Theo Von

Theodor Capitani von Kurnatowski III (born March 19, 1980), known professionally as Theo Von is an American stand-up comedian, podcaster, television personality, and actor.

Theo Von
Von in August 2016
Birth nameTheodor Capitani von Kurnatowski III
Born (1980-03-19) March 19, 1980
Covington, Louisiana, U.S.
MediumStand-up, film, television
EducationLouisiana State University, University of New Orleans
Years active1999–present
GenresObservational comedy
Subject(s)Human behavior, human sexuality, American politics, gender differences
WebsiteOfficial website

Early life

Theo Von was born Theodor Capitani von Kurnatowski to Gina Capitani and Roland Achilles. His father was originally from Bluefields, Nicaragua, and was 70 years old when Theo was born.[1] Von is of Italian and British descent on his mother's side and of primarily Polish as well as Native American descent on his father's.[2][3][4]

Von grew up in Covington, Louisiana with his older brother and two younger sisters, all of whom currently reside in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Von was legally emancipated at age fourteen.[5] He graduated from Mandeville High School in Mandeville, Louisiana. He attended Louisiana State University for a time, as well as Loyola University New Orleans, University of Arizona, College of Charleston, and Santa Monica College.[6] Von received his undergraduate degree in 2011 from the University of New Orleans.[7][8]

Career

Television and film

2000–2008: Road Rules and reality television

Von began a professional career in entertainment at age nineteen when he starred in MTV's Road Rules: Maximum Velocity Tour in 2000. He was recruited to the show while studying at Louisiana State University.

Following his season of Road Rules, Von was on four seasons and nearly seventy episodes of MTV's reality game show The Challenge, formerly known as Real World/Road Rules Challenge. The show was a spin off of MTV's The Real World and Road Rules. He was part of the cast of the seasons Battle of the Seasons (2002), The Gauntlet (2003–2004), Battle of the Sexes II (2004–2005), and Fresh Meat (2006). Von was runner-up in 2002 and won the following two seasons.[9] Concurrently to the airing of Real World/Road Rules Challenge in 2006, Von competed on Last Comic Standing.

He returned to reality TV in Spring 2008, when Von was a panelist on the 2008 short-lived ABC Family reality competition show America's Prom Queen. In the summer of 2008, Von was one of the members of the Comedy Central sketch/competition show Reality Bites Back. Von won the show, beating out fellow comedians Amy Schumer, Bert Kreischer, and Tiffany Haddish, among others.

2012–present: Host of Primetime in No Time and Deal with It and screen acting

Beginning in 2011, Von took over as a host of the popular Yahoo online TV recap show Primetime in No Time.[10][11] Von hosted the TBS hidden camera show Deal With It, executive produced by Howie Mandel, for its run of three seasons from 2013 to 2014.[12]

During this period, Von began appearing in cameo acting roles in a few television shows including Inside Amy Schumer and Why? with Hannibal Buress. He has said that he was not more interested in acting earlier on, despite having opportunities to do pilots and sitcoms, because he was not excited about particular projects and that they often conflicted with his touring and podcasting schedules.[13]

In Spring 2018, Von's three-episode scripted comedy show Man Up was released on Comedy Central.[14] In August 2019, Von announced that he had been cast in the big-budget film Ghost Draft and had been recruited to the project by its star Chris Pratt. A few weeks later, Von announced on his podcast that he had dropped out of the movie due to the time commitment.[13][15]

Stand-up

Von began performing stand-up comedy as a young man in Louisiana. At age 23, after his tenure on MTV, he decided to move to Los Angeles and professionally pursue stand-up.[16][17] For some time, he had difficulty as an entertainer in Hollywood as talent agents would not give him a chance, viewing him as a reality TV star.[18] It took years to shake this image and establish himself as a comedian.[19]

Von achieved one of his first major comedic accomplishments a few years later in 2006 when he won the title of Fan Favorite on the online competition aligned with the fourth season of Last Comic Standing.[20] Around this time, Von also began touring his set nationally. He also took part in five international tours for the USO which included performing at Guantanamo Bay.[21][16]

