How did you become a big stand-up fan?

i'm currently 24 yrs old…

1st exposure- my dad showed me early Steve Martin albums when i was reeeally young (listening to Let's Get Small, reading Cruel Shoes when i was in elementary school) and my Gpa showing me Rodney Dangerfield albums.

2nd exposure- growing up (still very young) i would always watch Comedy Central Presents and Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn during the day and caught sooo many ppl on those shows who are now legends and absolute favorites of mine (Doug Stanhope, Marc Maron, Bill Burr, Jim Norton, Mike Destefano, Jim Gaffigan, Louie, Nick Dipaulo, Rich Vos….) For every great comic there were probably 2 nobodies who never went anywhere, and these obviously stood out to me even back then.

-3rd exposure- Parents force me to go to Sunday school during middle school/late elementary…i never enjoyed it in the slightest, one day for "class" the teacher puts in a video about swearing/foul language, and as an example in the video they showed clips from George Carlin's 7 Dirty Words. I instantly fell in love and acquired all of Carlin's material i could and became a die hard Carlin fan, and then naturally i eventually became a Bill Hicks fan.

-4th exposure- I ordered a george carlins Jammin in New York HBO special from Netflix but a copy of Doug Stanhope's "No Refunds" was in the sleeve instead. I recognized Stanhope from the Man Show with Joe Rogan and how i hated the new show, but i remembered really liking him on comedy central presents yeeears earlier but didn't really remember him… Once "No Refunds" began i was in love once again, just like with Carlin. From the second Doug started talking to the camera in the intro i was hooooked. Stanhope is definitely who i owe my newest standup obsession to, for sure.

/r/StandUpComedy Thread