Dennis Michael Miller was born on November 3,1953 and is an American political commentator, stand-up comedian, talk show host, actor, writer, and former sportscaster.
90 Facts About Dennis Miller
2.
From 2007 to 2015, Dennis Miller hosted a daily, three-hour, self-titled talk radio program, nationally syndicated by Westwood One.
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On March 9,2020, Dennis Miller + One show, launched on RT America.
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Dennis Miller is listed as 21st on Comedy Central's 100 greatest stand-up comedians of all time, and was ranked as the best host of SNLs Weekend Update by Vulture.
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Dennis Miller was born in Pittsburgh and grew up in the suburb of Castle Shannon.
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Dennis Miller's parents separated and he was raised by his mother, Norma who was a dietitian at a Baptist nursing home.
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At Keystone Oaks, Dennis Miller was a member of the Physical Fitness Club, and in his senior year he worked on the Keynote newspaper and served on the student council, but lost his bid for senior class president.
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Dennis Miller graduated from high school in 1971 with the intent of studying to become a sports writer.
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At Point Park University Dennis Miller became a member of Sigma Tau Gamma fraternity.
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Dennis Miller likened his social status at this period as being lower than Booger of Revenge of the Nerds.
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Dennis Miller graduated from Point Park in 1976 with a degree in journalism.
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Dennis Miller later said that at the time he feared that if he stayed in such jobs, his life would become a Franz Kafka novella, and it stiffened his resolve to start pursuing a comedy career.
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In 1979, after seeing a Robin Williams comedy special on HBO, Dennis Miller began to pursue his dream of being a stand-up comedian.
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In Pittsburgh, Dennis Miller began a comedy career by performing at open-mic nights.
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Dennis Miller backed out of his first two attempts to perform at an open mic due to stage fright and anger with himself over the question of whether the drive to perform was a need for approval from others.
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When he finally made his debut at the Oak's Lounge on Sleepy Hollow Road in Castle Shannon, most of Dennis Miller's family was in the audience to cheer him on.
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Dennis Miller pointed out that part of his act is to show a "hipper-than-thou" persona, but then purposely undermine it at regular intervals for comedic effect.
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Dennis Miller began appearing onstage at the Oak's Lounge in Castle Shannon while working at the Giant Eagle deli in Kennedy.
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Dennis Miller lived without a car and without much money in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, hitching rides or taking buses.
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Dennis Miller continued to do stand-up in Oakland and at places like Brandy's in the Strip District and the Portfolio on Craig Street, eventually saving up $1,000 which he used to try to fast-track his comedy career by moving to New York City.
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Once there, Dennis Miller had to bribe a landlord to give him a room for $200, then had to pay the security deposit of $250 and the first month's rent of $250.
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Dennis Miller won $500 in Playboys first annual humor competition with the following joke:.
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Dennis Miller gained more exposure when he tried out for the New York Laff-Off Contest.
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Many of the comedians Dennis Miller was up against had hours of crafted material, while he had fine-tuned around ten minutes.
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Dennis Miller then began starring in humorous segments for the syndicated Evening Magazine.
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Dennis Miller resigned from KDKA and moved to Los Angeles to try to further his comedy career.
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Dennis Miller appeared on Star Search, where he lost out to fellow comedian Sinbad after the two tied on judges' scores; Sinbad won with a higher studio-audience approval rating.
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Dennis Miller made his first appearance on Late Night with David Letterman on June 24,1985.
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Dennis Miller subsequently auditioned for SNL in Los Angeles, and did well enough for a second audition at Times Square in New York.
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Dennis Miller felt that this was just another aspect of his audition, to see if he could handle himself around famous people, so he "just sat there quietly".
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The spot was supposed to go to comic Jon Lovitz, but Lovitz was scheduled for other parts on the show and needed the Update segment to do costume changes, so Dennis Miller was drafted to read the news.
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Dennis Miller's comedy was apolitical before SNL but politics came easy through opening a newspaper and building a new act around a few headlines.
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Dennis Miller made his stage persona a bit sardonic, as he noticed people who had done the Weekend Update segment as nice guys quickly lost the role.
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When Dennis Miller left SNL in 1991, the anchor's chair was turned over to Kevin Nealon.
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In 1988, Dennis Miller released a stand-up comedy album, The Off-White Album, derived from an HBO special titled Mr Dennis Miller Goes to Washington, which drew heavily from the observational and metaphor-driven style he was known for on Saturday Night Live, and showed glimpses of the political humor that influenced his later work.
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Dennis Miller felt that the SNL studio audience never fully accepted him in skits as other characters, making him question his acting ability.
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Dennis Miller told Miller to compete only with himself, not the competition.
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Dennis Miller appreciated the advice, noting "there's no class for this" and that he would have to learn on the job in front of an audience.
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In preparation, Dennis Miller sharpened his interviewing skills by practicing on the show's stage hands.
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Dennis Miller felt that the secret to interviewing well was listening to the guest rather than trying to set up jokes while the guest is talking.
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Dennis Miller hoped to eventually relax enough to be entirely himself.
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Dennis Miller saw Carson's approach as the standard but hoped to be original.
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In 1992, after leaving SNL, Dennis Miller hosted an eponymous late-night talk show in syndication that lasted seven months.
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Dennis Miller hosted one guest per show, with whom he discussed the topic of the day.
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Dennis Miller gradually eliminated call-ins in the last few seasons of the show.
