Rob Paravonian is a comedian, best known for his "

Pachelbel Johann Pachelbel (also Bachelbel; baptised – buried 9 March 1706) was a German composer, organist, and teacher who brought the south German organ schools to their peak. He composed a large body of sacred and secular music, and his contrib ...

Rant" which parodies the use of the

chord progression In a musical composition, a chord progression or harmonic progression (informally chord changes, used as a plural, or simply changes) is a succession of chords. Chord progressions are the foundation of harmony in Western musical tradition from ...

from

Pachelbel's Canon Pachelbel's Canon (also known as Canon in D, P 37) is an canon (music), accompanied canon by the German Baroque music, Baroque composer Johann Pachelbel. The canon was originally scored for three violins and basso continuo and paired with a gigu ...

in many popular songs.

Music

Born in

Waukegan, Illinois Waukegan ( ) is a city in Lake County, Illinois, United States, and its county seat. Located north of Chicago, Waukegan is a satellite city within the greater Chicago metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, its population was 89,321, makin ...

, son of a first-generation

Armenian-American Armenian Americans () are citizens or residents of the United States who have total or partial Armenian ancestry. They form the second largest community of the Armenian diaspora after Armenians in Russia. The first major wave of Armenian immig ...

schoolteacher and local politician (his father Haig was mayor of Waukegan from 1989 to 1993), Rob Paravonian has always loved music, learning cello at age six and playing it from grade school through to the

Waukegan High School Waukegan High School, or WHS, is a public four-year high school located in Waukegan, Illinois, USA, a city to the north of Chicago, Illinois. It is part of Waukegan Community Unit School District 60. Students attend classes at the Washington Cam ...

Symphony. At age 10 the Grade School

Orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, ...

went to nationals in

Nashville Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

, and at 13 he went to

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

with the High School Chamber Orchestra, before teaching himself guitar and bass in high school. While attending college at

USC USC may refer to: Education United States * Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, Santurce, Puerto Rico * University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina ** University of South Carolina System, a state university system of South Carolina * ...

in Los Angeles, Paravonian began working as a comedian, performing at wide-open shows in cafes in L.A. After college he studied improvisation and ensemble work at the

Second City Training Center The Second City Training Center was founded in the mid-1980s to facilitate the growing demand for workshops and instruction from the Second City theatre. The Training Centers are located in Chicago and Toronto. Satellite Centers formerly existe ...

in Chicago and became a regular at the Improv. He also began going on the road, playing

Midwest The Midwestern United States (also referred to as the Midwest, the Heartland or the American Midwest) is one of the four census regions defined by the United States Census Bureau. It occupies the northern central part of the United States. It ...

clubs and headlining colleges from coast to coast. After moving to New York, he quickly became a regular at Catch a Rising Star, and has appeared on

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American Cable television in the United States, cable television channel, channel owned by Paramount Global through its Paramount Media Networks, network division's Paramount Media Networks#MTV Entertainment Group, MTV Ente ...

VH1 VH1 (originally an initialism for Video Hits One) is an American basic cable television network that launched on January 1, 1985, and is currently owned by the MTV Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global's networks division based in New Y ...

, has written cartoon theme songs, written and performed sketch shows and is on his third solo show. In 2005 he performed for U.S. troops in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

, which he described as "a great experience."

Musical stand up

Originally a traditional

stand up comedian Stand-up comedy is a performance directed to a live audience, where the performer stands on a stage and delivers humorous and satirical monologues sometimes incorporating physical acts. These performances are typically composed of rehea ...

, Paravonian started bringing his guitar with him to pass the time waiting for his set at the

open mic An open mic or open mike (shortened from "open microphone") is a live show at a venue such as a coffeehouse, nightclub, comedy club, strip club, or pub, often taking place at night (an open mic night), in which audience members may perform on ...

clubs in LA, playing comical songs he'd written with the other comics there. They suggested he try some guitar stuff on stage and, since he had played music most of his life he tried it, and found the crowd enjoyed it. Much of his success comes from

word of mouth Word of mouth is the passing of information from person to person using oral communication, which could be as simple as telling someone the time of day. Storytelling is a common form of word-of-mouth communication where one person tells others a ...

and via the internet.

Pachelbel Rant

Paravonian's popular YouTube video regarding his hatred toward

Johann Pachelbel Johann Pachelbel (also Bachelbel; baptised – buried 9 March 1706) was a German composer, organist, and teacher who brought the south German organ schools to their peak. He composed a large body of sacred and secularity, secular music, and ...

and Pachelbel's Canon in D major (which he attributes to the fact that he played

cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

in school, and the cellist's part consists of eight quarter notes played repeatedly: D, A, B, F#, G, D, G, A) has attracted more than 16.1 million viewers, including more than 151,000 favorites. Throughout the course of his rant, he continuously plays the Canon's chord progression on his acoustic guitar.

Releases

Studio CD

*Living it Down *American Cheese *Don't Crowd the Plow *Songs From the Second Story

Live CD

*Live on Both Coasts *Official Bootleg *Playing for Drunks

DVD

*40 Minutes From Chicago *Rob P. Live

References

External links

*
RobPRocks.com
* MySpace ID: robparavonian https://web.archive.org/web/20180928104359/https://myspace.com/robparavonian
Rob Paravonian at BlogSpot
{{DEFAULTSORT:Paravonian, Rob Year of birth missing (living people) Living people People from Waukegan, Illinois University of Southern California alumni American male comedians American comedy musicians American people of Armenian descent American stand-up comedians 21st-century American comedians