Barry Diamond: Biography

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Genre:

Rock Music

Decades Active:

1980's

Foul-mouthed, bigoted, comedian Barry Diamond found a supporter in British record producer Miles Copeland, father of Stewart Copeland, drummer for the Police. With Copeland producing, Diamond recorded his sole album, Fighter Pilot, at the Comedy Story on Los Angeles' Sunset Strip, in June 1983. Songs and stories on the album, including "Gay Whale Hunting In Hawaii", "Killed My Girlfriend" and "Nuclear Missile Silo Repairman", showed to what extremes Diamond took his humor.

“A lot of people have misinterpreted what I do," Diamond explained during a late-1980s interview. “It's something that's representative of a type of person everybody knows. I know, in my head, I'm not racist or sexist."

A native of the Bronx, New York, Diamond grew up in a neighborhood populated by Blacks, Puerto Ricans, junkies and homosexuals. Although he briefly attended college in Alabama, and sold insurance for two years, he found his natural gift in comedy.

While he continues to do stand-up comedy, Diamond has found his greatest success as a comic actor. A cast member of TV's Half Hour Comedy Hour, in 1983, he went on to play reoccurring roles on Bosom Buddies, Seinfeld and Comedy Central show, Rebellious Jukebox. Launching a movie career with bit parts in Get Crazy and National Lampoon's Class Reunion, Diamond appeared in featured roles in Bachelor Party in 1984 and Gross Jokes in 1985.

Diamond participated in a USO production of the National Lampoon Show that toured the Middle East in April 2001.

- Craig Harris, All Music Guide