fiction.wikisort.org - Actor

Mike Bocchetti (born April 3, 1961) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and writer from Staten Island, New York. He is most notable for his role as the announcer on The Artie Lange Show from 2012 to 2014,[2][3][4] and has acted frequently on film and television.

Mike Bocchetti
Born	(1961-04-03) April 3, 1961 (age 61)[1] Staten Island, New York
Occupation	Stand-up comedian, actor, writer
Years active	1992-present
Known for	The Artie Lange Show
Website	mikebocchetti.com

Bocchetti released a comedy album, Thank You, on Stand Up! Records in 2019.

Early life

Bocchetti was born on April 3, 1961 in Staten Island[5][1][6] to a Catholic Italian family of what he once called "a very humble blue-collar background".[7] He is the oldest of five children.[8][9] He graduated from Tottenville High School in 1979.[10][1] Often bullied as a child for being overweight, he was inspired to become a comedian after hearing Redd Foxx and realizing that the audience was laughing with, not at, Foxx.[5]

He joined the Marines in 1980 but washed out after a few weeks; he wrote about the experience for his 2019 stage show Space Cookie.[1]

Career

Stand-up comedy/stage

Bocchetti started performing comedy in 1992 and has performed on New York-area stages for decades,[4][11][7] including the Staten Island Comedy Festival[12] and New Jersey music festival The Bamboozle.[13]

Television, radio, and podcasts

Bocchetti was the announcer on DirectTV's The Artie Lange Show (originally titled The Nick & Artie Show) from 2012 to 2014. He had been friends with Lange since the 1990s as a fellow stand-up comic; before they were famous, Lange once told Bocchetti, "If I'm ever on TV as a talk show host, you are my Ed McMahon."[2][3][4] He has worked with Lange often after the show's cancellation.

Bocchetti's television work includes appearances on two seasons of NBC's Last Comic Standing in 2003 and 2006.[4][14] He played a homeless man in the 2004 Monk episode "Mr. Monk Takes Manhattan".[15] He appeared on the Louis C.K. series Louie in 2015.[16] He was a guest on 25 episodes of Mary Dimino's New York-area cable-TV series Nights With Mary between 2003 and 2012.[15][17]

He is a frequent guest on talk-radio shows and podcasts including The Howard Stern Show and Opie and Anthony,[18] as well as The Jim Breuer Show, The Chip Chipperson Podcast,[19][20] The Anthony Cumia Show, and The Slant.[5][18][4]

In 2009, Bocchetti starred in a short documentary directed by Lee Schloss, Who Is Mike Bocchetti?, covering his career and work with Lange, and including interviews with comedians including Colin Quinn.[14][21][22]

He formed a production company with comedian Ken Burmeister, Blasted Films,[11] which made Tubby Man: Hero of the Bullied, a semi-autobiographical comedy web series with an anti-bullying message, for Blip TV in 2013.[8][9]

In 2014, Bocchetti started his own podcast, The Mike Bocchetti Show, which ran for 13 episodes.[7][18]

In December 2019, he began co-hosting a new podcast with Lange, Artie Lange's Halfway House.[23] Lange suspended the podcast in February 2020.[24]

Film

In 2002, Bocchetti played one of the Grand Masters of the Illuminati in avant-garde artist Matthew Barney's film Cremaster 3.[25][26][15] Other film work includes the 2003 indie comedy Chooch[27] and 2020 Christina Ricci drama Faraway Eyes.[28]

Albums

Bocchetti's debut album, Thank You, was released in 2019 on Stand Up! Records. Comedy website Laughspin compared Thank You favorably with Rodney Dangerfield's darkly self-deprecating persona,[29] as did Richard Lanoie of The Serious Comedy Site, who also felt that Bocchetti "is not for the casual comedy fan and requires some patience to really appreciate."[30]

Books and writing

In 2018, Bocchetti published an autobiography, Still Standing, covering his life from childhood through his 2017 heart attack.[6]

In 2015, he wrote an ongoing interview column, The Bocchetti Files, for website The Interrobang.[31]

Discography

• Mike Bocchetti, Thank You (Stand Up! Records, 2019)

Personal life

Bocchetti was diagnosed with obsessive–compulsive disorder at age 26[5][6][14] and is a recovering alcoholic who has been sober since 1997.[5][14] He had a heart attack in 2017.[32][6]

References

External links

• Official Mike Bocchetti website
• Mike Bocchetti at Stand Up! Records website
• Mike Bocchetti at IMDb

---