Tom Green

Michael Thomas Green (born July 30, 1971) is a Canadian stand up comedian, actor, rapper, writer, producer, director, talk show host, and media personality. Best known for his unique brand of comedy, he found mainstream prominence via his MTV television show The Tom Green Show. Green is also known for his roles in the Hollywood films Road Trip (2000), Charlie's Angels (2000), Freddy Got Fingered (2001), Stealing Harvard (2002) and Shred (2008). He was briefly married to actress Drew Barrymore. In June 2003, Green served as a guest host on Late Show with David Letterman, which led to him hosting his own late-night talk show on MTV titled The New Tom Green Show. From 2006 until 2011 he hosted his internet talk show Tom Green's House Tonight from his living room, and began performing stand-up comedy in 2010. From October 2013 to November 2014 Green hosted the live weekly talk-show Tom Green Live on AXS TV. Early life Green was born in Pembroke, Ontario, Canada, the first of two sons of Mary Jane, a communications consultant, and Richard Green, a computer systems analyst and retired army captain. He grew up on a Canadian Army base near Pembroke, CFB Petawawa, and later lived in Gloucester, Ontario (now part of the City of Ottawa) where he attended Henry Munro Middle School, Colonel By Secondary School and Cairine Wilson Secondary School. Green studied television broadcasting at Algonquin College and graduated in 1994. Early work (1986–1999) Stand-up comedy At age 15, Green started performing stand-up comedy at local clubs, most notably at Yuk Yuk's comedy club, and went on to do this for two and a half years until he canceled a booking to go to New York for his rap group. Radio While attending Algonquin College as a member of the Sigma Pi Fraternity, Green hosted an overnight call-in show on the University of Ottawa's campus radio station, CHUO. The 1990 show, originally a rap music show entitled The Rap Show, was followed by an electronic music show hosted by Glenn Humplik. Through the proximity of their shows, Tom and Glenn met and became friends, based on a common love of zany antics. Tom's radio show soon shifted formats to a call-in show (upon the discovery of how to operate the studio's call-in lines) and the two joined forces to host The Midnight Caller Show (which lasted from 1993 to 1996). The basic format of The Midnight Caller was to have listeners call-in with Tom and Glenn making fun of them (or "razzing" them) and soon after hanging-up on them. The show's novelty and originality made it an underground hit in the Ottawa area. Rapper In the early 1990s, Green had a short-lived career as a rapper in a group called Organized Rhyme under the alias "MC Bones". His fellow MCs included "Pin the Chameleon". The single "Check The O.R." was nominated for a Juno Award in 1993 for Best Rap Recording and won the MuchVibe Best Rap Video award in 1992. In 1998, Not The Green Tom Show was released by Green's alter-ego MC Face. The theme of the album revolves around MC Face, a pugnacious and foul-mouthed rapper who is constantly angry with and taking verbal jabs at Tom Green, his square producer who brings on some of his buddies from The Tom Green Show. The Tom Green Show Green soon had his own non-paid television show on public-access television on cable TV. The first incarnation of The Tom Green Show aired from September 1994 until 1996 as a one-hour no commercial public cable access program on Rogers Television 22 in the Ottawa region airing 50 episodes in two seasons. The Tom Green Show was a variety show format, where he would have guests visit the studio and bands play before a live audience. He also had taped segments that typically consisted of stunts played by Green on unsuspecting people. A number of them involved Green's parents, Richard and Mary Jane, who consistently appeared unamused and occasionally angered by Tom's antics. In October 1996, The Tom Green Show aired one time as a pilot on CBC. The show was later picked up in Canada by The Comedy Network in 1997 and aired 26 episodes over the course of two seasons. Rise to mainstream (1999–2003) MTV and The Tom Green Show The Tom Green Show was then picked up by MTV in January 1999, where he gained popularity in the United States and worldwide. The format of the MTV version of the show was similar to his original show; it was hosted by Green and co-hosted by two of his long-time friends, Glenn Humplik, who occupied the couch, and Phil Giroux, who sat behind a window at the back of the set and became known as "the guy in the window" usually drinking cups of coffee. Derek Harvie, who co-wrote the show with