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Damn and he was funny too ....


http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,258231,00.html (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,258231,00.html)

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0420732/ (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0420732/)


WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. —  Richard Jeni, a standup comedian who played to sold-out crowds and was a regular on the "Tonight Show," died from a gunshot wound in an apparent suicide, police said Sunday.

Police found Jeni alive but gravely injured in a home here after responding to a call Saturday morning from Jeni's girlfriend reporting the comic had shot himself, Los Angeles Police Officer Norma Eisenman said.

He died after being rushed to a nearby hospital.

Eisenman said she could not confirm that Jeni had killed himself and said the investigation was ongoing. She said the female caller told police: "My boyfriend shot himself in the face."

Jeni, who has appeared on the "The Tonight Show" and acted in the Jim Carrey movie "The Mask," was 45 years old.

He regularly toured the country with a standup act and starred in several HBO comedy specials, most recently "A Big Steaming Pile of Me" during the cable network's 2005-06 season.

Another HBO special, "Platypus Man," won a Cable ACE award for best standup comedy special. It formed the basis for his UPN sitcom of the same name, which ran for one season.

Jeni wrote comic material for the 2005 Academy Awards, hosted by his friend Chris Rock.

The comedian guest-starred in the TV shows "Everybody Hates Chris," "Married: With Children," and updated versions of the game shows "Hollywood Squares" and "Match Game."

Jeni became a frequent guest on "The Tonight Show" during Johnny Carson's reign and continued to appear after Jay Leno took over as host.

The Brooklyn-born comic first received national attention in 1990 with the Showtime special "Richard Jeni: Boy From New York City." Two years later, his "Crazy From the Heat" special attracted the highest ratings in Showtime's history.

Jeni's movie credits included "The Mask," playing Jim Carrey's best friend, "The Aristocrats," "National Lampoon's Dad's Week Off," and "An Alan Smithee Film: Burn, Hollywood, Burn."

Any time I hear of something like this I always wonder what on earth was so bad that they had to kill themselves over, any way I will miss the man and his humor, he was very funny.  :bluesad:

He was the prototypical 90s comedian to me, popular not a superstar, but a solid performer. I remember WyreWizard using his name in one of his threads.

They had played some of his stuff on the AOL Radio comedy channels, he was good, not a favorite of mine, but not one I hated.

I remember when his sitcom premiered, Entertainment Weekly reviewed the whole UPN line-up and his show was the pretty much the only one they thought was any good and deserved to last.

The wire report I heard on the radio said there was no indication of him having any problems or signs of troubles. Wonder if it was a whim, bad choice mixed with drugs or booze, maybe he had an undisclosed illness. Maybe we'll never know.

This is tragic news.

You know, I didn't really care for him in The Mask and I had never seen any of his old stuff, but after seeing his stand-up comedy special, "A Big Steaming Pile of Me", I was hooked.
That show had me in stitches and I laughed the whole way through it.   :bouncegiggle:
If you haven't seen it, try to check it out sometime.

He was a suprisingly funny guy.   :smile:

R.I.P. dude.

I wonder why too ...

Let's see hmmm ....

I'm Richard Jeni, check
I'm rich, check!
I'm famous, check!
I'm funny, check!
I've got a steady gig, check!
I'm living large, check!
I'll shoot myself in the face, check!

Something doesn't ad up ....

He could easily have had many issues that the public would never know about, but which might seem to him like too much to bear.  We'll have to see what the investigation reveals.

I'm not a religious man, but I do believe in a one religious saying ... "God (pick your God, any God) will never give you more than you can handle." So perhaps I'm insensitive, but suicide is never, never ever the answer regardless of the issues. We all have times in our life where life looks grim, there seems to be no hope, 'WTF am I going to do now' moments and I think to myself this too shall pass. Life is nothing more than a chain of choices and as life would have it we don't always make the right choice. But in my opinion some choices should never be made, suicide is on that list. Every issue has a resolve without ending ones life, we might not like the resolve but it has one nonetheless. Ok enough of my opinionated preaching.