Jim Caruso
Artist Bio
…was recently seen co-starring with Kathie Lee Gifford on Showtime Television in Personal Assistant, which was written and directed by Charles Busch. Jim also co-starred on the Nostalgia Network variety sit-com, Café DuArt for two seasons. As a singer, Jim has won four MAC Awards and two BackStage Magazine Bistro Awards for his sold-out New York runs at Arci’s Place, The Oak Room at the Algonquin Hotel, The Russian Tea Room, Carnegie Hall, Caroline’s Comedy Club and Birdland. He has also performed in runs at the Cinegrill and Gardenia in Los Angeles, The Vic Theater and Davenport’s in Chicago, Libby’s in Atlanta, the Colony Palm Beach Hotel in Florida and the Connaught Room in London. Caruso guest-hosted "Broadway On Broadway 2000" in Times Square for a crowd of 100,000 theater fans, hosted the 2000 MAC Awards at Town Hall in Manhattan and co-hosted the 2003 and 2004 Drama Desk Award webcasts. His debut recording, "Caruso Live and In Person" was released on the LML Music label, and within two weeks, went to number one on both the album and singles charts at Outvoice.com. Most recently, he was featured in a Tribute to Kander & Ebb, backed by the New York Pops at Carnegie Hall.
Caruso was the founding member of the nationally acclaimed, award-winning jazz vocal and comedy trio, Wiseguys. After performing in an all-star Inaugural extravaganza, they were invited to sing at President Clinton’s First State Dinner at the White House in an evening hosted by Lauren Bacall. Wiseguys were also special guests of Liza Minnelli in her sold-out Las Vegas, Atlantic City, United Nations and Central Park concerts. The trio performed in concert at the Weill Recital Hall in Carnegie Hall, and in "the big room" with Rosemary Clooney.
As a writer, Jim was consulting editor and writer for the largest selling InTheater Magazine in history, and has contributed to InStyle Magazine and Theatermania.com. He has produced and booked television talk and entertainment programs like "Jim J. & Tammy Faye" and "Fox After Breakfast," and was a Field Producer for E! Entertainment Television, working on "Celebrity Profiles" and covering the 2002 Tony Awards. For the past two years, he has hosted a weekly Monday night showbiz bash called "Jim Caruso’s Cast Party," which was honored with a New York Nightlife Award. Cast Party is now a weekly web-radio show, heard Fridays and Tuesdays on BroadwayWorld.com. Please visit http://www.castpartynyc.com for more information.
Reviews and Quotes
"Caruso is master class! He literally levitates with energy and raises humankind’s spirits to an exalted level!"
- Palm Beach Society
"A master clown! The cards Jim Caruso brings to the gaming table are impressive, and he plays them all skillfully."
- Rex Reed, The New York Observer
"Intelligence and talent are always chic, and Jim Caruso is the chicest person I know!"
- Liza Minnelli, InStyle Magazine
"His show is funny, original and dangerous…I was bewitched."
- Fred Ebb
"I met Jim Caruso when we sang at the White House together, and I’ve been laughing ever since…and I mean that in the nicest way!"
- Linda Lavin, InStyle Magazine
"Uber-talented!"
- Entertainment Tonight
"Jim Caruso makes his great, great, great Uncle Enrico sound dull. He’s brilliant, fun and adorable!"
- Phyllis Diller
"Jim Caruso manages the nearly impossible task of evoking the breezy, sophisticated golden age of nightclub performers, without a breath of nostalgia, while being completely and refreshingly contemporary. He's a terrific singer, too!"
- Charles Busch, Playwright
"…a cabaret lover’s dream"
- Chip Deffaa, The New York Post
"Funny, facile and fabulous! Caruso performs with charm, wit and style, and is vastly entertaining."
- Michael Feinstein
"Applause, applause for a rare combination of wit, wisdom and whimsy. Jim Caruso is not your grandma’s cabaret act! His youthful vivacity will blow you away!"
- Liz Smith, New York Post
"…this impish, twinkling-eyed performer exudes the buoyant spirits of a contemporary vaudevillian..."
- Stephen Holden, The New York Times
"Brilliant! He creates a unique kind of theatrical magic and has no peer or predecessor."
- The Palm Beach Post
"Iconoclastic and wonderfully cracked, Caruso is the classiest, coolest cat in cabaret."
- Back Stage Magazine
"…Caruso is the brilliant cabaret performer Will & Grace’s "Just Jack" McFarland wishes to be. He handles a comic song with immaculate timing, then he miraculously makes his elastic funny-man features seductive for the sex appeal number."
- HX Magazine
"Swirl Dick Van Dyke with a starstruck Texas boy in a blender. Add a solid musician with a big heart, a smooth baritone and a martini chaser. That’s Jim Caruso, a guy even the critics seem to like."
- The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Specialties
Duo - vocal & instrumental
Genre
swing cabaret american popular standards