Dana Gould

I got into it so early.

Yeah, stand-up.

I started when I was 17.

My first set as a stand-up comedian was June of 1982.

Wow.

I was out here in LA, I moved to LA in 89 and I was very good friends with a brilliant comedian, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant guy named Kevin Rooney, RIP.

And Kevin was like my comedy Obi-Wan Kenobi.

And he got me into the improv and he really taught me how to be a good comedian.

Kevin also, because I was always with Kevin, he was like my...

older brother's, Arzat's father figure, I hung around with Kevin and all of his friends.

Jay Leno, Larry Miller, Bill Maher, Jerry Seinfeld.

Like all of those guys think that I'm kind of in their class because I was always around with them socially.

Actually, age-wise, I was with Patton Oswalt and Brian Posehn and all of those guys, but they were still in San Francisco.

They hadn't moved down to LA yet.

The point is I always had my feet in these two camps.

And right when, and then Ginny Garofalo and I kind of were at the forefront of the alternative comedy scene in L.A.

And right around the time that where I really belonged and where I would have broken through into stadium level fame.

was when Patton and those guys did the Comedians of Comedy Tour.

Mm-hmm.

That was my demographic, that was my audience, and that is where I would have probably made that jump.