Anthony Jeselnik - Early Life

Early Life

Anthony Jeselnik was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on December 22, 1978, to Anthony and Stephanie Jeselnik. He was raised in Upper St. Clair. Jeselnik was interested in making others laugh from an early age. In elementary school, he would often interrupt the class to tell a joke. On one occasion, a classmate was moving to a different town that was not generally regarded well, and Jeselnik cracked a sarcastic comment: "Oh, well, send us a postcard." When the teacher laughed at his joke, he realized that "if you're smart enough that adults get it, you can get away with anything." He would often stay up attempting to watch Saturday Night Live and, as he grew older, The Ben Stiller Show and Mr. Show. He graduated from Upper St. Clair High School in 1997. Jeselnik earned a bachelor's degree in English literature with a business minor from Tulane University in 2001. During his senior year at Tulane, his girlfriend accidentally burned down his apartment, which he would later use as early standup material. His original dream was to write the great American novel, but an internship in Los Angeles between his junior and senior years of college convinced him there were other avenues for a writer.

In his early twenties, Jeselnik moved to Los Angeles and was working at a Borders when he first tried standup. He found a book by Greg Dean in the bookstore that promoted his Santa Monica comedy classes. In his first attempt at a joke, Jeselnik did an impression of his father being stung by wasps. By the end of the skit—which lasted only one minute "but felt like 10"—no one had laughed, leading Jeselnik to swear off physical comedy forever. After being fired by Borders, he worked as an accounting clerk for Deadwood, during which time he would perform at open-mic nights. It was only after seeing B.J. Novak perform one-liners that Jeselnik ceased personal stories and proceeded to "rip off" Deep Thoughts with Jack Handey, which was instrumental in developing his style. Inspired in part by Mitch Hedberg, Dennis Miller, and Steven Wright, it was two years into his standup comedy career that Jeselnik had a "lightbulb moment." After writing a bizarre joke with a dark twist to it, the audience response encouraged Jeselnik to focus more in that area. The joke, titled "My Girlfriend Loves to Eat Chocolate," was later featured on Shakespeare.