Jimmy Dore was born into a Catholic family of twelve in a very blue-collar neighborhood on the south side of Chicago. Tagged a rebel for occasionally reading a book and thinking for himself, Jimmy quickly turned to comedy to ease the pain of the beatings.
In 1995, Jimmy moved to Los Angeles to get on television and it actually worked. He has appeared on every major network multiple times. The high point of Jimmy's stand-up career came when he taped his own one hour Special for Comedy Central Jimmy Dore: Citizen Jimmy. The special which was taped at The Fillmore in San Francisco is set to air Friday August 1, 2008.
Jimmy played the hilarious neighbor on AMC’s Movies at My House. And was invited to perform at the 2003 HBO’s US Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colorado. The Hollywood Reporter said Jimmy was among the five comics at the festival that generated the most "buzz" (whatever the fuck that means).
Jimmy is also a writer/performer for the critically acclaimed Off Broadway hit, The Marijuana-logues, which is currently running at the Actor's Playhouse in New York. It was a role Jimmy first played at the Melbourne Comedy festival in April of 2003.
He first appeared on Comedy Central’s Make Me Laugh, fulfilling a life long dream of turning an art form into a cheesy, basic-cable game show. Unfortunately it went well and he was booked to do four more, an experience that Jimmy warmly refers to as “embarrassing” and " tough to watch". Then, in 1997, he was invited to Montreal, Canada to perform at the Just for Laughs international comedy festival. He caught the eye of NBC talent scouts and producers (Okay, it was only one guy, but he was impressed enough for three) and was given a spot on NBC’s Friday Night! He quickly became a show favorite (true) and was signed to make five return appearances.
From there Jimmy has gone on to make multiple stand-out appearances on The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn and two winning performances on NBC’s Late Friday (winning performance, how do you like that adjective?). Then Jimmy flew to New York and donned a suit to appear on Comedy Centrals Premium Blend. He’s done a bunch of other stuff that you can see on his resume, including hosting Pilot's for Comedy Central and AMC.
But Jimmy says all the hard work was worth it if for nothing else to see his mother’s face the first time she ever came to see him perform. It was at the MGM in Las Vegas, and Jimmy had just stepped off stage when his mother whispered in his ear, “Well I’ll say one thing, I sure am hungry”. Damn right she was. Damn right.