Growing up in the Chicago suburbs in the late 1970s and eighties, Jimmy Pardo was a passionate fan of funny radio shows—especially the ones helmed by Steve Dahl and Garry Meier. With visions of rubbing elbows with his favorite comics Richard Lewis, Johnny Carson, Paul Reiser and Robert Klein, Pardo used his drive, determination and incredible knack for improvised crowd work to attain his goals of making hundreds of TV appearances and hosting the perennially popular podcast “Never Not Funny.”
Now he’s coming to Zanies Rosemont for a headlining show featuring longtime local favorite Vince Maranto as the MC, with a set by Pardo’s own eighteen-year-old son Oliver as well.
“I love matinee shows because you give people a full show and still have plenty of time for your afternoon and evening to enjoy,” explains Pardo. “My demographic doesn’t like staying out late and then rushing to bed.”
While he’s been based in Los Angeles for thirty-one years, Pardo spent his formative years on the South Side of Chicago, growing up at 79th and Cicero before moving to Hometown and Oak Forest. One night at a CBS talent search showcase, a man named Eric Feigen told him to move to Los Angeles as soon as possible and launch a stand-up career. Pardo made the flight out just two months later and never looked back.
“What got me going in that open mic I was found at was, I was working at a record store in Naperville and Bob Odenkirk came in every Saturday and told me I was really funny and should do comedy and invited me to an open mic with Bill Leff, who also told me go for it. And here we are thirty-seven years later,” Pardo recalls.
Pardo’s rapid-fire mind is perfect for winging it onstage with other comics and also the audience. In 2006, he became a pioneer in podcasting with “Never Not Funny,” which celebrates its twentieth anniversary in April.
“The thing I find most amusing is I’d invite people over to my dining room and they’d be confused like, ‘What are we doing?’ “Fake radio?’ ‘This is the weirdest thing.’ And eventually we got a studio. All of these people are like Conan O’Brien, Scott Aukerman and Paul F. Tompkins, who have huge podcasts. At that time, people were finding it weird, and now you can’t go four feet without finding someone with a podcast.”
He also hosted a few game shows, including “Race to Escape” on the Science Channel, which spotlighted contestants’ mistakes so both they and the audience could learn from them.
“If someone made a mistake, we highlighted why they may have made the mistake, since they had two options and chose the third option—so viewers learned while watching. It was critically acclaimed and popular too.
“I also hosted five seasons of AMC’s ‘Movies At Our House,’ where my cohost and I would stay up from 4pm to 7am and crack jokes about the bad movies we were watching. One weird moment was when a bunch of callers kept saying Steve Dahl was ripping us on TV, poking fun. People asked if I was supposed to be upset, but I was like, ‘This is what he’s supposed to be doing! And one of my heroes is talking about me—I’m on his radar!”
But Pardo truly got to shine in the world of late-night TV when he was hired to be Conan O’Brien’s warm-up comic and a cast member on the “Conan” talk show from 2010 to 2015.
Renowned for his quick-witted improvisation style, Pardo uses his material as a jumping-off point for his act, with the ultimate goal of having a conversation with the audience. This makes his performances a whirlwind of crowd work, top-of-mind references, stories and asides, with each show being a one-of-a-kind, inimitable experience.
“My entire set is improvised. Somebody told me it’s like watching a one-person improv show. I do crowd work but not insulting them, working with things that grow organically in the moment. I get on stage and tell the audience that I don’t know what I’m doing that night, but let’s just go!”
Jimmy Pardo headlines the 1pm show on Sunday, March 22 at Zanies Rosemont, 5437 Park Place, Rosemont. Call (847)813-0484 or visit zanies.com for more information.