In 2009, Von popularized "crank texting" (sending a text message to random phone numbers to incite conversations), and began his "crank texting" blog, which was picked up as a column by CollegeHumor a year later.[22][23]

On June 1, 2012, Von was the featured comedian in an episode of Comedy Central's The Half Hour, now known as Comedy Central Stand-Up Presents.[16] He also promoted his comedy on The Arsenio Hall Show, Hello Ross, Chelsea Lately, Watch What Happens Live, @midnight, and This Is Not Happening, among other television shows. In 2016, Netflix released Von's debut hour-long comedy special No Offense. The show was taped at the Civic Theatre in New Orleans, Louisiana.[24] In Summer 2019, Von embarked on a three-month national tour called The Dark Arts Tour.[25]

Podcasting

As of 2020, Von hosts two podcasts, This Past Weekend and The King and The Sting. Von is a recurring guest on many comedian's podcast including Joe Rogan's The Joe Rogan Experience, Joey Diaz’s The Church of What’s Happening Now, Bryan Callen and Brendan Schaub's The Fighter and the Kid, Bobby Lee’s TigerBelly among others.[11]

2011–2018: Early ventures

In April 2011, Von began his first podcast, The Comedy Sideshow. Taped at the Improv Comedy Club in Hollywood, Von would interview comedians and other entertainers. The show had twenty-three episodes, the last of which premiered in November of that year.[26]

In 2015, Von started a weekly podcast with Matthew Cole Weiss called Allegedly with Theo Von & Matthew Cole Weiss. Two totally opposite friends – comedian Theo Von and filmmaker/journalist Matt Cole Weiss - compete to see who has better “alleged" tales of celebrities, hilarity, trauma, dating, success and failure from their years living in Hollywood. The podcast lasted three years and had a total of 123 episodes.[27]

2016–present: This Past Weekend and The King and The Sting

Von began a new podcast in December 2016, This Past Weekend. The show is a long-form video podcast which features Von storytelling, answering fan voicemails, as well as thoughtful guest interviews.[28] Von released his two-hundredth episode in May 2019.[29]

In December 2018, Theo Von and comedian Brendan Schaub started a new podcast called The King and The Sting. At the podcast's release, The King and The Sting debuted #1 on the iTunes Podcast charts in the United States and also reached the top charts in the United Kingdom, Canada, Spain and Australia.[30]

Personal life

Von lives in Los Angeles, California.

Appearances in media

Selected filmography

Year Title Notes
2000 Road Rules: Maximum Velocity Tour Contestant
2002 Real World/Road Rules Challenge: Battle of the Seasons Contestant
2003–2004 Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Gauntlet Contestant
2004-2005 Real World/Road Rules Challenge: Battle of the Sexes 2 Contestant
2005 Battle of the Network Reality Stars Contestant
2006 Real World/Road Rules Challenge: Fresh Meat Contestant
2006 Last Comic Standing Won the title of most Comic Downloaded.[20]
2008 America's Prom Queen Panelist
2008 Live at Gotham Season 3
2008 Reality Bites Back Contestant along with Donnell Rawlings, Bert Kreischer, Amy Schumer, Mo Mandel, and Chris Fairbanks.
2012 Primetime in No Time Host; replaced former host Frank Nicotero.[12]
2012 The Half Hour
2013–2014 Deal With It Host
2016 Acting Out Himself
2016 No Offense Comedy special[31]
2016–Present This Past Weekend Podcast host [32]
2017 30lb Bag of Hamster Bones Comedy album. On March 6 it placed #1 on the iTunes Comedy Album charts and #4 on Billboard.[33]
2018–Present The King and The Sting Podcast host[34]
2019 Hot Ones
2019 Impaulsive

Filmography
Year Title Role Notes
2013 InAPPropriate Comedy Mountain Climber Hit theaters in March 2013.[35]
2013 Inside Amy Schumer Director Episode: "A Porn Star Is Born"
2015 Why? With Hannibal Buress Alex
2021 The Tomorrow War Piper
gollark: I expect lots of bots will end up unverified, but they won't care and will just plow on with their triangularity.
gollark: Their suggested solution is to have a parent join your "team" and verify your bot, which sounds problematic.
gollark: You die.
gollark: "tHiS iS OuR poLiCy"
gollark: And they'll probably say "no give us ID".

