Jimmy Kimmel Got Fired From His First ‘Real’ Job — and It Turned Out To Be the Best Thing That Ever Happened To Him
Written by
Nicholas Morine
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Amen Oyiboke
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The host of the eponymously titled “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” talk show, Jimmy Kimmel, is no stranger to fame. Whether remembered by Canadian audiences for his profiling of a humorously named town in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, eventually being named honorary mayor, or drawing controversy (and a brief broadcasting suspension) over comments made regarding the assassination of political activist Charlie Kirk, Kimmel has established himself as a notable and relevant name in the television business.
But his start in showbiz, as Entertainment Weekly detailed, wasn’t necessarily free of turbulence either. Serving as an on-air sidekick for KZOK-FM in Seattle during the early morning shift, Kimmel said he “was a 22-year-old kid who didn’t understand that secretly taping your meetings with the program director and then playing them back on the air the next morning wasn’t great for overall job security.”
He was fired in short order, with his income falling from $384 weekly, gross, to nothing.
Jimmy Kimmel’s Early Trials of Adversity: Thieves, Out-of-Control Trucks, and at Least One More Firing
What followed next was a comedy of errors: Two months after being fired — and with no takers on his demo tapes angling for a radio gig — Kimmel and his then-wife, Gina Maddy, set out to live with his parents in their Phoenix home, loading up a 26-foot trailer with their belongings for the move.
On the first night, at a motel in Stockton, California, thieves stole Kimmel’s lawnmower from the truck. Shortly thereafter, at a rest stop on the I-10, Kimmel neglected to engage the parking brake before heading to the washroom, and chaos ensued.
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“A guy said, ‘Hey, is that your truck? It’s moving!’ Moving trucks are not supposed to move when you’re not in them. The truck was rolling toward the highway. I chased it, but I had a Chihuahua named Marty on a leash, and I couldn’t get the key out of my pocket and into the door lock fast enough, so I jumped in front of the truck and attempted to stop a 15,000-pound behemoth with my 165-pound body. Thankfully, the truck hit a cement garbage receptacle and stopped,” the talk show host recounted.
After parking vehicles for tips outside of less-than-reputable establishments, Kimmel would later land a position doing morning radio in Tampa, but ended up being fired from that job, too.
“But that led to another job in Palm Springs, which led to a job in Tucson, which led to a job at KROQ in Los Angeles, which led to an unplanned career in television,” Kimmel concluded.
When Entertainment Weekly asked Kimmel, in 2015, what he saw himself doing in 25 years, the comedic host quipped that he’d be back in Stockton, looking for his stolen yard equipment. He’s likely more than able to purchase a replacement nowadays, however, with Celebrity Net Worth pegging his wealth at an estimated $50 million.
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