Before Langston Kerman was one of the most exciting stand-up comedians working right now, he taught poetry to high school students. As he tells the audience in his debut Netflix special Bad Poetry, he was desperate to find another path for his life.
In this episode of The Last Laugh podcast, Kerman talks about getting his big break writing for Oscars host Chris Rock (even if he didn’t get a single joke on the broadcast), convincing his favorite comedian John Mulaney to direct his special, trying not to alienate Larry David during his very first Hollywood gig, and why he fears that fans of HBO’s Insecure will never, ever let him “be free.” He also shares some behind-the-scenes stories from his time writing on the year’s most brilliantly weird talk show, Everybody’s in LA, including the one pitch that was deemed too weird by Mulaney.
“I really just wanted to make something that felt like a great articulation of what I think is funny and what I’m capable of,” Kerman says. “And I feel super grateful that John Mulaney was willing to see the vision inside of that. That certainly pushed it forward in terms of it finding its landing spot at Netflix.”