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Dennis Miller auditioned on June 12,2000, sitting with Michaels in a Los Angeles studio to do such a mock broadcast.
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Dennis Miller had grown up watching the 1970s championship Steelers and was an avid watcher of the NFL draft.
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Dennis Miller had even inquired about an announcing job with Fox after they had acquired rights to show NFL games in 1994.
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Dennis Miller made points that other analysts we brought in never made, and his points were more salient, more interesting, and better stated.
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Dennis Miller was giving his riff, analyzing the plays and providing the humor.
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Dennis Miller promised to serve as "'an ombudsman' who will tell it like it is and become 'incensed' on the viewer's behalf".
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Stylistically Dennis Miller was seen by some as "attempting to be serious, angry, and funny all at the same time," and the show was compared to that of Bill Maher.
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Dennis Miller, it turns out, is considerably more interested in 'diversity' than some of his liberal counterparts.
54.
Dennis Miller's show was replaced with a second airing of Mad Money with Jim Cramer.
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Dennis Miller hosted the MTV Video Music Awards in 1995 and 1996.
56.
Dennis Miller was the host of HBO's 1996 series of election specials, Not Necessarily the Election.
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In May 2017, Dennis Miller hosted a month-long series of monster movies on Turner Classic Movies.
58.
Dennis Miller appeared in wraparounds on the channel, discussing such films as Creature from the Black Lagoon and The Deadly Mantis.
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Dennis Miller co-hosted the game show Grand Slam, which aired on GSN in 2007.
60.
In line with the name of the show, Dennis Miller interviewed a single guest for the entire half hour.
61.
In February 2022, Dennis Miller quit the show due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, shortly before RT withdrew from the American market in March.
62.
In January 2007, Miller signed a deal with Westwood One to launch The Dennis Miller Show, a weekday three-hour talk radio program.
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The live feed was free, but a subscription to the Dennis Miller Zone was required in order to access archived broadcasts.
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Salem stations aired a "best of" Dennis Miller show on Saturdays.
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Dennis Miller's program included serious discussions about American culture, current events, politics, and their place in the global context.
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Dennis Miller generally took calls every hour, and in addition to comments about culture and politics, Dennis Miller encouraged humorous callers and often commented on their comedic delivery.
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Dennis Miller ended the radio show after his contract expired on March 27,2015.
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Dennis Miller decided to retire from the show after the Elections in 2020 as he felt that the political climate had become too divisive.
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Dennis Miller has authored four books based on his stand-up comedy and television monologues: The Rants, Ranting Again, I Rant, Therefore I Am, and The Rant Zone.
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Dennis Miller has appeared in several films, in both comedic and non-comedic roles.
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Dennis Miller played the Howard Stern-like talk-radio host Zander Kelly in Joe Dirt and appeared as himself in Thank You for Smoking.
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Dennis Miller guest hosted the Slammy Awards episode of WWE Raw on December 14,2009.
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Dennis Miller has a laid-back style and an acerbic, brooding sense of humor.
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Dennis Miller married Carolyn "Ali" Espley, a former model from Vancouver, British Columbia on April 24,1988.
75.
Dennis Miller later told American Enterprise that one of the reasons he became more conservative was due to liberal critiques of Mayor Rudy Giuliani's approach to fighting crime in New York City, which began around 1994.
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Dennis Miller's ideology changed significantly in the years following the September 11,2001, attacks.
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Dennis Miller called the attack "the biggest tragedy in the history of this country," and that it not only temporarily halted his comedy but made it difficult to talk.
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Dennis Miller's convictions led him to become one of the few Hollywood celebrities backing George W Bush and the war in Iraq.
79.
Dennis Miller made an appearance, and was invited to ride in the Presidential limousine and fly on Air Force One so he could host the President's second fundraiser that day, a dinner at Los Angeles, where he appeared with Johnny Mathis and Kelsey Grammer.
80.
Dennis Miller sat in the gallery at President Bush's State of the Union address on January 21,2004.
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Dennis Miller had supported Schwarzenegger's candidacy, even acting as its post-debate spokesperson after the Sacramento gubernatorial debate on September 24,2003.
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Dennis Miller went on to speak at a Schwarzenegger rally that same night.
83.
Dennis Miller did not appear on the 2015 show for the 40th anniversary of Saturday Night Live, and rumors spread that he and fellow alum Victoria Jackson had not been invited due to their conservative political activism.
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Dennis Miller took to Twitter to dispel the claims, saying Lorne Michaels was classy, well-mannered and invited everyone, but he declined.
85.
Dennis Miller later told an interviewer that he would have loved to be there, but could not due to family commitments.
86.
In 1992, Dennis Miller, who had endorsed the candidacy of Jerry Brown during the Democratic primaries, moved his support to Independent candidate Ross Perot.
87.
Dennis Miller volunteered for Ross Perot's candidacy at his San Fernando Valley campaign office.
88.
On February 21,2007, while appearing as a guest on The O'Reilly Factor, and again on May 25,2007, while appearing as a guest on The Tonight Show, Dennis Miller stated that he initially supported Rudy Giuliani for president in 2008.
89.
Dennis Miller said that he gave Barack Obama six to eight months before forming an opinion on him, because he saw that his election was inspiring to black youth and hoped it would be healing.
90.
In 2016, Dennis Miller did not endorse any particular Republican primary candidate.