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Colin Quinn (born June 6, 1959) is an
Irish-American comedian. He was born in Brooklyn,
New York|Brooklyn and was raised in the Park
Slope, Brooklyn|Park Slope section of the borough.
 His gravelly Regional accents of English
speakers#Brooklyn, New York|Brooklyn accent and
mannerisms are a trademark of his performances, as
are his political commentaries, right-wing humor,
and cynical delivery.

Prior to becoming a comedian, Quinn worked as a
bartender.  He stopped drinking in the early 1980s
after several bad experiences while drunk,
including nights spent in jail and blackouts that
led to him not knowing where he was.  In 2004,
stand-up Dom Irrera said Quinn used to be a "fat,
bloated, alcoholic bartender"; he himself has used
the term "blackout drunk" to describe his previous
drinking habits.

After leaving bartending, Quinn got his start in
stand-up comedy in 1984.  Although some people
believe Jon Stewart wrote the jokes for Quinn's
stand-up act, this is false; Stewart only wrote
jokes for a television show Quinn hosted in 1989
called Caroline's Comedy Hour, which aired on the
A%26E Network|A&E network.

He first achieved fame in 1987 as co-host of the
MTV game show Remote Control, which also featured
performances by Adam Sandler and Denis Leary.  He
remained co-host of the show for three years, and
in 1989 wrote and performed in the popular comedic
short Going Back to Brooklyn along with Ben
Stiller.

Much of his early comedic career focused on
writing in addition to stand-up, including a stint
as a writer for the popular show In Living Color. 
He also co-wrote the storyline and was an
associate producer for the movie Celtic Pride,
starring Damon Wayans and Dan Aykroyd.

In 1995, Quinn was hired by Saturday Night Live,
working as a writer and featured player until the
beginning of the 1998 season, when he became a
full cast member.  He established himself on the
show with characters such as "Lenny the Lion" and
"Joe Blow", and as well as the recurring segment
"Colin Quinn Explains the New York Times".  Quinn
took over as host of the "Weekend Update
(sketch)|Weekend Update" segment in January, 1998
after the firing of Norm MacDonald; he remained
the anchor until his departure from SNL in 2000.

Also during his SNL period, Quinn made his
Broadway theatre|Broadway debut in his acclaimed
one-man show, Colin Quinn: An Irish Wake, and was
offered the role of Scott Evil in Austin Powers:
International Man of Mystery by Mike Myers
(actor)|Mike Myers, though he turned down the role
to work on his writing projects
http://www.theonionavclub.com/feature/index.php?is
sue=3923&f=1.

After leaving SNL, Quinn had a sketch comedy show
on NBC called The Colin Quinn Show that lasted for
only three episodes in 2002, after being cancelled
due to mediocre ratings.

Since 2003, Quinn has found success with Tough
Crowd with Colin Quinn on Comedy Central, which
has received solid television ratings and
immediately follows The Daily Show|The Daily Show
with Jon Stewart.  "Tough Crowd", although having
been renewed through the 2005 television season,
was put on an "indefinite hiatus" in October,
2004, having its "final" episode on November 4,
2004.

Colin performs regularly at the Comedy Cellar in
New York City. He is arguably the best stand-up in
New York.

In 2004, Comedy Central named Quinn to its list of
the "List of Comedy Central's 100 Greatest
Stand-Ups of All Time|100 Greatest Stand-Ups of
All Time", placing him at #56.  He was also named
to the Irish America Magazine list of the "Top 100
Irish Americans of the
Year".http://www.irishabroad.com/irishworld/irisha
mericamag/aprilmay04/features/

==External links==
*http://www.comedycellar.com/ Comedy Cellar - Best
Comedy Club in New York and one at which Colin
always performs.
*http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0703800/ IMDb.com:
Colin Quinn
*http://www.comedycentral.com/tv_shows/colinquinn/
Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn - official Tough
Crowd website
*http://www.colinquinn.net/ ColinQuinn.net -
unofficial fan website
*http://snltranscripts.jt.org/cast/coq.phtml SNL
Transcripts: Colin Quinn - contains searchable
database of almost all of Quinn's SNL works