![](https://pplstatic.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/static/images/dummy-gradient.jpg)
Quick Facts
Biography
Perry F. Caravello is an American actor and comedian best known for his starring role in the 2003 movie Windy City Heat. In May 2019, Caravello announced he would be running as an independent in the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
Early life
Originally from the northwest suburbs of Chicago, Caravello was born in Park Ridge and lived there before moving to Des Plaines, Barrington, Palatine, and Arlington Heights. He moved with his family to Southern California as a teenager in 1974. In 1979, three weeks after getting his driver’s license, he was injured in a car accident that put him in a coma for three weeks. As a result of the accident, he suffers from brain trauma, which Dr. Drew Pinsky describes as “a classic right frontal lobe injury”.
Career
Caravello started comedy in 1988, and early in his career was banned from The Comedy Store for obnoxious behavior. He was allowed back after agreeing to a sadomasochistic challenge, in which he shaved his chest onstage, with a razor and no soap.
In 2003, Caravello starred in Windy City Heat, a TV movie directed by Bobcat Goldthwait, which aired on Comedy Central. He has also had smaller roles in Hot Package, Derek and Simon, and Virtuosity.
After his friend, Richard Heene, was denied a role in Windy City Heat, Heene and Caravello began working together on a project called Psyience Detectives in which they played storm chasing detectives. The project ended during production, when the two men got involved in a physical altercation while filming. After the Balloon Boy hoax, Caravello made multiple appearances on talk shows where he denounced Heene.
In October 2010, Caravello (along with co-hosts Don Barris and Walter Molinski) was given a weekly comedy podcast called The Big 3 Podcast, on Adam Carolla's ACE Broadcasting Network. The show was later moved to Barris' own network, before ending in April 2015.
Caravello has alleged that he was coerced into a sexual act with a Hollywood executive in order to get a role. The allegations resurfaced during the Me Too movement, when clips emerged of Jimmy Kimmel referring to the incident as "light gay prostitution", during a podcast with Caravello.
In addition to his involvement in acting and comedy, Caravello has been the subject of multiple songs by comedy-rapper Rucka Rucka Ali.
Lawsuits against Jimmy Kimmel
On June 1, 2007, Caravello filed a lawsuit alleging that Johnny Knoxville, Jimmy Kimmel, and Adam Carolla, promised him ten million dollars if he put his genitals in a mousetrap, during an episode of The Adam Carolla Show. The lawsuit was prompted after Caravello went through with the stunt, but was not paid.
He additionally sued Kimmel claiming he never received a residual check for Windy City Heat. A sequel was planned for the movie, but the lawsuits convinced financial backers to drop the project.
2020 presidential campaign
In a May 2019 episode of Simply Don The Podcast, Caravello revealed that he would be running for President of the United States in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Caravello has stated that he will run as an independent on a platform that includes abolishing money, building a wall across the Canada–United States border, providing free universal healthcare, and legalizing medical marijuana. He also supports abolishing gay marriage and criminalizing homosexuality, and says he would like to turn San Clemente Island into a gay prison.