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Gary GulmanAmerican stand-up comedian
Date of Birth: 17.07.1970
Country:  USA |
Content:
- Gary Gulman: A Stand-Up Legend
- College Years and Career Beginnings
- Stand-Up Career
- 1993-2003: Early Career and Breakthroughs
- 2003-2012: Touring, Last Comic Standing, and More TV Appearances
- 2012-2019: Rise to National Prominence
- 2019-Present: The Great Depresh and Beyond
- In 2019, Gulman had a small role as a comedian in the film "Joker."
- Personal Life
Gary Gulman: A Stand-Up Legend
Early Life and InfluencesGary Gulman was born on July 17, 1970, in Peabody, Massachusetts, to Barbara and Philip Gulman. He is the youngest of three brothers and grew up in a Jewish family. Gulman's parents divorced when he was two years old, and his family faced financial challenges. He described himself as a sensitive child who enjoyed making his friends laugh, drawing and painting, and playing basketball. He attended Peabody Veterans Memorial High School, where he was recruited to play football after his freshman year.
College Years and Career Beginnings
Gulman attended Boston College on a football scholarship. He played tight end his freshman year but later left the team. He credits his time playing college football as a major reason why he became aware of and sought help for his lifelong struggles with depression, further fueling his pursuit of a career in comedy. Gulman graduated in 1993 with a degree in accounting, planning to become a CPA like one of his brothers.
After graduating, he worked as an accountant at Big Six accounting firm Coopers & Lybrand (now PricewaterhouseCoopers) for two years while performing at comedy club open mics in the evenings. He then became a substitute teacher, where he was known for testing out his stand-up routines on high school students before taking them to the stage at night.
Stand-Up Career
Gulman's comedy centers on absurd observations of everyday events. He is one of only a handful of comedians who have appeared on all major late-night television comedy shows, including The Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Conan, Late Night with Seth Meyers, Just for Laughs, and John Oliver's New York Stand-Up Show.
On November 25, 2006, Gary Gulman starred in his own hour-long Comedy Central special titled "Gary Gulman: Boyish Man." His second Comedy Central special aired on December 8, 2012, entitled "In This Economy?," followed by "It's About Time" in 2016 on Netflix and "The Great Depresh" in 2019 on HBO. His fifth special, "Born on Third Base," premiered on Max in December 2023 to critical acclaim.
1993-2003: Early Career and Breakthroughs
Gulman began performing stand-up in 1993 at open mics in the Boston area. In early 1999, Gulman started pursuing stand-up full-time; he moved from his family home in Peabody to Los Angeles, where he got development deals. During this time, he worked on five different shows, but none of them made it to television. Gulman made his first late-night stand-up set in 1999 on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. The following year, he performed on Late Show with David Letterman.
2003-2012: Touring, Last Comic Standing, and More TV Appearances
Gulman first gained national attention in 2003 when he was a contestant on season 2 of NBC's reality talent show Last Comic Standing. He finished third that season, behind John Heffron and Alonzo Bodden. Gulman also competed in season 3 of the show in 2004. After "Last Comic," Gulman released his debut comedy album "Conversations With Inanimate Objects." He then appeared in Dane Cook's documentary series "Tourgasm," which premiered on HBO in 2006; Gulman featured alongside fellow comedians Dane Cook, Jay Davis, and Robert Kelly.
Seeking more stand-up opportunities, Gulman relocated to New York City in 2006. In 2008, Gulman was the host of Comedy All-Stars on NESN. During this period, Gulman performed stand-up on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (2005), Jimmy Kimmel Live! (2006), Last Call with Carson Daly (2006), The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (2007), and Conan (2011), among other shows.
2012-2019: Rise to National Prominence
In 2012, Gulman released his next Comedy Central special "In This Economy?." The show was taped at the Wilbur Theatre in Boston, Massachusetts. Following its premiere, he made his second appearance on "Late Show with David Letterman." In May 2014, Gulman appeared as a guest on Inside Amy Schumer. That April, he made his debut on Late Night with Seth Meyers, and in June 2014, he was a guest on The Pete Holmes Show.
In March 2015, Gulman recorded his next stand-up special, "It's About Time." It was released the following year, in May 2016, by Netflix. In the meantime, Gulman had been hospitalized with clinical depression; this was not publicly reported at the time.
In January 2017, he performed on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. In May 2017, he was again hospitalized for depression. In 2018, he appeared as a fictionalized version of himself in HBO's series "Crashing" and featured in the fourth episode of the four-part HBO special of the podcast 2 Dope Queens with Jessica Williams and Phoebe Robinson.
During this period, Gulman appeared three times on Conan (2014, 2015, 2016). The latter of these, featuring a fictional documentary about creating two-letter abbreviations for U.S. states, went viral.
2019-Present: The Great Depresh and Beyond
Since January 1, 2019, Gulman has posted daily advice for aspiring comedians on his Twitter feed. In fall 2019, he did interviews on Conan and Late Night with Seth Meyers.
In June 2019, Gulman recorded an HBO special titled The Great Depresh. Judd Apatow served as the executive producer. The special premiered on October 5, 2019, and features Gulman opening up about his struggles with depression, anxiety, and hospitalization. He has described the show as "a hybrid where I shoot a documentary about my recovery, my treatment, and my hospitalization, and then I do standup about it." It includes conversations with his wife Sade, his psychiatrist Dr. Richard Friedman, and his mother Barbara, who asks, "Can Judd Apatow make me look thinner?"
Gulman has stated that he "checked out of life" due to a severe depression that lasted over two years before recovering with the help of treatment and medication. However, when he returned to performing, he found himself to be extremely anxious and sad, and he decided to joke about it, which led to the idea for the special. Gulman credits his psychiatrist for helping him through his treatment, medication, and hospitalization, which he had been particularly afraid of because all he knew about it beforehand were negative depictions, such as in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "Girl, Interrupted." He has stated that his hospitalization was actually "very mundane and very helpful" and hopes that sharing his experience will help destigmatize medication and therapy.
In 2019, Gulman had a small role as a comedian in the film "Joker."
His debut book, "Misfit: Growing Up Awkward in the 80s" (Flatiron Books), was released on September 19, 2023.
Personal Life
Gary has been open about his struggles with depression and anxiety, and has incorporated this into his comedy.
Gulman is married to Sade Tameria, whom he was first spotted with in 2014. They live in Harlem, New York City.
