Josh Gondelman | |
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Born | Joshua Lyons Gondelman January 15, 1985 Stoneham, Massachusetts, U.S. |
Education | Brandeis University (BA) |
Occupation | Comedian |
Years active | 2004-present |
Joshua Lyons Gondelman (born January 15, 1985) is an American author, comedy writer, producer, and stand-up comedian. [1] [2] [3] He was a supervising producer and writer for Desus & Mero on Showtime. [4] [5] He was previously a writer on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver . He is also known for co-creating the parody Twitter account @SeinfeldToday. [6] [7]
Gondelman grew up in Stoneham, Massachusetts, [8] to parents Ellion Lyons and David Gondelman. [9] He grew up in a Jewish family. [10] [11]
Gondelman graduated from Stoneham High School in 2003. [8] [12] He graduated from Brandeis University in 2007, where he double majored in creative writing and English [2] and minored in Spanish. [13]
When he was 19 years old, Gondelman began doing standup comedy in Boston. He did stand-up in Boston for seven years and occasionally returns. [14] After college, he worked as a pre-school teacher [7] [15] and taught elementary school Spanish. [16] In 2011, Gondelman moved to New York City, where his then-girlfriend lived, to pursue stand-up comedy. [2]
During this time he also began doing freelance writing. [17] [2] He co-wrote his first major story, "Both Sides of a Break Up", with his ex-girlfriend; it was published in New York Magazine in 2012. [2] [18] In 2013, he wrote a story for Esquire describing his experience running in a Tough Mudder race in which he was sponsored by Wheaties in exchange for monetary compensation from General Mills and Zeus Jones. [19] He has also written for McSweeney's, The New Yorker, [16] and The New York Times. [20]
In October 2015, a book co-authored by Gondelman and Joe Berkowitz entitled You Blew It!: An Awkward Look at the Many Ways in Which You've Already Ruined Your Life, was published. [2] [21]
As a stand-up comedian, he has opened for John Oliver, Jen Kirkman and Pete Holmes, and also performs regularly at New York City venues. [22] [23] Eve Peyser has said that during his stand-up, Gondelman "radiates humility and a relatable, everyday awkwardness alongside fierce confidence and wit." [22]
Everything's The Best, his debut album, came out in 2011. His second album, Physical Whisper, was released on March 18, 2016. [14] [24]
In 2010, he won the Laughing Skull Comedy Festival [25] in Atlanta, Georgia. In March 2016, he made his late-night television debut on Conan. [26] He made his network television debut in January 2018 on Late Night with Seth Meyers. [27] Gondelman also was a stand-up consultant for the final season of "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel." [28]
In December 2012, Gondelman created the Twitter account "SeinfeldToday", along with Jaclyn Moore, formerly of BuzzFeed. [29] The account posted humorous tweets reimagining Seinfeld characters in modern-day situations. [30] As of October 2015, the last time the account was active, it had more than 900,000 followers. [31] At the 6th annual Shorty Awards in 2014, the account won an award in the "#Fakeaccount" category. [32]
In 2014, Gondelman was hired by Last Week Tonight with John Oliver as the web producer for the show's first season, and became a staff writer for the second season. [2] [14] In 2016, he won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series for his work on the show. [33] He and the writing team of Last Week Tonight won this same award in 2017, as well as a Writers Guild of America Award in 2017. [34] [35]
In 2019, Gondelman left Last Week Tonight to become a senior staff writer and producer on Desus & Mero after the series moved to Showtime. [4] [5]
Since 2019, Gondelman has been a regular panelist on the NPR show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! . [36] In March of 2023, Gondelman was the guest host filling in for Peter Sagal while Sagal was on paternity leave. [37]
Gondelman is married to Maris Kreizman, the creator of the blog and book Slaughterhouse 90210. [31] [38] They live in Brooklyn [39] [40] with Bizzy, a senior pug. [41]
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For this special video installment of How I Work, we visited Josh in his Brooklyn home to talk about his Emmy-winning TV work, the process of writing his second book, how he keeps it together on tour, and how he knows when to quit.