Jon Lovitz

Early life

Lovitz was born Jonathan Michael Lovitz in Tarzana, Los Angeles, California July 21, 1957. His father was a doctor. His family is Jewish (they emigrated from Romania, Hungary, and Russia).

Saturday Night Live

Lovitz was a cast member of Saturday Night Live from 1985 to 1990. He later said in an interview for the book Live From New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live that his time on SNL was the most memorable in his career. He went from having no money to being offered a $500,000 film contract. He was nominated for an Emmy Award his first two years on Saturday Night Live. One of his most notable SNL characters was "Tommy Flanagan, The Pathological Liar" who used an old Humphrey Bogart line "Yeah! That's the ticket!" as a catchphrase to punctuate painfully elaborated implausible lies. Other recurring characters included Annoying Man, Master Thespian, Tonto, Mephistopheles, Harvey Fierstein, and Michael Dukakis. In a 1986 episode of Saturday Night Live, he portrayed a virgin Trekkie, who was scripted to hang his head when asked by William Shatner if he had ever kissed a girl.

Hanukkah Harry, one of Lovitz's most memorable roles, cast him in 1989 as a Jewish contemporary of Santa Claus who lives on Mount Sinai and travels the globe with a cart flown by three donkeys to give bland gifts to Jewish boys and girls. Harry is asked to fill in when Santa falls ill on Christmas Eve.

On February 15, 2015, on the Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Special, he was seen in the montage of deceased SNL members, with the camera cutting to him to show his reaction.

Television series

Lovitz's first stint as a regular in a situation comedy was as Mole, an investigator for a New York City district attorney's office, in the short-lived 1985–86 series Foley Square, starring Margaret Colin.

Lovitz was a contestant on The New Celebrity Apprentice (also known as Celebrity Apprentice 8), playing for the charity St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. He was the 6th contestant fired, finishing in 11th place and raising $50,000 for his charity.

Voiceover work

Lovitz has lent his voice to several cartoons and films. In The Critic, he played the title character of Jay Sherman (using his regular speaking voice). He has made several appearances on The Simpsons, including as Marge's prom date Artie Ziff in "The Way We Was," the art teacher in "Brush with Greatness", theater director Llewellyn Sinclair and his sister who owned a daycare center in "A Streetcar Named Marge", Andre in "Homer's Triple Bypass", and numerous other appearances (including the character of Jay Sherman in the episode A Star Is Burns, which was a crossover with The Critic). He was also the voice of Radio in the Hyperion-produced, Disney-distributed animated movie The Brave Little Toaster and he lent his voice for a promo video for the video game Banjo-Kazooie.

Music

Lovitz performed a duet with Robbie Williams on Williams' album Swing When You're Winning (2001), in the song "Well, Did You Evah." He also performed on the hit series Two and a Half Men singing "We Are the Orphans" and beat Charlie (Charlie Sheen) out of the award for best jingle writer.

Broadway theatre

He has appeared on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre in Neil Simon's play The Dinner Party, taking over the lead role from Henry Winkler. He sang at Carnegie Hall three times (including Great Performances' Ira Gershwin at 100: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall) and sang the national anthem at Dodger Stadium and the U.S. Open.

On October 10, 2001, Lovitz sang a duet (with Robbie Williams) of the song "Well, Did You Evah!" at the Royal Albert Hall. The recording can be found on the Swing When You're Winning album.

Commercial work

Between 1999 and 2000 Lovitz appeared in a $33 million advertising campaign that featured a series of television commercials promoting the Yellow Pages. The comic premise was to present Lovitz as the Yellow Pages' author. One of them featured Lovitz saying, "The hardest thing to do is to come up with a simple idea that is also great. And I just thought, 'Oh, the alphabet!' "

In 2006, he became the spokesman in an advertising campaign for the Subway restaurant chain.

Stand-up comedy

In 2003, Lovitz began his stand-up career at the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles, California.

The Jon Lovitz Comedy Club & Podcast Theatre

In 2009, The Jon Lovitz Comedy Club location on Universal CityWalk in Universal Studios Hollywood opened. A comic short film starring Ken Davitian ('Borat') and featuring Lovitz was filmed there, directed by Brent Roske and written by Aaron Davitian. Weekly episodes of The Adam Carolla Show, a podcast hosted by comedian Adam Carolla, have been recorded at the City Walk location since early 2011.

The Jon Lovitz Comedy Club in Universal Studios Hollywood was home to the first MMA Roasted standup comedy show in 2009.

On May 29, 2011, the name was changed to the Jon Lovitz Comedy Club & Podcast Theatre. A premiere event called Podammit was held, in which Kevin Smith hosted a variety of six podcasts, including Plus One 3D with his wife, Jennifer Schwalbach, Hollywood Babble-On with Ralph Garman and Jay & Silent Bob Get Old with Jason Mewes, as well as The ABCs of SNL with Lovitz himself, a 6-episode 'This Is Your Life' style biographical interview about Lovitz's life and career. On April 22, 2013, Smith announced through Twitter that the podcasts would no longer be recorded at the Club after a falling out with Lovitz. The Club still periodically hosted other podcasts such as Rob Paulsen's Talkin' Toons (which subsequently left in October 2013). On June 15, 2013, Smith detailed the falling out in a podcast. The Jon Lovitz Comedy Club & Podcast Theater closed on November 5, 2014.

Other work