My parents brought me here [from Russia] in the late ’70s, and I grew up at a time when there was a stand-up boom. We came here with the idea of becoming anything we wanted and genuinely believing and pursuing the American dream. Not to say that [my parents] probably weren’t concerned, but they let me go to Hampshire College, where I majored in comedy. My thesis was a one-hour stand-up act. It was actually an incredibly practical decision in terms of how much I’ve applied all the things I learned in college.
New England fosters the idea that you can be anything. Massachusetts is sort of Good Will Hunting-y — there’s a lot of things that are smart and a lot of things that are sort of tough. Not that Lexington was necessarily tough. But definitely growing up during the Cold War, I was fairly unpopular. I think [my sense of humor] probably, like with a lot of people, develops as sort of this defense mechanism, and then it turns out it’s this great career. Who doesn’t want to turn their defense mechanism into a job?
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I’m very excited for the shows. A lot of festivals tend to group either ethnicities or religions or sexual orientations or whatever. The truth is, if I were to think of a bunch of comics who were either gay or women or Jewish or whatever, I don’t think they would actually have the same material. We have a show of immigrants, but [we are] all radically different. A lot of festivals do it, and I think the reason is people know that they might enjoy seeing, you know, naughty moms talking about naughty mom stuff. In fact, I’m now upset I don’t have a show called “Naughty Moms Talking About Naughty Mom Stuff.”
— As told to David Brusie (Interview has been edited and condensed.)
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SEE HIM The Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival runs Thursday to next Sunday at The Sinclair in Harvard Square and the Berklee Performance Center in Boston. 800-745-3000; ticketmaster.com or eugenemirmancomedyfestival.com/boston