Jack Valente is a character created in the Fall of 2005 and voiced by Carlito. When prank call victims ask Carlito who he is, the name "Jack Valente" is given the majority of the time. He is an affluent gentleman who constantly refers to himself in the third person (first and last name). Valente claims to drive a Dodge Stratus and wears a $10,000 suit.
Origins
Valente is heavily based on the late Jack Valenti, former president of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). The real Valenti was the subject of a legendary round of prank calls by Zolar, Carlito, Reclude, Milkman and others in what came to be known as the original Telemarketers Conference show. Organized on the fly and hosted by Zolar, several members of the American Telemarketers Association were pranked in the late evening hours as they were arriving for an annual conference. Valenti was in his room resting before a keynote speech he was to give early the next morning.
Valenti proved to be a curious prank call victim and was on the air several times that evening as several services were sent to his room.
Among the services sent to Valenti that night were:
- Flowers, strawberries, Don Perignon and more from hotel room service (charged to his room)
- An overweight African-American female escort
- A male escort
- Several Hawaiian pizzas with a 2 liter bottle of Dr. Pepper.
Later in the evening a paramedic was summoned to his room by hotel staff after Zolar, posing as Valenti, stated he had fallen in the shower and hit his head.
The character Jack Valente was created as an homage to the Telemarketer show. The real Valente passed away in April of 2007 due to complications of a stroke, an event announced on the Madhouse show. Since his passing, the usage of the character has decreased in respect to Valenti's family.
