Caliendo to leave an impression on Ohio
By John Benson
It was roughly a year ago when funnyman Frank Caliendo found himself at a crossroads.
For years he entertained sports fans as a regular contributor to the “Fox NFL Sunday” show. However, it was after the 2011 gridiron season that the master impressionist, who first gained mainstream attention with his impersonation of former NFL head coach and retired television football analyst John Madden, felt he needed a change.
“I got tired at Fox,” said Caliendo, calling from his Phoenix home. “They got tired of me. It was so much of the same stuff. It was a spot where you couldn’t experiment because so many people were watching, and you only have one shot. When you’re on ‘Saturday Night Live,’ you can do sketches for 90 minutes and throw some weird stuff in the end. When you’re doing that during a football pre-game show, it’s not really about the comedy anyways.”
While he was preparing for a return full time to touring his stand-up comedy, Caliendo was contacted by ESPN about contributing material to its football coverage. On the surface, it may seem like the same gig, but he said being a part of the self-proclaimed Worldwide Leader of Sports isn’t short on the unique type of opportunities he wanted.
“The great thing about ESPN, when we knock it out of the park — like my Mel Kiper Jr. impersonation — they played it eight times, and pieces of it run days after,” Caliendo said. “It used to be when I was on Sunday morning with Fox, that was the only time you saw it, but the Kiper sketch has over 300,000 hits on YouTube.”
For sports fans, that sketch is hilarious as Caliendo embodies the energetic spirit of the perfectly coiffed NFL draft expert. Over the past year, Caliendo expanded his repertoire to include new impressions of Jerry Jones and John Gruden.
Fans of Caliendo may hear those new voices as the funnyman returns to Ohio for his annual summer shows. He’s scheduled to perform Friday and Saturday at Hilarities 4th Street Theatre.
The comedian said he enjoys performing for Northeast Ohio area audiences, and he actually has a summer home in Avon Lake. His wife is from the area, and it’s a great opportunity for his kids to spend time with his in-laws.
Also, the vacation time allows Caliendo to mine new stage material. Lately, he’s been adding more family jokes into his set in hopes of making a slight change to his material.