References
  1. McIntyre, Michael K. (September 13, 2017). "Theo Von brings New Orleans flavor to the Hilarities stage this weekend". cleveland.com.
  2. Theo Von on "Road Rules", retrieved 2019-08-22
  3. Theo Von & Andrew Santino Make Fry Bread Tacos: Something's Burning with Bert Kreischer, retrieved 2019-08-23
  4. "RootsWeb's WorldConnect Project: SIESS, WAGNER, CLEMENT, COBERLY, DUPUIS, TREADWAY, LEVIN , RICH AND RELATED FAMILIES". worldconnect.rootsweb.ancestry.com. Retrieved 2019-08-23.
  5. Road Rules S09E01 Walking on the Wind, retrieved 2019-08-18
  6. Staff, OC Weekly- (2010-06-10). "Theo Von". OC Weekly. Retrieved 2019-08-18.
  7. Times-Picayune, Dave Walker, NOLA com | The. "Theo Von gets his own Comedy Central standup showcase". NOLA.com. Retrieved 2019-08-18.
  8. "Alumni Spotlights - Theo Von". www.unoalumni.com. Retrieved 2019-08-18.
  9. Alvey, Michael (2019-06-16). "The Greatest Male Players in Challenge History: #13- Theo Vonkurnatowski". Medium. Retrieved 2019-08-22.
  10. "Theo Von Takes Over as 'Prime Time in No Time' Host". TheWrap. 2012-02-17. Retrieved 2019-08-22.
  11. "About – Theo Von". Retrieved 2019-08-23.
  12. Deadline Hollywood 2013
  13. Fifty Cent Sniffs | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #224, retrieved 2019-08-22
  14. "Man Up". Comedy Central. Retrieved 2019-08-23.
  15. Kroll, Justin; Kroll, Justin (2019-08-21). "Chris Pratt's 'Ghost Draft' Adds Comedian Theo Von". Variety. Retrieved 2019-08-23.
  16. Innovative Artists (2013). "Theo Von biography" (PDF). Innovative Comedy. Retrieved August 22, 2019.
  17. Schulte 2018
  18. Lee & Von 2017, p. 41:00
  19. Kozell 2016
  20. Dehnart 2006
  21. "Young Hollywood | For a Good Laugh, Call Theo Von". younghollywood.com. Retrieved 2019-08-23.
  22. Von 2010
  23. Donnelly 2011
  24. "Theo Von 'No Offense' Netflix Special Taping". www.brownpapertickets.com. Retrieved 2019-08-23.
  25. "Theo Von". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2019-08-23.
  26. www.podcasts.com https://www.podcasts.com/the-comedy-sideshow-with-theo-von/page/20. Retrieved 2019-08-23. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  27. FM, Player. "Final Episode Allegedly With Matthew Cole Weiss podcast". player.fm. Retrieved 2019-08-23.
  28. "This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von". www.stitcher.com. Retrieved 2019-08-23.
  29. Chris Lilley | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #200, retrieved 2019-08-23
  30. "iTunesCharts.net: 'King and the Sting' by Brendan Schaub & Theo Von (American Podcasts iTunes Chart)". www.itunescharts.net. Retrieved 2019-07-09.
  31. Netflix 2018
  32. Von 2018
  33. Billboard 2018
  34. "iTunesCharts.net: 'King and the Sting' by Brendan Schaub & Theo Von (American Podcasts iTunes Chart)". www.itunescharts.net. Retrieved 2019-07-09.
  35. "Inappropriate Comedy". IMDB.com. Retrieved 2013-09-14.

Selected work

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