Known to millions as the bane of all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet owners, worldwide; John Pinette has won the American Comedy Awards’ Stand-up Comedian of the Year, starred as ‘Edna Turnblad’ in the Broadway adaptation of John Waters’ Hairspray, and in such major Hollywood films as Duets, The Punisher, and Junior, as well as the two-episode finale of sitcom juggernaut Seinfeld.  His two highly successful comedy albums, Show Me the Buffet (1998) and Making Lite of Myself (2007), are topped only by his trio of stand-up specials for Comedy Central, I Say Nay-Nay (2005), I’m Starvin’! (2007), and Still Hungry (2011). 

Returning to perform, once more, at The Orleans, this weekend, ShulmanSays gets into it with one of our favorite laugh men.

ShulmanSays:  Who are your comedy heroes?

John Pinette:  Growing-up I was influenced by the greats, like Jackie Gleason and Jonathan Winters.  Buddy Hackett as a stand-up, as a storyteller and raconteur.  Oh, and Cosby.  Cosby’s a great storyteller, too.  And it’s that style of humor that shaped me as a comic, and is why I try to work relatively clean and family-friendly.  So I’ll swear occasionally, but never anything graphic.

SS:  Describe your version of Hell.

JP:  No Gluten.  I wish you could’ve seen me on the gluten-free diet at Canyon Ranch.  I would just sit in my room, and sing “Landslide” by Fleetwood Mac [at which point Pinette breaks into song, singing “I’ve been afraid of changing, ‘cause I’ve built my life around you…”].  I thought if it was glu- then my arms were gonna fall off!  So, no gluten.  There’d be a Coldstone Creamery where you never get to the front of the line.  Or an enormous buffet filled only with vegetarian and raw foods.  Which is my new thing…  Raw food people.  Some of them are very healthy, but some of them have gone insane, and think they’re Marie Antoinette or Julius Caesar.  You see them wandering around Whole Foods, and they keep coming back with almonds.  And they make it into shit they wish they could eat.  “What’s that?”  “It’s a pork roast.”  “No it’s not.  It’s ground almonds.  You’re fuckin’ crazy!” 

SS:  Why do you think so many comics today – Steven Wright, Jay Leno, Conan O’Brian, Dane Cook, Denis Leary, Mario Cantone, Mike Birbiglia, Amy Poehler, Louis C.K., Patrice O’Neil, Lenny Clark, etc. – happen to hail from the Boston-area?

JP:  Well, out of tragedy comes laughter.  It wasn’t always easy growing-up in Boston.  I started in 1986 in Boston, with a lot of great comics.  Louis C.K. was around when I started, and Nick DiPaulo, and Janeane Garafalo...  Of course, Steven Wright had already hit a few years before that.  And you know what it was?  There were a lot of comedy clubs.  Comedy clubs were big then, so it was like a baptism by fire.  The average stand-up, today (for his first couple of years) gets to do one or two sets per week.  I was doing one or two sets a night (sometimes three).  And I was surrounded by great comics, so I had to make sure I was at their level.

SS:  This month alone, Don Rickles, Dennis Miller, Bill Maher, you and Jerry Lewis, are all appearing at The Orleans.  It seems like they’ve built-up one of the strongest comedy rosters, in town.

JP:  It’s Boyd Gaming.  And their other one is Borgata (that they’ve done with MGM Resorts Int'l).  Yeah, they really have a niche, and they’re great to work for, and they’re eager to have us, and they want us a few times each year, and I feel like I’ve really got a home, again, in Vegas.  You know, with Atlantic City, I’ve been at Borgata, for years now (and we’ve never not pulled-off a great show, at Borgata).  But Vegas was something that was missing for a long time until The Orleans came along.  I had done different gigs all over Vegas, for years, but now The Orleans is home.

John Pinette
Orleans Showroom
Friday, November 9th and Saturday, November 10th
Tickets from $39.95 (plus tax and fees)
Click HERE for info

Get into it!

[EDITOR'S NOTE:  Read more of my interview with John Pinette, in the November 2012 issue of Vegas/Rated, by clicking HERE.]