Jimmy Kimmel’s first paid job in entertainment began — and ended — in Seattle, according to an interview he gave Entertainment Weekly.
In 1989, the comedian and late-night host was a 22-year-old sidekick on 102.5 KZOK FM’s morning show.
Kimmel admitted he didn’t exactly help his job security when he secretly recorded meetings with the program director and played them back on the air.
“When my partner Kent Voss and I were fired, we were devastated and had no money,” Kimmel told the magazine.
He said he was making $384 a week, which quickly dropped to zero.
Despite their optimism and hundreds of demo tapes sent out, he and Voss couldn’t land another radio job.
After two months of unemployment, Kimmel said he had no choice but to return to his parents’ home in Phoenix.
He and his then-wife loaded up a 26-foot moving truck with all their belongings and set off from Seattle, towing their Pontiac Grand Am behind them.
The trip itself brought mishaps. Their lawn mower was stolen from the truck during an overnight stop in Stockton, California.
Later, at a rest stop along I-10, Kimmel forgot to set the parking brake.
The moving truck began rolling toward the highway while he was inside the restroom.
“I jumped in front of the truck and attempted to stop a 15,000-pound behemoth with my 165-pound body,” Kimmel recalled.
Fortunately, the runaway truck was stopped by a cement garbage bin.
Back in Phoenix, Kimmel ended up parking cars outside a boxing gym and strip club.
He said the job marked one of his lowest points, especially after crashing another truck while working there.
Six months later, Kimmel and Voss found work in Tampa.
He was fired again, but that led to another opportunity in Palm Springs, then Tucson, then KROQ in Los Angeles — and eventually to an unplanned career in television.
His late night show was suspended by ABC on Wednesday, following comments about the assassination of activist Charlie Kirk.
“Fourteen hundred miles after we left Seattle, I was back living on a foldout couch in my childhood bedroom, with a disappointed wife,” Kimmel said in 2015. “I’d never been lower — and I’ve not been lower than that since.”
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