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Las Vegas native Jimmy Kimmel is everything Vegas is not. He’s casual, down-to-earth, and has a pretty clean past. Unlike some more recent high-profile Vegas celeb favorites (such as, someone who’s name rhymes with heiress...). Kimmel is really just a regular guy that happens to be hysterically funny. His family moved to Vegas when he was nine and he has been hooked on the city ever since. He even attended the University of Nevada, Las Vegas for a year before he entered show business.
Kimmel started off as a radio personality at Arizona State University. Kimmel had a promising career in sports reporting when he decided to switch to a medium that was much more financially promising. Jimmy Kimmel got a job on Comedy Central on a show called Win Ben Stein’s Money. As host of the game show, he won an Emmy for best Game Show Host in 1999. The Comedy Central audience found him charming and down to earth with a quick dry humor that was far from slapstick. Along with Adam Carolla, Kimmel helped create another Comedy Central hit, The Man Show. The Man Show got mixed reviews as the show was completely centered on men watching half naked women (known as jug girls) run around the stage while they drank large quantities of beer and told their audience how to be a “real” man. Although funny and meant as a satire, the show was protested by women’s rights groups saying that it was demeaning to women. He was also one of the creators of the animated series Crank Yankers which showed puppets acting out pre-recorded prank calls to businesses and residents. Kimmel provided the voices for many of his characters and the show was a huge success among the teen and twenty-something crowd. In 2003, after his divorce to wife, Gina, (who he had two children with) became final; he was given his own late night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live. He also began dating fellow Comedy Central personality, Sarah Silverman. His talk show was a huge success and Stuff magazine even voted him “biggest badass on TV." His talk show is now in competition with that of his long-time idol, Jay Leno. Kimmel tries to appear in Vegas as much as possible but his talk show is based in Los Angeles. Kimmel had admitted that he was somewhat of a trouble maker as a child growing up in Sin City. He and his friend used to sneak into the Can Can Room on Industrial Road. Can Can Room is a topless bar and Kimmel was only 16 at the time. He and his friends would sneak in and be immediately thrown out because Kimmel looked so young. He went back there to celebrate his bachelor party in 1988 and said that he had a horrible time and it was only fun when he wasn’t allowed in. However troublesome he made have been as a teen, he definitely has made a name for himself know. Fun Fact: At one point in his career Kimmel was flying back and forth from New York to Los Angeles everyday to host Live with Regis and Kelly in the mornings and then do his show Jimmy Kimmel Live in L.A. at night. He is now in the Guinness Book of World Records for most miles traveled during one work week.
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