Patrice Oneal
From OAPedia.com
Patrice Oneal (December 7, 1969 - November 29, 2011) is a standup comedian and popular guest on The Opie and Anthony Show. He often fills in for Jim Norton when he's away doing standup. Patrice also hosted the show Bitch Management during The Saturday Night Virus. He has frequently appeared on Sean Hannity's radio and television shows. He is best known for his cutting commentary on women, relationships, and race.
Bio
Patrice got his first real taste of standup at a place called Estelle's in Boston. He was heckling a comic, and the comic suggested maybe Patrice thought he could do better. Patrice did and the following week he went on stage at Estelle's and brought down the house. From there he went on to work at the Comedy Connection, then moved to working the clubs in and around Boston, New England, and New York.
A regular on the now defunct Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn, Patrice has appeared on Late Night With Conan O'Brien three times and The Late Show with David Letterman twice. He currently has a semi-recurring role as Lonnie, a warehouse employee, on NBC's The Office. Previously, he had recurring roles on both NBC's The Colin Quinn Show and Comedy Central's Contest Searchlight. Patrice also played the role of Pit Bull in the Chappelle's Show sketch entitled "The Players Ball".
As a stand-up comedian, he has performed at both the prestigious Montreal Just For Laughs and the HBO U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen. Additionally Patrice has appeared on Comedy Central's Premium Blend, NBC's Comedy Showcase, as well as having his own half-hour special on Showtime.
His film credits include: The 25th Hour directed by Spike Lee, In the Cut with Meg Ryan, and Head of State with Chris Rock.
Presently, Patrice has been producing a podcast which can be seen on his website PatriceOneal.com. The podcast features new content weekly in the form of sketches. They are produced by For Your Imagination; a production company based out of New York City.
On October 26th, 2011 Bob Kelly announced that Patrice had fell ill and had a stroke on October 19th. Jimmy had invited Bob, Rich Vos, Colin Quinn, and Keith Robinson in to help announce it because he didn't want to do it alone and so the listeners heard it from them and not from someone who doesn't know anything.
On November 29th, 2011 TMZ broke the story that Patrice had not recovered and died at the age of 41 during the morning. Opie confirmed it VIA Twitter. Ron and Fez decided to stop their "Why the 70's Rocked" bit to take listener calls about Patrice. RIP Patrice.
Opie and Anthony spent the whole November 30th show telling stories and sharing their favorite moments with Patrice. A long list of comedians stopped by and called in to pay respects. These comedians included Rich Vos Robert Kelly Jim Florentine, Joe DeRosa, Joe Rogan, Colin Quinn, Bill Burr, Kurt Metzger, Amy Schumer, Louis C.K., Dave Attel, and Rus Meneve. The tribute show continued into After Opie and Anthony Live, Ron and Fez with Fez feeling bad for Patrice's family, and into the next day with Dane Cook.
Fun Facts
- Known for going to Rio de Janiero, bringing with him a steel briefcase filled with various glass dildos, and using said glass dildos on Brazilian prostitutes while saying "Calmo, calmo" ("Calm, calm" in Portugese) and rubbing her stomach to soothe the violently orgasming prostitute.
- Earlier in his career, he was booed at the Apollo. When asked about this, Patrice said "I came out there nice and arrogant" and "got taught a big fat lesson".
- Was imprisoned for statutory rape for 2 months when he was 17 years old for a consensual encounter with a caucasian girl of 15. He told the story on the air with Opie and Anthony on December 15, 2005. Prior to that airing, Patrice had never shared the story publicly.
- On July 13, 2010, Patrice revealed that he couldn't cross the border into Canada because of his rape conviction.
- While driving back from a gig, Patrice stopped at a rest area to get some sleep when a man walked up to his car saying "It's cold out here." Patrice thought the guy was just cold and told him to go indoors to warm up. After the guy walked back to his own car, Patrice realized the guy wasn't really cold and he was actually looking for gay sex. (told on January 16, 2006, after the 1st break)
- During talk about American Idol and one of the sexually-confused messes that appeared on it, Patrice mentioned how men can't sing certain songs without changing the lyrics. It was during this exchange that "It's Raining Stuff" was born (January 19, 2006).
- During the Homeless Charlie controversy, Patrice appeared on The Big Story with John Gibson on the Fox News Channel and was so obscene Gibson had to apologize for his comments.
- His last name is spelled inconsistently on his own promotional materials, sometimes as "Oneal" and sometimes as "O'Neal".
External Links
- http://www.patriceoneal.com/
- [1] The audio of 'It's cold out here'.
- [2] Cartoon of 'It's cold out here' made by NelsonCWoodstock
- [3] Official Patrice youtube channel
- [4] Patrice's Debut / First Visit on the show on January 28th, 2005
