Biography
John Rainone is an actor, musician, and wine enthusiast who has lived in Dallas since attending Clown College at SMU in 1972, where he earned a BFA (Better Find Alternate) Degree. During his time there, he connected and performed with notable classmates and later friends such as Beth Henley, Stephen Tobolowsky, and Kathy Bates. His career includes performing in variety shows for Mark Wilson Magic in Hollywood, touring the Midwest with a Chicago booking agency, and traveling nationwide with Paul Osborne Magic & Illusion in Dallas. He has appeared on stage at Theatre Three, The Dallas Theater Center, Stage #1 (now closed), The Shakespeare Festival of Dallas, Stage West, The Barn Theater in Connecticut, and the Lortell Theater in New York, as well as in films and commercials produced in Dallas. His stage roles have included leading parts in American Buffalo, Loose Ends, K-2, Waiting for Godot, Galileo, The Tempest, Getting Out, Season's Greetings, and a Kabuki adaptation of Shakespeare called Shogun MacBeth.
John has performed at sing-along piano bars like Alley Cats, Gator's, Billy Bob's Texas, and West Side Stories, and served as musical director for several stage productions. He plays Chico in The Coconuts, a Marx Brothers tribute band, and is part of The Fratelli Brothers, a Rat Pack cover band (with "fratelli" meaning "brothers" in Italian). He also works as a visiting consultant with Corporate Comedy Works! (Four Out Of Five Doctors), an improv comedy troupe. From 1988 to 1991, he and his ex-partner/ex-wife portrayed Bonkers and Poppy the Clowns on the daily children's TV show Club 27, airing on KDFI Channel 27.
Over the years, John has created and performed characters such as Super Irv for Irving Mall, The Burger King for the restaurant chain, Mr. Mime for Seventeen Magazine, Captain Crud for the Fort Worth Department of Sanitation, and Mr. See It for Texas State Optical, for which he earned a Bronze Quill Award for Excellence in Public Relations Programs. He was named Top Clown by the Dallas Times Herald in 1990, Entertainer of the Year by Alex Burton on KRLD, and voted "Best Birthday Party Clown" three times by readers of Dallas Child Magazine.
He returned to film acting encouraged by his godson, Frank Mosley, who recruited him for one of his student films at UTA. Mosley has referred to Rainone as a good luck charm and has since aimed to include him in every film he makes.
John's first paid performing job was playing piano at age 15 in a French restaurant in Fort Worth for $12 a night and unlimited onion soup, which he still enjoys to this day.
