Hire Hal Sparks For Your Event
Hal Sparks was born on September 25, 1969 in Cincinnati, Ohio, but grew up in Peaks Mill, Kentucky.
Nearby was the Tom Sawyer Library, where Sparks would play Dungeons & Dragons every Sunday with a group of friends. At the age of 11, he became a “defacto dungeon master” because none of his friends wanted to do the reading required.
When he was 14 years old, he moved to the Chicago area and enrolled at New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois, where he entered the theater department. Despite some initial opposition by his father, by 15 he began performing standup comedy and by 17 he won the title of “Chicago’s Funniest Teenager” from the Chicago Sun-Times.
While still in high school, he became the host of the short-run Saturday game show Treasure Mall in 1988, just months shy of his 19th birthday. Upon graduation, Sparks moved to Los Angeles and ten years later he was hired to host Talk Soup in 1999.
He would go on to independently produce his first standup comedy DVD Escape from Halcatraz in 2008.
Sparks is a regular guest on such programs as CNN’s Your $$$$$, The Joy Behar Show and The View when he’s not hosting his own weekly progressive radio show. He’s also participated in the Progressive Voices Cruise in 2009 and 2010. In 2011 he joined Stephanie Miller and John Fugelsang for the successful Sexy Liberal Comedy Tour in various cities across the country. This tour topped more than a million dollars in ticket sales while raising money for local progressive causes.
Sparks appears as a regular guest and fill-in host on the national Stephanie Miller Radio Show, providing three hours of commentary and humor on Wednesday mornings. The program is known as “Hump Days with Hal”, and is broadcast weekly from his official U-stream channel. Sparks has also appeared as guest host for Norman Goldman’s Los Angeles-based show. Sparks broadcast hosting was also made available through Goldman’s “Beyond the Norm” segments.
He continued this free “behind the scenes” U-stream show for his listeners and fans. In June 2010 he got his own radio program on Chicago’s Progressive Talk as host of The Hal Sparks Radio Program (megaworldwide), which broadcasts between 11am and 1pm each Saturday.
Sparks had his screen debut on the television movie Frog, starring Shelley Duvall, Elliott Gould, and Scott Grimes in 1987. Over the following decades he would go on to appear in several types of TV roles, which included host of Talk Soup in 1999, and was one of the stars of Disney XD’s Lab Rats.
Sparks played Nelson in the second season of Fuller House (Replacing Jason Marsden)
Sparks became the United States’ youngest game show emcee in 1988 when he hosted the short-lived, syndicated game show, Treasure Mall.
He also participated on GSN’s Extreme Dodgeball as captain of the Chicago Hitmen team.
He provided the voice of the computer named “Mr. Q” on the U.S television adaptation of 20Q, which aired on the Game Show Network (GSN) in 2009.
Sparks was one of five celebrities to appear in the first episode of VH1’s Celebrity Paranormal Project. He has also been a regular commentator on several VH1 series, including the following:
- I Love the ’70s
- I Love the ’80s
- I Love the ’80s Strikes Back
- I Love the ’80s 3-D
- I Love the ’90s
- I Love the ’90s: Part Deux
- I Love the ’70s: Volume II
- I Love the New Millennium
- 100 Greatest Hard Rock Songs
- Black to the Future
- Undateable
Sparks was a regular cast member of the breakthrough Showtime television series, Queer As Folk, an American adaptation of the UK series of the same name written by Russell T Davies.
In 2007, Sparks became the voice of the lead character in the animated series for children, Tak & the Power of Juju for Nickelodeon, which ran for twelve episodes between 2007 and 2008.
In 2009, Sparks recorded his first Showtime comedy special Charmageddon in front of a standing-room-only crowd at the OC Pavilion in Santa Ana, California. The special aired in 2010, and was released on DVD.
He appeared as himself in the video “Beat It,” the Michael Jackson cover, by Fall Out Boy, and voiced a cameo on Robot Chicken.
In 2006, Sparks competed for the charity Habitat for Humanity on the Fox celebrity competition Celebrity Duets. He performed with such musical legends as Smokey Robinson, Gladys Knight, Wynonna Judd, Dennis DeYoung, Dee Snider and Sebastian Bach. He made it to the finale along with Lucy Lawless and Alfonso Ribeiro, and came in third in the series.
In 2007, Sparks was cast as the host for the WB reality series Survival of the Richest, where wealthy young adults were paired with those young adults with massive debts to complete challenges together and work as a team.
Also in 2007, Sparks joined Roseanne to judge Nick at Night’s search for America’s Funniest Mom.
Sparks was a contestant on the 2008 VH1 celeb-reality series Celebracadabra, where the celebrities vie to out-perform each other with magic they have learned from their experienced coaches. Other celebrity contestants competing included Ant, Lisa Ann Walter, Carnie Wilson, Christopher “Kid” Reid, Kimberly Wyatt, and C. Thomas Howell. Howell was the winner, with Sparks taking second place.
His first breakout role in a mainstream movie was in the 2000 cult favorite Dude, Where’s My Car?, as Zoltan, the bubble-wrapped leader of a clan of nerds obsessed with outer space. In a 2009 interview with We Are Movie Geeks, he confirmed he created the iconic hand gesture in a “Z” formation. The “Z” hand gesture became the celebratory sign of choice among the members and fans of baseball’s Pittsburgh Pirates, of whom Sparks is a fan, starting in 2012. On July 25, 2012, he threw out the first pitch during a Pirates/Cubs series at PNC Park.
Sparks has appeared in other films, including Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star and Spider-Man 2, where he had a memorable cameo as the elevator passenger who enjoys an awkward but funny moment with Spider-Man. He also appeared in the opening scene of the 2009 Mike Judge film Extract, as one of the guitar salesmen scammed out of a guitar by the con-woman played by Mila Kunis.
In 2004, he starred as Deputy Dale in the independently produced Lightning Bug, which was written and directed by Robert Hall, who was an original bandmate in Hal’s hard rock band Zero 1.
Sparks is an outspoken activist who regularly participates in charitable events for organizations like AIDS Walk, Farm Sanctuary, the Lilli Claire Foundation, Imagine a Cure and the Marijuana Policy Project. However, he is straight edge and states to have never drunk, smoked or used recreational drugs.
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What is Summit Comedy, Inc.?
Summit Comedy was formed many moons ago in 1998 by Chuck Johnson, current owner/President. Chuck Johnson entered the comedy business the day after graduating from Appalachian State University in 1995 where he booked all of the live music and comedy for the university’s club “Legends”. His first job post college?…..one of comedian Carrot Top’s college agents and booking agent for the comedy club chain The Comedy Zone. His second job?…..well, in 1998 he formed Summit Comedy, Inc. and he and his team of amazing agents has turned it into one of the Nation’s Largest suppliers of Stand-up Comedy & Comedy Entertainment for Colleges/Universities, Corporate Events, Country Clubs, Cruise ships, Clubs & beyond.
Why Summit Comedy, Inc.?
Well, it’s simple…..we know comedy, it’s what we do….it’s in our name! We want your business, but we won’t compromise our integrity just to ring up a sale. Ask around, or ask us for references of previous customers….Heck, you can even see some of our google reviews RIGHT HERE. We stand behind our comedians 100% and can’t wait to add you as a client for your next event, and for many years to come!