Green, occasionally appeared in the segments. Many of the sketches were targeted at his parents, both of whom appear to be unimpressed and embarrassed by their son's antics. The Tom Green Show was renowned for Green's version of shock humor. Some of Green's most notable skits include pretending to "hump" a dead moose (which was referenced by rapper Eminem in "The Real Slim Shady"), having an X-rated lesbian scene painted on his father's car (labeled the "Slut Mobile"), drinking milk by sucking on a cow's teat, and putting a cow head in his parents' bed while they slept because his father was a fan of The Godfather films. Green also hung his own unauthorized piece of art in the National Gallery of Canada (which remained untouched for days) with the added twist of later coming back and vandalizing it to the horror of onlooking patrons. In a segment, Green went to the press conference of Grey Owl where he serenaded and kissed Pierce Brosnan. Brosnan, thinking Green was a journalist, advised him not to give up his day job. Green also did many segments humiliating his co-host and longtime friend Glenn Humplik; even after the pair had become well-known, Humplik continued working at his phone company job, fearing that his entertainment career might not last. Green teased him about this often and once gave out Humplik's office phone number on the air. Green eventually wrote a song called "Lonely Swedish (The Bum Bum Song)", which he composed during MTV's Spring Break while doing a show on a cruise ship. After airing the music video on his show and appealing to his audience to request it, the song became an instant number one hit on Total Request Live and was also referred to in Eminem's song "The Real Slim Shady". He quickly called for the video to be retired because "it's not fair to 98 Degrees." Later, in his autobiography, he revealed that MTV had pressured him to do so in order to maintain the image that Total Request Live was, in fact, a live request show (the next week's episodes had been pre-taped on location, and the producers of the show were completely unaware of "The Bum Bum Song" at the time). Green's increasing fame made it harder for him to ambush people during man-on-the-street segments, leading him to target mostly senior citizens and non-English speakers. After he was diagnosed with testicular cancer in March 2000, he stopped production on his TV show, but he continued to appear on the channel via reruns and other promotional materials. Green's popularity during this time led to him gracing the cover of the June 8, 2000 issue of Rolling Stone magazine. The MTV show Jackass debuted six months after The Tom Green Show went on hiatus. Many of the segments on the show had close similarities to the segments from Green's show: Bam Margera rudely awakening his parents, the cast of Jackass falling down while on crutches, swimming with sharks, etc. Testicular cancer and hiatus from MTV In early 2000, Tom Green was diagnosed with, and successfully treated for, testicular cancer. Green wrote, directed and starred in a one-hour MTV television special titled The Tom Green Cancer Special (aired on May 23, 2000), which documented the time leading up to his surgery and included graphic footage of his own surgery. The episode received wide critical acclaim for revealing a vulnerable, human side of an otherwise juvenile television personality. During this time, he started the "Tom Green's Nuts Cancer Fund" to raise money for cancer research. In mid-2000, Green also spoke in front of thousands of students in the University of Florida and sang a song titled "Feel Your Balls" to help educate others about testicular cancer. Although it was Green's cancer that caused The Tom Green Show to cease production, a frequent rumor says that the show was cancelled because of an alleged segment where Green shows up at a bar mitzvah, or another Jewish event, dressed as Adolf Hitler. Green, however, has repeatedly denied that such a segment exists, and there is no evidence to suggest that such an event occurred. He mentions the rumor in his 2004 autobiography, Hollywood Causes Cancer, stating that it apparently started when some Boston teenagers were caught videotaping themselves performing a similar stunt and when asked by security, they used the name "Tom Green." Green says, "I would never do a mean-spirited, anti-Semitic joke like that – it's both abhorrent and not funny. To this day I still get asked about it, and it's annoying. So again, for the record, it didn't happen. There is nobody on this planet that has ever seen this bit on tape because it does not exist. If it did exist, it would have certainly