Jake Sasseville

Jake Sasseville
Birth name	Jacob-Steven Sarto Sasseville
Born	(1985-11-30) November 30, 1985 Lewiston, Maine, United States
Nationality	American
Subject(s)	Entertainment, Journalism
Notable works and roles	"The Jake Sasseville Show" "Delusions of Grandeur' "The Mash 'The Edge with Jake Sasseville Late Night Republic
Website	Official website

Jake Sasseville is an American television personality who has hosted and produced a variety of television talk shows, such as The Edge with Jake Sasseville and Late Night Republic with Jake Sasseville, on various ABC, The CW, and FOX television affiliates from 2008 to 2011. In addition, Sasseville is the author of Slightly Famous, an autobiography that describes his rise to "slight" fame. Since 2014, he has hosted The Jake Sasseville Show, a podcast having an audience of one million listeners and called "the intersection of Culture and Consciousness" by the Huffington Post.

Early life

Sasseville on tour in 2003

Jacob-Steven Sarto Sassevill was born November 30, 1985 in Lewiston, Maine and grew up in Auburn, Maine,^[1] one of two principal cities of and included in the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine metropolitan New England city and town area. At age 13, Sasseville took up magic, taking lessons weekly with local Maine magician Bob Nixon. He began performing card magic and stage magic a few months later.^[2] Television shows passed on the young Sasseville as guest, despite that, at age 14, he was one of the youngest people to join the Society of American Magicians.^[3] Sasseville attended Edward Little High School in Auburn,^[1] and continued performing magic throughout high school to fund his own local access television show.

While in high school, Sasseville left the US when he was 15 to study abroad in France.^[4] After graduating, Sasseville enrolled in the New York Institute of Technology.^[5] He then transferred from the Institute to Marymount Manhattan College^[6] in New York City for two and a half years before dropping out to pursue his entertainment career full-time.

Career

Television talk shows

Sasseville's television talk career primarily focused on a reality-talk formula, such as seen on the news/talk program "The Edge."^[7] In 2008, Sasseville began hosting The Edge with Jake Sasseville which ran from 2007–2010.^[8] In 2008, Sasseville launched the crowd sourced-funded late night talk show Late Night Republic on The CW and FOX television.^[9] That same year, the New York Observer's Spencer Morgan called Sasseville "a most Un-PC Talk Show Host."^[10]

In 2012, Sasseville created the ABC Family show, "Delusions of Grandeur," which had elements of reality television and sitcom television combined.^[11] While performing as the show's host, Sasseville also was the executive producer of Late Night Republic on CW and Fox which ran from 2010–2012,.^[12] In 2012, Sasseville was named by the White House as one of the top entrepreneurs in America.^[13]

As part of his different talk shows, Sasseville conducted off-beat interviews—including a variety of locations and odd pairings. Guests have included actor Rainn Wilson of The Office, musician and activist Wyclef Jean, the President of Zambia, Kenneth Kaunda, Al Capone's grandson Chris, and Congressman Dennis Kucinich.^[14][15][16]

Speaking tours

Sasseville and INC Magazine Editor Donna Fenn backstage at the David Letterman Lecture Series in 2012

Sasseville has conducted a number of university speaking tours.^[17] From 2007 to 2010, he hosted and produced portions of the "Crocs Next Step Campus Tour," a music tour featuring Kanye West, One Republic, Guster, Fabolous and Brett Dennen.^[18] In 2010 and 2011, Sasseville launched The Pringles Xtreme Campus Tour, a charity program to help education in southeast Asia.^[9] To promote his new show "Late Night Republic," He also embarked on a 40-city road tour, speaking at universities among other events.^[19]

The Jake Sasseville Show

On September 16, 2014, Sasseville launched "The Jake Sasseville Show," a podcast, and the show quickly built an audience of one million listeners thanks in part to initial guests like Yvette Noel-Schure (Beyonce's publicist),^[20] presidents of Fortune 500 companies^[21] and NBA teams,^[22] professional sports athletes, Grammy winning musicians and best-selling authors. In order to launch the show successfully, Sasseville called on his wide circle of friends as initial guests. In 2015, Huffington Post wrote of the show: "The Jake Sasseville Show is at the intersection of Culture and Consciousness" in a story re-capping Sasseville's interview with Garrett Madison, Mount Everest climber and survivor of the 2015 Nepal earthquake.^[23]

Marketing and Promotion

To promote his shows, Sasseville has used a variety of tactics.^[24] When the restaurant chain Wendy's refused to take his call to advertise with him, Sasseville showed up at the flagship store beside the corporate headquarters in Columbus, Ohio, inviting every woman named Wendy in the area to have lunch with him at Wendy's.^[25] On another occasion, Sasseville broke the world record for largest drum ensemble on Pringles Xtreme cans to win the affinity of the brand.^[26] He also is the author of Slightly Famous, an autobiography that describes his rise to "slight" fame.^[27]

References

External links

• City of Sass, Official site for Jake Sasseville