Gary Dell'Abate

Early life

The Howard Stern Show and co-host of The Wrap-Up, which show on Sirius/XM Radio, its producer--Gary Patrick Angelo Dell'Abate was born in Uniondale, New York, on Long Island. He comes from a large Italian-American family. His father, Sal, was an ice cream salesman. He attended Adelphi University where he interned at several college radio stations. While interning with Roz Frank, a traffic reporter on WNBC, he came into contact with Howard Stern.

The Howard Stern Show

Dell'Abate has worked on The Howard Stern Show since September 4, 1984: originally on 66 WNBC, then syndicated at K-Rock in New York City, and now Sirius Satellite Radio.

Despite the seemingly relentless jokes, pranks and taunts at Dell'Abate's expense, Stern readily acknowledges Dell'Abate's intelligence, organizational abilities, excellent memory and strong work ethic. After being proven wrong on his Intelligence quotient and failing to guess the answer to a riddle, which was "Machine", his nickname was changed to Mac hine. When asked what "M-A-C-H-I-N-E" spelled, he replied "Mac-hine".

Anecdotes

Gary is regularly made fun of for having large green teeth, big gums, big lips and bad breath. A related point of ridicule is the speech pattern in which he turns "s" into "f". Fans also mock Dell'Abate; one fan used to wear a gorilla mask to Gary's public appearances as well as make his own animation cels featuring Baba Booey. In particular, fellow Stern Show staff member Sal the Stockbroker has routinely mocked and tortured Gary with prank calls, various song parodies, and a large number of jokes. Gary is often forced to wear various masks while holding the microphone for Stern Show female guests so his large lips and teeth and generally disturbing face do not distract the rest of the cast and viewers.

Gary is also often mocked for his yo-yo dieting. He has attributed his bouts with weight gain to his love of chocolate. He is also an on-again, off-again cigarette smoker. He is also often made fun of for enjoying anilingus and teen anal pornography.

He had trouble speaking as a young boy. During the K-Rock days a fan (with the help of Jackie Martling) created a likeness of Gary, the "Gary Puppet", which was recently repaired re-stationed in the Howard Stern Show studio. It was formerly equipped with a mechanism to cause its comically over-sized mouth to move whenever Gary speaks to Howard through the studio intercom. Currently, Fred Norris typically does the voice of the Gary Puppet and any impressions of Gary.

He was featured in the May 2007 issue of Sound and Vision magazine where his home theater was profiled. In the article, he revealed that his favorite album is Aja by Steely Dan, he was later ridiculed and mocked by the staff for his choice. He was also ridiculed for stating that he could not mount his TV to the wall because it would get in the way of his sconces. During this segment, he also stated that he has a light system that lights up a trail from his bedroom to his kitchen for use in the very early mornings when he prepares for work. He also mentioned his desire to own an expensive system for which to view his DVD collection from any television in his home without having to load the disc, for which he received a tremendous amount of ridicule. He also is known for having many surveillance cameras in and around his home that he frequently checks from his office computer.

Origin of nickname Baba Booey

Previously nicknamed "Boy Gary" (Howard called his college roommate Dr. Lou, "boy" when giving an order; preceded by "Boy" Lee at WNBC), Dell'Abate's "Baba Booey" moniker originated on The Howard Stern Show in 1989, after telling a story of his prized collection of animation cels. In the course of discussing a Quick Draw McGraw cel he might purchase, he misstated the name of McGraw's sidekick "Baba Looey" as "Baba Booey" (In actuality, Gary was not entirely wrong when he referred to "Baba Booey". Quick Draw McGraw frequently referred to Baba Looey as "Baba Boy", which tended to sound like "Baba Booey"). As is typical of the show, the rest of the cast "goofed" on his mistake, becoming especially merciless since he was mulling the purchase of a cel of a character without even knowing the character's correct name. Dell'Abate said something to the effect that they would forget the name by the next day, yet after nearly two decades it is still his nickname. The nickname is frequently varied to similar sounding names such as "Fah Fah Fooey" or "Ma Ma Monkey" and "fla fla flunky".

Dell'Abate has often recounted that people unfamiliar with the Stern Show think "Baba Booey" is his real name. As a guest on the TV game show The Hollywood Squares, Dell'Abate was sometimes just called "Bob" or "Baba" by unknowing contestants.

"Baba Booey" as a term has become a mantra for fans of The Howard Stern Show and is often used during crank calls to live network television or radio broadcasts. The most notorious call was made during the infamous low-speed police chase of O. J. Simpson's white Ford Bronco through the streets of Brentwood, California.

Song parodies

Dell'Abate is probably the subject of more song parodies than any other topic on the Stern Show; the only cast member with more may be Robin Quivers. Most of the songs involve melodically repeating one of Dell'Abate's nicknames over and over (usually Baba Booey), although some contain actual lyrics, most of which insult Dell'Abate's appearance. Often including drawn out phrases such as "Ra ra retard", "Fa fa flowly", "Ma ma monkey", "Sa sa Smelly" or "Sta sta stupid" to fill in melodic gaps in the song.

Notable Stern Show events

In 1988, Dell'Abate made a videotaped bid to win back an ex-girlfriend, which came to light in the late 1990s when an ex-boyfriend of the woman called the show claiming to have seen the tape. On the tape, Gary frequently refers to his ex as "man" (as in, "I miss you, man"), states that his professional life is a 9 (pronounced like "noyne") while his personal life is at a 2, and since their split, she has gained a lover and a best friend while he has gained a couple of lovers but has no friends. He also points out that his hair had grown longer during their time apart and that he is wearing his favorite T-shirt, one he often wore while they were together. Such proclamations invited much ridicule from Stern fans and regulars, and snippets of the audio from the tape became oft-used soundbites on the show. While his bid to win back his lady love proved successful, they ultimately broke up for good the following year. He was paid over $25,000 by members of Stern's audience and staff to hand over the tape.

Dell'Abate's contribution to The Revelations Game, announced on January 16, 2006, was that he and a friend once paid massage girls to come to their hotel room, but that the girls ended up stealing from the two, leaving the men staring at each other in their underwear. The Stern Show staff roundly criticized Dell'Abate for this sub-par revelation.

On October 26, 2006, Gary became the second regular Stern Show personality, after Artie Lange, to be roasted. The Roast Master was the Reverend Bob Levy. He was roasted by Colin Quinn, Lisa Lampanelli, Artie Lange, Sal the Stockbroker, Jackie "The Jokeman" Martling, among others.

Personal life

Dell'Abate lives in Old Greenwich, Connecticut with his wife Mary and their two sons, Jackson and Lucas. Both sons appeared on the show during a bit titled "Daddy or Dummy".

After Gary's brother, Steven, died of AIDS in January 1991, Dell'Abate became a supporter of LIFEbeat The Music Industry Fights AIDS and serves on the charity's Board of Directors. He said Richard Simmons helped cheer up his brother and "light up the whole hospital". Garyconvinced Artie Lange to get involved with LIFEbeat by creating a cupcake in collaboration with Crumb's bakery. Artie's donations were subsequently rejected by LIFEbeat for his anti-gay and anti-AIDS victim rants, much to Gary's dismay.

Gary is an avid New York Mets, New York Jets and New York Islanders fan.

On June 19, 2008, Gary's cousin, Jill Dell'Abate was in studio playing in Carly Simon's band.