Early Life
Brennan grew up in Villanova, Pennsylvania near Philadelphia and spent part of his childhood in Wilmette, Illinois from 1978 to 1986. He was born into an Irish Catholic family and is the youngest of 10 children. According to Brennan, his father's side of the family was funny, as were his 5 older brothers. Brennan said that he realized he was funny and liked comedy at about 8 or 9 years of age and was already doing pre-planned material for his classmates in a style that emulated comics Richard Lewis, Jerry Seinfeld and David Brenner. He also watched a large amount of comedy in high school, often staying up late to watch Late Night with David Letterman and The Arsenio Hall Show.
Brennan's older brother, comedian and writer Kevin Brennan, started doing stand up while Neal was still in high school. Neal would attend his brother's performances at the The Improv in New York on weekends and hang around with comedians such as Ray Romano, Dave Attel, Mike Royce and David Juskow. Brennan stated in an interview with Independent Film Channel (IFC) that he realized that it was possible to make a living in comedy after watching his brother Kevin do stand-up.
Brennan moved to New York to attend NYU film school, but he dropped-out after a year and got a job as a doorman at the (defunct) Boston Comedy Club in Greenwich Village where he met Dave Chappelle, a frequent performer at the club. The two became friends and Brennan would often pitch jokes to Chappelle. Brennan also shared an apartment with comedian Jay Mohr while in New York.
After 6 months of working at the Boston Comedy Club, Brennan first performed stand up in 1992 at 18 years of age; Brennan later recounted: "I got no laughs" and as a result he didn't perform stand up again until 1997. Brennan also wrote for The Source magazine in 1992.
Read more about this topic: Neal Brennan
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