BRUCE VILANCH

'Bruce Vilanch' (born November 23, 1947) is an American comedy writer who caught the public eye when he became a wisecracking regular on the revamped ''Hollywood Squares'' with Whoopi Goldberg.
Vilanch was born into a Jewish family and claims to be a practicing Jew. When he was five years old, he stood outside on the family stoop, saying "Heil Hitler" to short, bald, stocky men with glasses on scooters.
Vilanch attended Ohio State University as a theater and journalism student and graduated with a BFA in theatre in 1970. His first television appearance was in 1988 on ''Hollywood Today'', where he was interviewed by Chris Aable. The show aired in 43 cities on Century Cable and the Manhattan Neighborhood Cable Network.
Vilanch is an obese man with long blonde hair, a big, bushy beard, and glasses. He is openly gay, straight edge, and "a notorious meat eater" (according to an interview on the Ronn Owens show on KGO radio in San Francisco). He has a penchant for wearing wacky T-shirts.
Vilanch has provided topical joke material for a number of awards show hosts, notably Billy Crystal at the Academy Awards. He commands high fees for emergency Hollywood script rewrites.
Vilanch has a musical comedy background (he co-wrote the book for the flop ''Platinum'' and contributed to far more successful concert shows starring Bette Midler, Diana Ross, and Michael Feinstein) and claims to have done every Stubby Kaye role ever written. In 2005 he starred on Broadway as Edna Turnblad in the musical ''Hairspray''. He was on the third edition of ''Celebrity Fit Club'' and lost 21 pounds over the course of the show, 6.7% of his body weight; and while Vilanch lost one of the five lowest percentages in the history of the show, after gaining 2 pounds back for the finale, he has continued his weight loss beyond the show.
Recently, Vilanch gained back almost all of the weight he lost on Fit Club (according to People Magazine) because his dental work only allowed for soft foods and he also sustained a leg injury. Vilanch hopes to get back on track.
Vilanch has been the subject of two documentaries: ''Get Bruce'' (1999) and ''Laughing Matters...The Men'', also released as ''Laughing Matters: Gay Comedy in America'' (2007), where he shared the spotlight with Alex Mapa, Bob Smith and others.

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★ Interview with Bruce Vilanch on the Feast of Fools (podcast)