Colin Quinn
June 6, 1959 — Brooklyn, New York
Colin Quinn is a Brooklyn-born comedian, actor, and writer who anchored Weekend Update on Saturday Night Live from 1995 to 2000 and later built a second career as the author and performer of acclaimed solo shows about American history, democracy, and culture — making the case that his particular brand of working-class New York intellectual comedy belongs in a legitimate theatrical tradition.
Brooklyn to the Comedy Circuit
Born on June 6, 1959, in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, Quinn came up through New York's stand-up comedy clubs in the 1980s alongside a generation of comedians that included Chris Rock, Dave Attell, and Ray Romano. His comedy was rooted in the specific textures of working-class New York Irish-American life — neighborhood dynamics, ethnic pride and mockery, the grievances and absurdities of urban existence. He spent years on the club circuit before landing writing jobs and early television appearances. He was a cast member on the MTV sketch series Remote Control in the late 1980s and had a recurring role on the sketch comedy show In Living Color.
Saturday Night Live and Later Work
Quinn joined the Saturday Night Live cast in 1995 and became Weekend Update anchor in 1997, a role he held until 2000. His delivery on Weekend Update was blunter and more combative than some of his predecessors', and critical reaction was mixed, but he developed a loyal following. After SNL, he hosted a talk show and appeared in films. His more enduring work came through a series of solo Broadway and off-Broadway shows: Colin Quinn: Long Story Short (2010), Unconstitutional (2013), and Red State Blue State (2019) — one-man shows examining American history, the Constitutional Convention, and political polarization with blunt comedy and genuine historical research. Jerry Seinfeld directed Long Story Short.
Did You Know?
Colin Quinn's 2010 Broadway show Long Story Short was a 75-minute stand-up monologue covering the entire history of Western civilization — from ancient Greece to the present — as seen through the prism of empire, decline, and human nature. He performed it eight times a week for two months on Broadway with Jerry Seinfeld as director. New York Times critic Ben Brantley called it "a legitimate piece of theater" — a description that surprised some stand-up purists and that Quinn has referenced with characteristic Brooklyn skepticism ever since. The show was filmed and broadcast on HBO.
An Ongoing Voice
Quinn has continued touring as a stand-up comedian and has been outspoken about his health challenges, including a 2020 heart attack and a candidacy for stand-up comedy's highest esteem that some critics argue has never been fully awarded to him. His comedy occupies an unusual position — genuinely funny and genuinely substantive, rooted in a specific place and sensibility — that doesn't fit neatly into the categories by which fame gets distributed in American entertainment. He remains one of the more intellectually curious voices in American stand-up comedy.