Hal Sparks Radio Program

Bio from www.HalSparks.com:

I was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, raised in Kentucky – a little town called Peaks Mill. Don’t strain your brain, you’ve never heard of it. I lived in the sticks, I was a boy Scout, started taking karate there when I was 8 years old, saw The Shining when I was 7, didn’t have a TV so I spent most of my life listening to comedy records – when I wasn’t at the movies.

I’ve always been a bit of a video game nut, and back then, that meant that you actually had to stand at a video machine for hours (you kids today!). When I was 14, I decided I’d had enough of “country livin’” and moved to Chicago to live with my Dad, where I went to New Trier High School, a huge school with a great theater department that, quite frankly, should have expelled me. But, much to their credit, they didn’t, and I was able to start doing standup at 15 years old. (P.s., Thanks, Mrs. Adams. You saved my ass and gave me a career.)

I won the Funniest Teenager in Chicago contest when I was 17 years old, the same year I starred in Frog, starring Elliott Gould, Shelley Duval, and Scott Grimes. I also hosted a game show called “Treasure Mall”– we won’t talk about that.

I graduated from high school and, sixteen days later, I packed all my stuff in my car and I drove to LA. The next ten years I call “the Sisyphus years” – career-wise, every day I would roll the rock up the hill, and every night it would roll back down. But I kept plugging away, watching people I had moved to LA with or worked with pack up and go home, year after year.

In 1997, I felt I’d strayed too far from standup comedy and decided to go at it 100% again. For the next two years, I did standup every single night. Yes, Christmas and holidays. On June 26, 1999, I got Talk Soup. I was on the air the following Tuesday after the July 4th weekend.

And the rest, you can Google… I mean, there’s obviously a lot more. But quite frankly, it’s none of your business.

Until I decide to sell a book.

For more information visit http://halsparks.com

Listen live Saturdays from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Central at 820 AM, on TuneIn, right here on the Heartland Signal website, or tell Alexa to play WCPT from TuneIn.

Be sure to check out the event page for “The Hal Sparks Radio Program” July 12, 2025 Live Broadcast from Max & Benny’s!