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A decade ago, Jimmy Failla was a New York City cab driver who aspired to be a stand-up comedian. Today, he has made appearances on several Fox News shows, including hosting Fox Across America, and his Amazon Prime debut “State of the Union” was one of the highest-rated stand-up specials in the streaming service’s history. Failla appeared on 710 WOR’s Len Berman and Michael Riedel in the Morning program to discuss his former and current careers, starting with how he made the transition.
“A Fox booker saw me performing at Gotham (Comedy Club) on a Sunday night, asked me if I wanted to perform on Fox, appear on Fox that Monday,” Failla recounted for Berman and Riedel. “(So) I pulled up in a taxi on 6th Avenue, double-parked outside the building, popped the trunk, threw the hazards on, cause that creates the appearance that you’re going to get something heavy and bring it back to the car. And, for about 55 minutes I was in the building, getting hair and make-up and doing three minutes of TV.”
Failla has been making light of the headlines ever since, such as his observation on a possible Trump-Biden rematch in 2024: “There was a fight in 1990 between George Foreman and Gerry Cooney that was billed derisively as ‘Two Geezers at Caesar’s’… If nothing changes, we’ve got two guys at the top of the ticket in their late hundreds, and I don’t know that this is a match-up anybody wants.”
Failla described one occupational hazard about his former career: “What you find as a cab driver is, people see you as a form of affordable therapy. They get in, they know they’re never gonna see you again, so they dump all kind of pork chop recipes and conspiracy theories… There is this confessional vibe to a cab… so a guy will, all the way out to LaGuardia, give you a forty minute, you know, speech about his love life. But here’s a news flash- once in a while you do pick him up again, and it’s awkward.”
Failla will be appearing at the Paramount in Huntington on Friday, October 13th at 7pm. That stand-up show will be taped as a Fox News special. For ticket information and availability, you can contact the Paramount at ParamountNY.com or by calling (631)-673-7300.
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