This week, Ira Sternberg spoke with Jimmy Shubert.
Jimmy Shubert is headlining in the Laugh Factory at the Tropicana Las Vegas through August 5.
In this 30-minute episode of Talk About Las Vegas, he talks about approach to comedy, making people laugh and think at the same time, the importance of social media, staying in touch with his roots in Philadelphia, and his love of magic.
Shubert started performing right out of high school in comedy clubs around the Philly area. He later moved to Los Angeles and started working at the Comedy Store. It was at the Comedy Store where he later met Sam Kinison, and after taking him offstage on a Motorcycle at the Comedy Store’s Main room in front of a packed house, they became fast friends.
Kinison liked Shubert’s cockeyed chutzpah and included him as one of the original “Outlaws of Comedy” which he toured with for five years, playing major casinos in Las Vegas and other venues like the Universal Amphitheater in front of audiences as large as 6,500 people.
In 1997, after a well-recognized performance at the prestigious Just For Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal, he was spotted by the late Brandon Tartikoff, who signed Jimmy to a holding deal to develop a pilot sitcom for him to star in at 20th Century Fox.
Shubert is known for his recurring role on “King of Queens” for five years and several appearances on “Entourage.”