Theodor Von
Theodor Capitani von Kurnatowskiis an American stand-up comedian, podcaster, television personality, and actor. He is the host of the This Past Weekend podcast and former co-host of The King and the Sting podcast.
Career
Stand-up
Von began performing stand-up comedy as a young man in Louisiana. At age 23, after his tenure on MTV, he decided to move to Los Angeles and professionally pursue stand-up. According to Von, he had difficulty as an entertainer in Hollywood as talent agents viewed him as a reality TV star and were skeptical about giving him work as a comedian. He has related that it took years to shake this image and establish himself as a comedian.
Von achieved one of his first major comedic accomplishments a few years later in 2006 when he won the title of Fan Favorite on the online competition aligned with the fourth season of Last Comic Standing. Around this time, Von began touring his set nationally. He also took part in five international tours for the USO which included performing at Guantanamo Bay.
In 2009, Von popularized "crank texting" (sending a text message to random phone numbers to incite conversations), and began his "crank texting" blog, which was picked up as a column by CollegeHumor a year later.
On June 1, 2012, Von was the featured comedian in an episode of Comedy Central's The Half Hour, now known as Comedy Central Stand-Up Presents. He also promoted his comedy on The Arsenio Hall Show, Hello Ross, Chelsea Lately, Watch What Happens Live, @midnight, and This Is Not Happening, among other television shows. In 2016, Netflix released Von's debut hour-long comedy special No Offense. The show was taped at the Civic Theatre in New Orleans, Louisiana. In the summer of 2019, Von embarked on a three-month national tour called The Dark Arts Tour.
Podcasting
As of 2023, Von hosts a single podcast, This Past Weekend, and was a former host of the podcast King and The Sting (and Wing). He has been a recurring guest on many comedians' podcasts, including The Joe Rogan Experience, Joey Diaz's The Church of What’s Happening Now, The Fighter and the Kid, and Bobby Lee's TigerBelly.
2016–present: This Past Weekend and King and The Sting
Von began a new podcast in December 2016, This Past Weekend. This is a long-form video podcast which features Von storytelling, answering fan voicemails, and doing thoughtful guest interviews. He released his 200th episode in May 2019.
In December 2018, Von and fellow podcaster Brendan Schaub started a new podcast called King and The Sting. At the podcast's release, it debuted at number 1 on the iTunes Podcast charts in the US and also reached the top charts in the United Kingdom, Canada, Spain, and Australia.
In January 2022, Schaub and Von added a third host, Chris D'Elia, to King and The Sting, renaming it to King and The Sting and Wing. During this time Von began taking breaks from the podcast, allowing guest-hosts to fill in. On November 4, 2022, King and The Sting and Wing was officially renamed The Golden Hour, with Workaholics actor Erik Griffin replacing Von.