reared its ugly, hateful head on the Internet by now. But it won't, because it doesn't exist. I've never put on a Hitler costume. In fact, I've never even been to a Bar Mitzvah." Film career Green's fame soon netted him roles in several Hollywood movies, including Road Trip, Charlie's Angels, Freddy Got Fingered (which he also wrote and directed), and Stealing Harvard. Green continued the trend of his brand of comedy in Road Trip in a notable scene where he put a mouse in his mouth. Freddy Got Fingered won in five categories at the 2001 Golden Raspberry Awards, given to the worst movies of the year. Green appeared at the ceremony to accept his awards, making him the first performer to do so in the award's twenty-year history, and the second recipient to do so following director Paul Verhoeven for Showgirls in 1995. Green arrived at the awards ceremony in a white Cadillac, wearing a tuxedo and rolled out his own red carpet. After accepting the awards, Green stated "When we set out to make this film we wanted to win a Razzie, so this is a dream come true for me". While onstage, he began to play the harmonica and did not stop until he was dragged off. Marriage to Drew Barrymore and Saturday Night Live In July 2000, Tom Green became engaged to actress Drew Barrymore. Green and Barrymore met after Barrymore, who was a fan of Green's show, asked Green to appear in Charlie's Angels, which Barrymore starred in and produced. Green and Barrymore married on July 7, 2001. In Green's book Hollywood Causes Cancer, he writes "We lived together for a year before we were engaged, and we were engaged for a year before we got married". Barrymore also appeared in her then-fiancé's infamous 2001 film Freddy Got Fingered. During the buildup to their wedding Green and Barrymore frequently joked with the media about when and where they were going to wed. The most notable incident came on November 18, 2000, when Green hosted the American television show Saturday Night Live. During the monologue, Green brought Barrymore on stage and teased the audience about the couple marrying at the end of the episode. Ultimately, the stage was set for a wedding before Barrymore, in the end, got "cold feet" and left Green alone to end the show. The SNL incident initially left viewers and the media confused about whether the couple had actually planned to marry on live TV, or were simply staging a publicity stunt. Eventually, Green also went on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno to toy with the public once again, this time claiming that his bride might be pregnant. Barrymore and Green filed for divorce on December 17, 2001, citing irreconcilable differences. Their divorce became official on October 15, 2002. Return to MTV and The New Tom Green Show In 2002, Green starred in and directed a one-hour MTV special called The Tom Green Subway Monkey Hour, where he tormented strangers in Japan. During 2002, Green also started his own production company called Bob Green Films; he starred in and was executive producer for a half-hour special entitled The Skateboard Show on The WB. In mid-2003, after Green guest-hosted The Late Show with David Letterman, MTV gave him his own late-night talk show called The New Tom Green Show. The critically acclaimed show lasted less than three months and the show consisted of a traditional monologue, segments, followed by interviews with guests. Green in numerous interviews has stated that David Letterman was one of his early influences. In September 2003, the show was cancelled by MTV eleven weeks after its premiere due to low ratings. Reports indicate that ratings and viewers for the show averaged 889,000 viewers in the first week and then averaged 255,000 viewers in the last week for the reruns. In Green's book Hollywood Causes Cancer, he stated that the show, "was very expensive to produce and not really the type of show that MTV has been traditionally known for." Personal life Tom Green was married to actress Drew Barrymore from July 7, 2001, to October 15, 2002. In December 2001, Green filed for divorce. In 2010, Green has stated that he has not seen Barrymore since the divorce, although the two seem to be on decent terms, as Barrymore has spoken highly of him. In March 2006, Green broke two ribs in Costa Rica when a large wave swept him off of an outcrop where he had been fishing and onto rocks below. As a 2009 contestant on the reality television game show The Celebrity Apprentice, Green played to benefit the Butch Walts and Donald Skinner Urologic Cancer Research Foundation. He later stated that he would not be alive today had it not been for Donald G. Skinner, M.D.