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Anthony JeselnikAmerican comedian
Date of Birth: 22.12.1978
Country:  USA |
Content:
- Early Life
- College and Career Path
- Breaking into Comedy
- Finding His Niche
- Television Writing and Success
- Comedy Central Roasts and Signature Style
- Jeselnik went on to perform on two more roasts: Comedy Central Roa
Early Life
Anthony Jeselnik was born and raised in Upper St. Clair, Pennsylvania. From an early age, he had a knack for making others laugh. In elementary school, he would often interrupt class to tell jokes. When a classmate was moving away to a town generally considered undesirable, Jeselnik sarcastically remarked, "Well, send us a postcard."
Upon witnessing the teacher laughing at his joke, Jeselnik realized, "If you're smart enough to write jokes that adults get, you can get away with anything." He graduated from Upper St. Clair High School in 1997.
College and Career Path
Jeselnik earned a Bachelor of Arts in English with a Business minor from Tulane University in 2001. During his senior year at Tulane, his girlfriend accidentally burned down his apartment, which he later used as early standup material. While at Tulane, he was a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity.
Jeselnik initially aspired to write the great American novel, but an internship in Los Angeles between his junior and senior years of college convinced him that there were other avenues for a writer.
Breaking into Comedy
In his early twenties, Jeselnik moved to Los Angeles and worked at Borders when he first tried standup. He discovered a book by writer and comedian Greg Dean advertising Dean's comedy workshops in Santa Monica. In his first attempt at doing comedy, Jeselnik did an impression of a father getting stung by wasps.
By the end of the routine, which lasted only a minute but Jeselnik claimed "felt like 10," no one laughed, prompting Jeselnik to give up physical comedy for good.
After getting fired from Borders, he worked as a behind-the-scenes accounting clerk on the television show "Deadwood," during which time he performed at open mics.
Finding His Niche
Partially inspired by Mitch Hedberg, Dennis Miller, Sarah Silverman, and Steven Wright, Jeselnik had a "lightbulb moment" a couple of years into his standup career. After writing a joke that was odd and took a dark turn, the audience's reaction made Jeselnik want to focus more on that area.
The joke, entitled "My girlfriend loves to eat chocolate," was later used in "Shakespeare."
Jeselnik found his "home" at the Comedy Cellar, where he says he was allowed to take earlier sets so that he could go home early and get sleep for work the next morning. Known for ragging on other comedians, the Cellar comics had an influence on Jeselnik, with Jim Norton, Colin Quinn, Bobby Kelly, and Keith Robinson being, in his words, the best at it.
Television Writing and Success
In 2009, Jeselnik’s Comedy Central Presents standup special premiered, and he was named one of Comedy Central's Breakout Comics of the Year along with Nick Kroll, Aziz Ansari, Whitney Cummings, Donald Glover, Matt Braunger, T. J. Miller, Kumail Nanjiani, and John Lajoie.
That same year, Jeselnik was hired as a writer for "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon." Working on a late-night talk show, which had been his dream job prior to pursuing standup or even taking his first comedy class, meant sitting in a room and "cracking jokes with people you respect."
However, Jeselnik often pitched jokes that were too dark. For instance, he consistently fought to include a joke about obesity each day for a month, and while Fallon enjoyed the joke, Jeselnik was uncomfortable performing it, as it would likely alienate obese people.
During this time, Jeselnik was a regular at the Comedy Cellar in Greenwich Village, New York. Jeselnik would work hard on the show each day and then go to the Comedy Cellar, have "a big stiff drink," and do his set, all the while feeling "miserable."
In March 2010, he approached the show's producers and told them he wanted to leave. "We get it—you want to be Anthony Jeselnik," they said.
Comedy Central Roasts and Signature Style
He recorded his debut album, "Shakespeare," and in 2010 began writing for Comedy Central Roasts. Jeselnik, who calls roasts "the Super Bowl of comedy," had loved roasts since college and had always wanted to write for them.
While Jeselnik was writing for the David Hasselhoff roast, Comedy Central executives took notice of him and offered him a chance to perform at the next roast. Knowing that this would be his "big moment," Jeselnik called the Donald Trump roast "one of my favorite moments of my life [...] because no one really knew who I was and it just kind of caught everyone off guard. And the next day, my life was completely different."
After the Trump roast, Jeselnik's crowds became larger, and he started to feel more comfortable onstage. Immediately following his performance, the network offered Jeselnik a "three-pronged deal" that included a one-hour special, three Comedy Central roasts, and a development deal.
