeStefano
Mike DeStefano was an American stand-up comedian. He used material from his heroin addiction, which began at age 15, and his recovery in brutally honest, profanity-laced routines. He also was a drug counselor to others. He had been clean for 11 years at the time of his death and was HIV positive...

, a comic who also appeared in the special, died 12 days before its airing.

Discography

  • Good Day to Cross a River
    Good Day to Cross a River
    Good Day to Cross a River is the debut album by comedian Greg Giraldo, released by Comedy Central Records on October 24, 2006.-Track listing:#"Greatest City on Earth / Getting Old" – 3:48#"WWJD / Priests / Pope / Wal-Mart / Penguins" – 5:07...

    (2006) Comedy Central Records
    Comedy Central Records
    Comedy Central Records is a record label founded by Jack Vaughn and Comedy Central that puts out comedy albums by comedians that have appeared on their network....

  • Midlife Vices
    Midlife Vices
    - DVD :# Pre-Show# You Got A.I.D.S. Yo# Handicapped Room# Energy Policy / Fat Kids# Old People / Race/Election# Divorce/Snacks / Kangaroo Fucking# Women / Old Drinking# Supreme Court Justice / Humbling Escort# Texting / Technology / Wall Punching...

    (2009) Comedy Central Records

External links

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