In December of 1987, J.R. completed a degree in Finance just over one month after “Black Monday” when the stock market suffered the biggest one-day percentage loss in history. And just like that, his future of being an intolerable, cigar smoking a-hole with slicked-back hair and pastel suspenders was sidelined before it could even get started. Fortunately, J.R.’s comedic timing was considerably better, and after moving to New York City in early 1988 he began performing stand-up and soon found himself working most of the major clubs in town. Soon, J.R. was writing monologue jokes for Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher where he also served as crowd warm-up for the show’s tapings. Later, he was selected to be one of the original writers for The Daily Show (then without Jon Stewart), and though he admittedly wasn’t single-handedly responsible for the success of that program, his consistent contributions throughout the years helped it evolve into one of the most influential shows in late night.
He’s also a decent human being, though that’s obviously subjective and opinions may vary depending on which inexplicably terrible judge of character you talk to.