Background
Pardo was born in Chicago, Illinois, and spent his first 8 years living on the south side, eventually moving to the south suburbs of Chicago.
Pardo was born in Chicago, Illinois, and spent his first 8 years living on the south side, eventually moving to the south suburbs of Chicago.
In 1980, his family moved to Oak Forest, Illinois where he attended Oak Forest High School. He attended for one year, then returned to Chicago to pursue a career in stand-up comedy.
From the show"s inception and until mid-2015, he performed as the Conan O"Brien"s program Conan"s warm-up comedian and cast member, after which he began pursuing a general development deal offered by O"Brien"s production company. He is also currently the host of the game show Race to Escape on the Science Channel. He spent his grade school years living in Hometown, Illinois.
In 1986, he moved to Pasadena, California to attend the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.
In late 1988, Pardo started performing at open microphones at various venues around Chicago, including "The Roxy", "The Last Laugh" and "The Comedy Cottage". The plethora of successful comedy clubs in the area at that time meant Pardo started earning money almost immediately, allowing him to quit his day job as a sales representative for Master of Computer Applications Records.
In addition to his comedy CDs Uno, Pompous Clown and Sprezzatura, in 2007 Pardo appeared on the comedy compilation Civil Defense Comedy Death-Ray. Pardo hosted GSN"s National Lampoon"s Funny Money from June to October 2003, and later co-hosted Administrative Management College"s Movies At Our House with Rachel Quaintance for 5 seasons.
Pardo was the warm-up comedian for The Tonight Show with Conan O"Brien.
He has returned as the opening act for Conan, and appeared in a recurring on-air sketch throughout the week of April 11, 2011. In May 2011 he began conducting backstage interviews with celebrity guests for a web series called "The Pardo Patrol."
After doing live talk and game shows at such Alternative comedy venues as the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, Jimmy Pardo began the award-winning podcast Never Not Funny at the urging of now-producer Matt Belknap. The show is in its eighteenth season and placed Pardo among the founders of comedian podcasting.
Never Not Funny primarily features fellow comedians in improvised conversations.
Many of his guests have gone on to host their own podcasts. In September 2013, Pardo released a comedy album entitled Sprezzatura.